MY CONCEPT COMPARED TO FILMS (RESEARCH)
I wanted to research into films with similar story lines or similar ideas to my own, being able to take them as some inspiration to understand how to present the ideas to my audience and how effective the story line can be.
The concept of my short film is that Scott is your traditional everyday human but has a secret power that only comes to life when he falls asleep. He says resolute in his opinion but his friend, Marshall, says otherwise when Scott gets dragged into over the top scenarios when he is in a dream state, putting him in more danger than before. Being conscious enough to feel the emotions in your dream can affect you once you wake up, many being said to wake up crying from their dreams or feeling a pain in their side if they have had a bad lucid dream. The worst situation is dream claustrophobia, knowing that you are dreaming but not being able to do anything about the situation, this being the element that I want in my short film.
Inception (2010)
'A thief, who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology, is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.'- IMDb (2018)
Inception is a film about a thief who is able to enter other people's minds through the use of technology, trying to plant an idea into the mind of the CEO, trying to make him believe something different to what he knows. They show many places in the dream that mirror to real life, this being a scene idea that I have to show the difference between the dream World and the real World, seeing that a film has already done this successfully adding some confidence into my story line. This shows how similar the Worlds are to each other but can also note the differences by the discoloration of the dream World and lack of other people in the dream world, making it recognizable to the audience.
Inception is a film with a similar intent to my own short film, being able to enter the dreams of someone else and alter them. Although for my short film I want my character to be able to take over the control of the other person but this is fairly close to the story of Inception. With the element of dream claustrophobia in my own short film can relay to the difficulty of planting an idea into the mind of the CEO, main difference being that my character loses control if he cannot control them any longer due to override in emotions or the owner is gaining control again.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
'Death stalks the dreams of several young adults to claim its revenge on the killing of Freddy Kruger.'- IMDb (2018). A nightmare on Elm Street is about teenagers who have the same dream and get chased and attacked by Freddy Kruger, all of them trying to get out of their dream as he only exists in their dream state.
Although A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror, the element that is similar to my idea is that they are affected in their dream, only being chased and hurt in their dream state by Freddy Kruger. This shows similarities to my own idea as he can only be hurt as the person he has taken over when he is asleep, the idea being similar to the one of A Nightmare on Elm street but still being different and unique in comparison. This film has different intent to mine as they differ in genre, being the least comparable to my own idea, but can still be comparable as they share similar aspects to each other.
Self/less (2015)
Self/less is about 'An extremely wealthy man, dying from cancer, undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness into the body of a healthy young man. But all is not as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body's origin and the organization that will kill to protect its cause.'- IMDb (2018).
This film has a similar concept to mine in the matter of transferring to someone else's body and being able to control them, your subconscious overtaking the other person. The difference of this similarity is that my character can only stay in control of the person as long as he is asleep, as soon as he is awake he no longer has any control over the person or their actions. This shows that the idea of consciousness is similar in both of the concepts, showing that the character is able to use their subconscious over the others but the difference being that my own character doesn't stick with this permanently like in Self/less.
Being John Malkovich (1999)
'Behind one of the filing cabinets in his work area, Craig finds a hidden door which he learns is a portal into the mind of John Malkovich, the visit through the portal which lasts fifteen minutes after which the person is spit into a ditch next to the New Jersey Turnpike.'- IMDb (2018)
Being John Malkovich is about a puppeteer that finds a portal into the mind of the actor, John Malkovich. This concept is similar to my own, being able to enter someone else's mind but has taken a different turn to my idea. In this film they are able to walk around in his mind, seeing it as the inside of his mind whereas for mine I want my character to be visible in a dream state. This shows how differently the ideas can become, branching off the idea of entering someone else's mind and how you can interpret the idea overall. The main difference is that they do not control the character but just wander around in his mind, being able to experience his thoughts and dreams rather than being able to alter them like in my concept.
Transfer (2010)
'In a futuristic society where the wealthy get to live forever by swapping bodies with refugees, an elderly couple explores this opportunity with harsh consequences.'- IMDb (2018) explains the story line of Transfer, being able to see similarities and difference straight away with the description the story line, noting that the characters are able to swap bodies and take control of them like my own idea.
Out of those that I have researched, this one and A Nightmare on Elm Street are the most different in comparison to my concept but still share the similarity of taking over someone else's body or a dream state like my own, still being comparable and with similar ideas to each other. This shows how broad the subject can become and how many different ways it can be interpreted in different genres of film with different ideas over the concept of transfer or dream worlds. This idea is the most different as it transfers minds between different people who still have the conscience of their selves without the other person ever being evident to them, them becoming the same person with a different body, this being the reason why it is different to my own idea.
With having seen other films with a similar story line and idea, it has allowed me to gain more knowledge on how different films have envisioned similar ideas as myself and how they decided to present them to the audience, being able to see similarities and differences to my own short film. This shows how this research was important, being able to show that the idea has been done before but in different ideas, allowing me to understand the difficulty behind the project and how I can apply my idea to make it easy to understand for the audience.
References
IMDb. (2018). Inception (2010). [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018].
IMDb (2018.) A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179056/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018]
IMDb (2018). Transfer (2010). [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270120/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018]
IMDb (2018). Self/less (2015). [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140379/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018]
IMDb (2018). Being John Malkovich (1999). [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018]
