User:Janis/draft 2

Introduction

To begin, my current photographical work is related to the subject of dreams. I want to use digital compositing technique and create images that are representing my interpretation of the stage between reality and dreams. I am currently working with two or more suggestive images related on the theme of dreams and composite them in one frame. As the final outcome I am looking to collect a series of fixed, ambiguous transition based images that display the composited content between spaces and objects. However, this is only the initial phase and further in my work, I am interested to explore more how the shift between reality and dreams can be visualized not only in photography but also in moving images. But in order to do this in praxis, I need first some theoretical and historical insights into this theme. On this matter, cinema can be seen as a visual language that shapes our perception of reality and fantasy, everything what is around us and also inside of us. However, film only presents the illusion of the reality. Dreams are also partly an illusion of reality that is constructed by our sub consciousness appearing as detailed memory reflections during the sleep; hence representations of dreams in cinema can be regarded as illusions within illusions. The shift between reality and a dream can be interpreted very differently but representation of it is more or less limited by possibilities of compositing and cinematographic tools, it is therefore important to know these tools of visual story telling in order to represent stories and ideas. All the techniques and methods of filmmaking are adding layers of meanings to moving image content. (Brown, 2012) Against this backdrop, the primary purpose of this essay is to get some insights and influences for my future work in moving images. I believe this can be achieved by both self-reflection and “technical investigation” of what has been done previously in this subject. For this reason, in the first part of this essay, I will introduce and reflect on how I have come to be interested in the subject of dreams in images. To continue, in the second part, I will try to explore how the representation of the shift between reality and dreams, and the content of dreams in moving images are displayed and how it has changed over time, with respect to technical and technological solutions. In order to discuss this question I have chosen separate sequences from several moving images each representing a different time period. These films include Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel, Dali, 1928), Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945), Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) and Inception (Nolan, 2010). Finally, I will try to arrive at some conclusions about the changes in representation of dreams in cinema and the employability of my findings in my future work.

References

1. Literature

1) Brown, B. (2012). Cinematography: theory and practice. Image making for cinematographers and directors. Oxford: Second Edition.

2) Truffaut, F. (1984). Hitchcock. Revised edition. New York: Simon & Shuster.

3) Barthes, Roland. (1993). Camera Lucida. London: Vintage.

4) http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/cteq/chien/

5) Aranda, F., Buñuel, L. (1975). A Critical Biography, London: Secker & Warburg, p.64

2. Extracts From Moving Images discussed:

Un Chien Andalou by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali (1929)

Spellbound by Alfred Hitchcock (1945)

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

Inception by Christopher Nolan (2010)