CCR Script First Draft

 CCR Script First Draft 

Hello! My name is Sabrina Appelt, director of “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” and star of my Global Perspectives Presentation, and you are currently watching a Blue Ray exclusive piece of bonus content where I take you through some of my thought processes creating this film. 

So, “Dream A little Dream” is a coming-of-age film about a girl named Amy who uses sleep and dreaming to escape from the social isolation she experiences in her waking life. Throughout the film, Amy struggles to tell the difference between her dreams and her real life and she must go on a journey of self-discovery to fight her loneliness and gain back control of her consciousness. In the opening scene, Amy encounters another girl around her age who asks her if she wants someone sit with. But it’s then revealed that this was actually one of Amy's dreams and the girl just wanted to take Amy’s seat. 

So, the film is of course tackling social isolation in teenagers which is something that I wanted to portray because I see it a lot in my generation, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. “Dream A Little Dream” is meant to shed light on the issue and show teenage viewers that they are not alone. I wanted to portray the social group of teenagers as multifaceted and complex because a lot of media likes to simplify them to a high school stereotype like jock or nerd. So, I used Amy’s character to represent a teenager who has real struggles and problems that they are facing but puts on a stoic mask to the world. 

I wanted the film to really have a classic coming-of-age vibe so I had the character narrate her experiences with a non-diegetic voiceover that was just kind of her sharing her thoughts to the audience a breaking the fourth wall in a way. I was inspired to do this by films like “The Perks of being a wallflower”, “Heathers”, and “Stand By Me”. I think that using a voiceover helps the audience really get into a character's head and understand them better. 

I also decided to write a slightly quirky and outspoken female main character like in the films “Juno” and “Ladybird” because those characters tend to lend themselves well to both comedic and dramatic scenes with their witty comebacks and dry humor. And a lot of teenagers can see themselves in those types of characters, so I thought it would be best to conform to this archetype. 

One of the other things I noticed about a lot of coming-of-age movies that I wanted to emulate was the presence of a lot of still shots where the camera was positioned on a fixed plain instead of following a movement. I think this works really well with the kind of story I’m telling because (at least in the beginning) I am trying to show the audience how dull Amy’s life is and how she feels very stagnant and trapped in her own mind with her dreams. I also wanted to use graphic match and match-on-action to make the film feel very smooth and easy to watch. 

I also tried to emulate some shots that I had noticed from other coming-of-age films like the medium close up which is very popular to help create focus on a specific character. 

Although I wanted to conform to coming-of-age film conventions, I also wanted my film to be unique from other things that have been done before. I did this by incorporating animation into the film. The doodles are a visual representation of Amy sleeping or dreaming and provide extra visual interest and flare to the film. 

To engage with the target audience, I paid very close attention to the mise-en-scene of the film. I wanted to make sure that everything felt authentic to real teenage life, so I worked with the actresses to find outfits that we felt suited their characters but that didn’t look like costumes and were actual outfits a teenager would wear. I also incorporated meaning into outifts. I specifically wanted Amy to be wearing blue to represent her sadness as I had done research about what emotions different colors portray. 

I also had the characters mainly outside at the park because that’s an easy place for most teens to visit and it’s logical for them to have an interaction in that kind of free accessible public space. When Amy wasn’t at the park, she was in her room which I made sure looked like the room of a modern day teenage girl. I also scripted a scene where Amy went online and searched “how to make friends” I thought that integrating cellphones would help connect to a modern teenage audience and establish the setting of the film better. 

Because I am the director and not the head of marketing, I didn’t work much on distribution for this film, but I think the best way to advertise it would be through social media, putting out adds on apps like Instagram and TikTok and trying to get the film to trend on the internet. I would want the marketing to be more minimal and I would want to build anticipation for the film then release it on streaming and in theaters. My dream production company to work with would be A24 and i would love to release merchandise with a similar vibe to that of their “Priscilla” merch. I would love to have apparel centered around the doodle motif of the movie that is used to represent Amy’s dreams. 

Throughout the course of creating my film, I definitely improved my skills as a writer, director, videographer, and editor. I had to teach myself how to correctly format a screenplay and how to write authentic characters by studying examples from other filmmakers. I then had to learn how to storyboard my entire idea and figure out to translate the image in my head to paper. I learned that it’s okay to start over or erase your mistakes. I think had to teach myself to hold a camera still and think about things like the lightning and background of every shot. If it was too dark or there were too many things in the frame, I would have to adapt and figure out how to fix it. Specifically, there was a conflict where I wanted to film inside a local frozen yogurt restaurant, but it was so noisy that I decided to completely switch he setting of the scene to a queiter place. I learned that you have to think on your feet and solve problems quickly to stay on schedule. 

I had to teach myself to think like a filmmaker and understand how every detail made a difference. Especially when I was editing, I had to play around with lots of different color grading and filters just to get the perfect look.  

During this production, I had to learn how to use a Bluetooth electronic gimbal by Hohem that paired with my smartphone to help me stabilize my camera and to double as a camera stand. The gimbal had different controls to zoom in and tilt the camera that I learned by watching YouTube videos.  

To edit my film. I used the CapCut application. I was already familiar with this program but I had never edited something that was longer. I had to figure out how to create the doodle effect for the film and I thankfully discovered that I could create my doodles by hand right in the CapCut app and then have them show up in the film. 

Thank you for listening!