FMP Digital Journal #1

For the first week of my project, most of my time was dedicated to either finalising my proposal, or conducting research into my overarching theme.

Firstly, I ended up going through various versions of my proposal document due to me re-evaluating certain aspects of it based on peer and tutor feedback. Ultimately the theme of my projects didn’t change through these iterations as most of the feedback was either on the clarity of the document or suggestions for possible research material.

This as a result brings me onto the main focus of my week. For my theme I choses to look into the idea that dreams/fantasies have a significance to them even if they are either impossible to, or are never realised. This kind of broad theme of dreams allowed me to take reference from various sources for my research. After attending a workshop for research techniques, and how to use PaperPile for referencing, I started my research by looking into Sigmund Freud’s dream theory. For my research I wanted to make sure that I had a variety of sources as that was always a weakness of mine. Because of this I used a radio broadcast in conjunction with online articles to give me a firm understanding of Freud’s dream theory. What I found was that few theories that were proven matched up with the ideas of my theme to a surprising degree. This being the concept that all dreams, including nightmares, are forms of wishes that are too disruptive to the bodies sleep that they manifest in the form of a dream. This idea of all dreams being wishes, along with the fact that they try to protect the dreamer, was very interesting to me as it could justify a narrative around a nightmare that has a nurturing outlook on the person that they are terrifying.

After this, I then looked into the broader effect of dreams on society. I did this by looking into both the moon landing and the effect of fantasy media on people. This was because one was an example of an impossible dream that was realised whilst the other was a desired dream that could never be real. The main takeaway that I got from this research was the idea that people prefer to have a fantasy to long for, rather than to just live-in reality. This was evidenced by both the rise of the fantasy genera due to the appeal of escapism, as well as the rise in conspiracy theories to debunk the moon landing in an effort to replace a realised fantasy with pure fantasy. This along with the Freud research displays a complex relationship between dreams and people, with dreams acting as nurturing forces even when they are nightmarish, and people finding comfort in the longing of said dreams, rather than the realisation of them.

From this I then looked further into the idea of personifying dreams. I did this by researching into films that play with the idea of imaginary friends being significant characters. For this I watched both Donnie Darko and Drop Dead Fred. I had watched Drop Dead Fred before, but for my first-time experiencing Donnie Darko I found it to be an extremely interesting and well-made movie. The only problem with it was that it started to deviate from my theme somewhat as the fantasy was shown to be real in a way that implies that it was never fantasy to begin with. In comparison, Drop Dead Fred matched my theme much more closely as its characters were actual imaginary friends which had been personified by the movie to the point that they became real in their own way. I was however able to takeaway form both movies the fact that they both showed the imaginary friend character as a helping force. In Donnie Darko, Frank acted an intermediator between Donnie’s ability to see time and the its phycological impact on him, with frank helping him at multiple points in the movie. In Drop Dead Fred this was much more clearly shown, as the entire point of the imaginary friends’ existence in that movie was to help people grow up and overcome their issues. This reinforces the idea of a nurturing relationship between dreams and their owners.

After going through all of this research I believe that I have hit the roadblock in exploring the thematic context of my project. I think that the direction that I should take my project is in the personification of dreams and using that as a method of exploring the relationship between them and their dreamers. This would in effect demonstrate the significance of said dreams, as even though they have no bearing on reality they would still be presented as characters with their own desires and wants. Going forward with my research I must begin looking more into the visual design aspects of my project, taking reference as inspiration for the idea generation stage. This also means that I am right on schedule with my time table that a created alongside my project proposal. This is a good sign that I am progressing through my project at an appropriate rate. Overall a am confident with the direction that my project is heading in as it will play to my strengths of creating interesting character narratives.