In one of my classes at VCU, we were tasked with making a film that takes place in the dreams of someone we don't know, while they're dreaming about a film we are going to make in the future. The film also has to be split up into five sequences, and each sequence must be interchangeable. It also can only be 100 seconds long. You might need to read it again to grasp the full scale of the assignment, I did too. I knew I wanted to make a film that really came straight from my own dreams - a lot of what you see is what I have seen.

It took me a while to round out the concept... there were a lot of things I wanted to do, but couldn't. I even filmed an entire space sequence that became unusable, partly due to budget restraints, and partly because I didn't film it right. But that's part of the process, and now I have more knowledge about how to do space scenes with miniature ship models. It turned out for the better though, because the first sequence in the film replaced the space scene, and I actually quite like how it turned out.

The story I decided to tell is about Ava, a person who tends to avoid her responsibilities and prefers the fantastical dream land. This dream, in particular, takes place in a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi world. She's mesmerized by the feel of the world, with the space ship in the sky, but she is drawn back to reality by (spoiler warning!) her subconscious. She reluctantly accepts her own plea to face her responsibilities as she realizes that the dream world isn't real.

It was important to me that I made sure the cinematography and the feel were top notch. It's a dream about a future film of mine, and so I want my future films to look good

It was also important to me that there was at least some character, stakes, and emotional weight in this film - to me it wouldn't be as interesting without it. The last thing I had to do was come up with a title. There were two that I liked, 'Dreamscape 2068' and 'The Dream About a Film from the Future'. I leaned toward Dreamscape 2068, as "dreamscape" sounds like "escape" (Ava tries to escape reality) and "2068" could be either the year this hypothetical film comes out or the year it takes place.

There are a lot of smaller, hidden meanings in the film, but I'll leave the rest up for interpretation :) thanks for reading!


Dreamscape 2068
Writer/Producer/Editor/Composer/VFX artist/Director: Brock Cooper
Starring: Ava Van Ameringen (@ava.vanam)
Grip and Electric: Brock Cooper, Hekla Petursson (@thehekla)
Stock Images and Videos: Adobe Stock

Contact info:
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: brockccooper