Wednesday, May 07, 2008

What a film robot dreams of

I’m going out on a limb here but I’d guess “normal” people who dream of films or movie stars gravitate toward the stars or the popular. You know, Scarlett, Brad, George, Alba, etc etc. Not me. I tend to dream about more obscure subjects. For example, a few nights ago I had a dream about a documentary. Now that’s cinerobot for you.

The documentary is one of my favorites—the “Up” documentary series that started in 1964 with Michael Apted tracing the hopes, dreams, failures, successes and lives of a small group of English people since they were seven years old. Ever seven years he visits them for updates—the series is in its fourth decade with the recent 49 Up. That’s what I have dreams of.

It seems that I was involved in filming the latest update 56 Up and was one of the film’s directors. Apted wasn’t involved in my dream. I was stressed out as I realized how powerful and popular the documentary series is and that people had been waiting for seven years for this newest addition. “Don’t screw this up,” was all I could think in my dream.

Interviews were done and I was ready to go visit Neil, the heartbreaking character that I am most concerned of. But, before Neil shows up in my dream I woke up! It was 6.30am and I could not return to sleep I was angry that I didn’t make it to see what had happened to Neil. I’m going to have to wait until 2011 or 2012 for the real 56 Up to find out.

3 comments:

Laura said...

If you really were in charge of 56 Up, you better be stressed! That is serious business. Neil breaks my heart, but in a good way. I was so glad to see how well things have turned out for him.

Joshua Blevins Peck said...

I know, I know...it was a stressful dream.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic movies. I never really thought about how much pressure the filmmakers must feel to get it right. It's stressful enough to make a 3 minute music video with some black and white zombies in it. Documenting and encapsulating an entire life....