A Student Screenplay (Updated with full script!)

[Tour]

"It was all just a dream/hallucination" is an exceptional storytelling cop-out, and adding "or was it?" doesn't save it.

As for the ending; the entire screenplay focuses on narcolepsy, dream-like states and the inability to disassociate dreams from reality. Throughout, neither Noah nor the audience know which life is a dream and which is a fake as both characters show a crisis of not knowing who they are. In a script that deals with dreams to that extent, I feel that the ending would make perfect sense.
Neither life was real. To me, it just seemed to fit. Again, if you have another way i can resolve it, I am open to hearing it.

My main problem with "dreams in film or TV" is that most visual/aural representation of dreams doesn't even -try- to replicate what dreaming is really like. Real dreams are fucking random, don't stick to a particular train of thought or story, have things that don't make any sense whatsoever but seem to be perfectly fine at the time, etc. It's rarely ever done accurately. Maybe once or twice in my entire life I've woken up and then had to say "wait...oh ok that was actually a dream" when I thought about it - and third-party observers wouldn't have that problem distinguishing. Dreams just aren't like life. They're different. (this was my same disappointment with "Vanilla Sky" as well - swapping Penelope Cruz with Cameron Diaz in one sex scene does not a dream make)

Dreams can be done well in film/TV - there's a sopranos episode that does a dream very well - the psychiatrist walks into a room, finds a coke machine, inserts a few macaroni noodles into the coin slot and nothing comes out. She reaches into the hole where the can should come from and her hand gets stuck. A pitbull comes barking into the room and she's terrified, but then she realizes that the pitbull is actually barking at the door she entered, protecting her from whoever is trying to get in.

Now that's a dream. No one watching could think it's happening in reality.

I know my criticism is going to the core of your idea, but after 6 years of film schooling watching dreams being done poorly to death, it's just ...not necessary re-create that failure.

Have you ever seen The Science of Sleep, a movie also about narcalepsy(sp?) that is really really well done imo

Actually, as godawful as it is, I'd have to recommend Un Chien Andalou, to get at a filmic portrayal of dreamscape. Of course, it would be more to show why you shouldn't represent dreams in film, than how you could potentially do it well.

As adorable as Science of Sleep was, I don't think it can be taken out of its genre properly. I think it would be very difficult to make a suspense film from that formula without coming across as heavy-handed and self-important, or worse yet unintentionally absurd. Plus, without Gael Brenal that film would have been painful to watch.

[archibaldcrane]

Have you ever seen The Science of Sleep, a movie also about narcalepsy(sp?) that is really really well done imo

Actually, as godawful as it is, I'd have to recommend Un Chien Andalou, to get at a filmic portrayal of dreamscape. Of course, it would be more to show why you shouldn't represent dreams in film, than how you could potentially do it well.

Yeah, I've seen both, and they are both pretty successful - their dreams are out there. What I worry in this case, Davricle, is that you are trying to find ways to make your "is it or is it not a dream" scenario plausible with your wiki definition of narcolepsy. I doubt that even extreme narcoleptics with brain tumors, etc. have difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality, and that's the crux of your plot. If you want to throw reality out the window and just "write your movie", well, you're at serious risk of giving dreams the same trite unrealistic treatment that a thousand bad filmmakers have done before you. That's my worry with this script.

[Davricle]

What I worry in this case, Davricle, is that you are trying to find ways to make your "is it or is it not a dream" scenario plausible with your wiki definition of narcolepsy. I doubt that even extreme narcoleptics with brain tumors, etc. have difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality, and that's the crux of your plot. If you want to throw reality out the window and just "write your movie", well, you're at serious risk of giving dreams the same trite unrealistic treatment that a thousand bad filmmakers have done before you. That's my worry with this script.

Ok, its a valid point. I'm under a deadline to turn in the script so I'm going to write it how I originally planned for now. But if you have a better idea for how I should write the ending, I would love to hear them so I can make the changes for my personal copy. I do intend to film this some day.

[Davricle]

Updated 12/18/07

Check original post

[Anyway]

Thought it was pretty good besides the the part where he crashes into the woman's house, talks to her for a few minutes, then she lets him stay in her house for a few days?

[Davricle]

Love at first sight! Or the kindness of strangers?

[Anyway]

Love at first sight! Or the kindness of strangers?

hilarious

[Davricle]

You make a good point, I shall think on this.

[Davricle]

EDIT: Fixed broken link.