Dream #520 (April 1, 2014) The Failed Film Shoot

I was at last directing a feature film.

I began the dream on a plane.  I was flying to somewhere in the Middle East to shoot a feature length film with a few friends of mine.  I was with Jon Andrew Castleberry, Dan Jeter (both friends of mine from college), Jon Andrew's wife Emily, TG (an acquaintance of mine), and a few other strangers.  The film was a drama about a Middle Eastern elementary school, and TG was the lead actress.

When we landed, Jon Andrew and Dan helped me haul all the lighting and camera equipment into a bombed out school house.  Though it was a bit eerie, it had a certain beauty to it that I liked very much.  We began to light the first scene on the shot list, in which TG was suppose to walk around the destroyed building trying to find hints of the past that was buried below the rubble.

In the first couple takes, TG had a pretty rough performance, so I brought her into another room and had her sit on the floor.  I instructed her to make up stories about her former students that her character would have had.  She sat and thought for a while, then I asked her to tell me about those students.  She did quite well making them up, and seemed to become the character in the process.  We went back to the scene and she had two excellent takes in a row.

Then we began shooting more similar shots in other areas of the school.  They all went very well.  We ran into a couple issues with lighting one of the rooms with a lot of windows because the sun we setting and changing the look drastically.  We eventually had to call it a day, and everyone was told to return the next morning.

Everyone except for me left the school.  I wanted to get to know it more, so I slept there.

The next morning I awoke and walked to the parking lot and waited for TG and the crew.  The crew all showed up on time, but TG was thirty minutes late.  When she parked her car, I walked up to her and asked her what had taken her so long, and she told me this crazy story about how her hotel had a few gunmen enter and rob the place.  She luckily was unharmed.

I then met with Jon Andrew and Dan outside the school.

All of a sudden, people began to run about in the streets.  Gunfire was heard in the distance, and it was getting closer.  Dan, Jon Andrew and ducked under a concrete structure and watched as a military parade walked down the road nearby.  People began to poke their heads out of there windows, and most were waving guns about.  It was rather scary.  Then, somebody in a 3rd story window spotted the three of us and began shouting at us.  He then fired a couple shots in our direction.  I wasn't sure if I should hide or show myself to be unarmed and not a threat.  My heart was pounding.

Finally I decided to stand up with my hands in the air.

Then I awoke.