Cryptopticon

“Man is a genius when he is dreaming.” Akira Kurosawa

Cryptopticon is a dream of a dream – we’re inside someone’s head and see the story unfold through their eyes - yet we are not sure whose eyes.

Early one morning - dawn - maybe 4-5 am - I was in a hypnagogic state, that beautiful and strange somewhere between wakefulness and dream - I dreamt the whole film –– I knew I was dreaming and yet couldn’t stop the dream, the film played and played before my mind’s eye.

I then spent the next 8 months translating that early morning vision into a screenplay that could serve the practicalities of filmmaking.

So what’s it about?

It’s being trapped and escaping and the idea that the most vulnerable may in fact hold all the cards.

It’s about the patterns that are before us and those we wish for or imagine are real.

It’s the reality and imagination fighting to coexist.

It’s difficult to describe the film in words; I think there’s another quote from Edward Hopper

“If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint it.”

Same her – if I could just use words – there’d be no reason to film it.

I had this visual and emotional sensation and needed to have it captured in filmic form. “Cinema is cinema” says Kurosawa

So the best way that I can express it is: Cryptopticon is Cryptopticon – see it and you know what I mean.