Creating Effect for Dream Sequence

One key decision has been how to ensure the audience are able to clearly distinguish the dream sequence, as there is frequent cross-cutting between this and reality. We needed to create a distinctive look for the dream sequence so that it is easily recognisable. We have done this in a number of ways. Initially, we reduced the speed of the shots slightly to around 87%. This is not slow enough to really feel like slow motion and at times isn't even that noticeable, but it does add a more dream-like feel.

Secondly, the screen shots below showed an effect we created. We copied each dream clip and layered the duplicate on top of the original. We then added two effects to the original - a gaussian blur, which we kept relatively minimal but is still discernible, and a sepia colour overlay to give a sense of the past. Both of these are strong effects which create a look that is too strong. We therefore reduced the opacity of our duplicate clip to allow a reduced amount of each effect to show through and then linked the clips together. We believe this has created a distinctive and effective look for our sequence, hinting at a sense of unreality and also an impression that this happened in the past,