Every day, I feel like my brain is constantly thinking, coming up with ideas—stories, especially, never seem to leave me alone. Sometimes it can be exhausting, but other times I enjoy getting lost in my mind. At least once a week, I look over to my wife and say, “Do you want to hear this idea?” or “I have this idea for a movie!” (Thankfully, she always listens!)
My most recent idea is a horror film called Where They Wait:
“After witnessing his parents’ mysterious deaths as a child, a troubled man turns to a controversial therapist offering dream therapy to reconnect with them, only to uncover a horrifying link between his visions, local disappearances, and a supernatural hunt that blurs the line between dreams and reality.”
Another idea, Life After Her:
“After the death of his wife, a grief-stricken café owner remains trapped in the routines they once shared, until a chance meeting with an older widower sparks an unexpected road trip with a group of strangers, each reflecting the parts of him that must heal. As they travel together, Thomas must decide whether to keep living in the past or finally step into the warmth of the life still ahead of him.”
My first journalist event when I was in college.
I have two versions of this: one as a short film and another as a full feature length. I’d love for it to have a Secret Life of Walter Mitty feel, but who knows.
There’s also a gladiator movie called The Wrath of Sand, a sci-fi about AI called Into the Abyss, and a buddy comedy called Unintentionally Wanted:
“When a sweet but oblivious man accidentally comes into possession of a mysterious backpack, he becomes the target of an intense FBI manhunt, unaware that his clueless behavior is being mistaken for the calculated moves of a criminal mastermind.”
Why Creativity Matters
One of my favorite photographers, Ansel Adams, once said:
“Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.”
Humans have been creating, dreaming, and exploring since the beginning. He was one of those individuals with a desire to be creative, to think outside the box. He also had impeccable fashion.
To Adams’ point, we often get so lost in climbing the ladder that we forget to think along the way. We get so focused on careers, 9-5 jobs, and retirement that we miss the beauty of living in between.
Ideas, creativity, art, music—these give color to life. If we neglect these beautiful, expressive experiences, are we missing something fundamental to being human?
A musician (maybe I would even call him a sage) named John Mark McMillan says in his song Re-Enchanted World:
Photo I took of John Mark McMillan in Dallas, Texas
“There’s trouble down the pipe, son And some of it you can’t resist But then again you’re still alive, son It only plagues those who exist Find the strength of God in life, son There’s more joy than pain in it There are dreams still in the night, son Promise me you won’t forget”
Specifically the last line sticks with me, “There are dreams still in the night…” We all have dreams, desires, goals, or aspirations. To me, this means I shouldn’t leave my dreams behind when I wake up—I want to pursue them, even if I fall flat. That is what I am doing with Daydream Films, it is the avenue for me to pursue my dreams. Maybe this will all crash and burn, maybe I will face rejection, maybe I will be forgotten. But what I can for sure look back on is how I did not allow my idea machine to simply sit between my two listening devices.
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