E A R F I L M S
Imagination Is The New Technology
An EarFilm is a film for the ears and imagination utilizing three key components:
Live story-telling, 3D sound and a Cinematic Score.
EarFilms is a company dedicated to a particular sonic format for storytelling. By using an advanced 3D sound system and blindfolding their audience to focus the senses, they create immersive, audio-‐only storytelling experiences, designed to empower and engage listeners’ imaginations without sight prompted visual imagery. EarFilms tell their stories through a combination of live narration and detailed pre-‐recorded soundscapes that create an atmospheric world similar to listening to, but not watching, a film. The company has developed this audio language alongside blind and visually impaired focus groups.
“Daniel Marcus Clark brought the hushed closeness of a campfire to a lively 300-seater theatre by the simple act of asking us to put on blindfolds.” The Guardian
“A show of boundless imagination” The Times
"Stunning…Surreal and magical. Your imagination is left to run riot... A sensory experience like no other" The Argus
"We come to... remove our blindfolds and feel like we are awakening into a strangely new reality. A magical experience" The Brighton Magazine
For more information: http://vimeo.com/48705362, https://vimeo.com/105055793, https://vimeo.com/69243866
TO SLEEP TO DREAM
Exploring our relationship with dreaming and inspired by the endless possibilities of the human imagination, To Sleep To Dream is a tale of hope in darkness. Set in a dystopian world that could be a future vision of an Earth dominated by the impact of climate change, To Sleep To Dream imagines a society where dreaming is outlawed.
Part thriller, the tale tells of worker Jack Richards -‐ a man lost in the system -‐ who, after having a glimpse of a dream, begins seeing a symbol from his dream in his waking life. He follows it and finds himself in an underground group of resistance dreamers living beneath the city. They reveal their discovery: buried deep beneath the layers of dreams, is a lost realm of existence. To find it, Jack must journey through his own subconscious and beyond. So begins an incredible adventure in Jack's bid to discover this magical realm and reclaim it for all. Haunting and magical, To Sleep To Dream explores what it means to dream big in a world that makes you feel small.
“The imagery that was conjured up – effortless, like dreaming”, “Incredible, beautiful and fascinating”, “Like making a movie that you can walk about and control what you see.”
POST- SHOW DISCUSSIONS
After each show, the EarFilms team host a group discussion with audiences about their imaginations and the nature of their imaginative experience. This is also a chance for audiences to ask any questions with the creators about the themes of the show and the production process.
THE IMAGINARIUM
The EarFilms Imaginarium is an exciting post-show installation that allows audience members to share their experiences with each other, the creators of earfilms, and the world! One of the most intriguing aspect of EarFilms is that everyone imagines and experiences the show in a totally unique way. We setup the Imaginarium with the intention of capturing these impressions and building a touring exhibition of the imagination.
To Sleep To Dream (PDF)
EarFilms - Hearing is Believing from EarFilms on Vimeo.
EarFilms Brighton Festival 2013 from EarFilms on Vimeo.
The EarFilms Experience from EarFilms on Vimeo.
To Sleep To Dream
by Sam Forbes on 24th August 2015
To dream or not to dream? For the residents of Lhaytar, the only remaining city on an otherwise flooded Earth, the answer is definitively the latter. Not that they have much of a choice on the matter – the government has banned dreaming along with all other acts of personal creativity.
Jack Richards doesn’t fit the narrative though. He dreams of a golden moth, a brown twisted structure and of other 'Realms' where he no longer dreams but seems to be awake. He finds others similar to him and together they choose to sleep, to dream, to dream perchance to revolt.
For us in the audience the answer is definitively the former. Not that we have much of a choice on the matter – on each seat is a blindfold and around the auditorium are twenty-three speakers.
We experience Jack’s story in complete darkness but are engulfed by sounds, three-dimensional aural stimuli that transport us to Lhaytar’s dystopian streets as well as the layers of dreams that Jack falls through every night. It is a singularly personal experience that necessarily changes with every audience member’s imagination.
In the post-show discussion, it becomes clear that some see the story play out as a colour film; some as an animation; some in black and white; some as a series of still images; some as a kinaesthetic experience. Subjectivity, like no other show. Steve Fanagan’s sound design is perfect and Chris Timpson’s spatialisation ensures that no one is left out; everyone sleeps, dreams and imagines beautifully unique things.
For writer and director Daniel Marcus Clark, the answer is unclear. He sits on a stage throughout (we assume) and narrates the action. His voice is smooth and radio-worthy like no other. This is his story and he tells it like a master. He lulls us into accepting his world, even when his writing falls into a plot hole.
The notion of 'writing' here though is completely at odds with the usual definition. The narration is sparse and sound fills the gaps: bubbles, scrapes, clanks, bleeps, radio waves, sound waves, water waves, thud bang scratch squeak siren hiss voice breath run shout breathe dream dream dream…
To dream or not to dream?
Have I already asked that? Or was that someone else? Everything recurs; we question our consciousness; do we sleep? Perhaps we dream. Perhaps. The 2015 Fringe comparison here is Fuel’s Fiction, which takes place in pitch-blackness, its story told via headphones and superficially personal narration. Whereas that show and it its predecessor Ring rely too much on the basic binaural concept and quickly boring quiet-quiet-BANG soundscapes, To Sleep To Dream invests us in a narrative and invites us into its world. Yet, because we are not constrained by headphones, we share an experience with those around us, our ears breathe together. Our perceptions change, together.
It is clear that earfilms are completely unique experiences, unlike anything you can hear or, indeed, see. And, like a dream itself, they remain absolutely within that moment: when the blindfolds come off, the images slip away, ethereal memories melting into the night.
By Sam Forbes
This is Sam's second Fringe with Broadway Baby. He has gone through at least three iterations of this biography so far but he thinks it's in a good place now. He's probably wrong. Sam lives in Birmingham and writes about performance.
The Blurb
Sold out in NYC, Melbourne, California and Brighton, EarFilms award-winning production To Sleep To Dream comes to Summerhall and The Tom Fleming Centre as Part of British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2015. A unique cinematic storytelling experience. Blindfolded, seated in a 3D array of 23 speakers, lose yourself in a vivid soundscape storyworld with locations, characters and live narration that unfold around your ears and imagination. To Sleep To Dream tells the story of the last dreamers in a society where dreaming is illegal. ‘Stunning, surreal and magical. A sensory experience like no other’ (Argus[i/]). ‘Supernatural’ (Guardian).