ABOUT

The film starts with childhood toys, leading to a discussion about how childhood education impacts personal growth and gender identity and perception in adulthood. The initial inspiration for the film stemmed from discussions about Barbie as a cultural icon and the influence of Magic Mike on Chinese international students. In this context, women are no longer seen as objects to be consumed but rather observe men through the female gaze, resulting in a distorted sense of equality. Combining societal expectations for women to become perfect Barbies, the film aims to convey to the audience that regardless of social or educational background, gender should not impose limitations, girls do not have to act like girls, and boys do not have to act like boys. Gender should never be a condition that limits self-expression.

Dream 1
Scene 1

This scene takes place in a kindergarten classroom, blending realism with a surreal dreamcore aesthetic. The designers reinterpreted classroom elements through dream logic, using a rich color palette of purple, green, and yellow to contrast the protagonist’s inner loneliness. Scattered toys symbolize the protagonist’s childhood innocence, while irregularly colored furniture adds an uncanny feel.

Dream 1
Scene 2

According to the owner of ‘dream 1’, her classmates turn into goldfish.

The clouds in the sky will grow faces. A cloud with a human face would always face the viewer, creating the feeling of being watched all the time, but not being attended to. By tweaking the ‘dream 1 scene 2’ skybox, half sunny and half cloudy, with the audio to give the audience a sense of being cut off from containing two types of weather in the same space.

In the very first preconception, the grandfather's character model was figurative. However, in subsequent attempts, it was found that the image of the grandfather should not be brought into a specific characterisation; he was vague and distant. So the final image he showed was a figure stitched together with colour blocks. To break the sub-dimension between dream mirror and reality, we broke the rule of reality that near is big and far is small, and enlarged the ‘want to get grandpa's attention’ to the point that grandpa himself is huge, highlighting the urgent state of mind of the dream owner.

The coloured mountains were white walls in the initial visualisation. But it doesn't work well, the cliffs are suspended in the sky the surrounding area looks very empty. To match the tone of the cliff, the audience wil surrounded the cliff with colourful mountains.

Dream 2
Scene 1

This scene takes place in a traditional Chinese restaurant with an eerie atmosphere, inspired by Raise the Red Lantern (1991). It contrasts cold blue lighting with vibrant red and yellow lanterns, creating a surreal yet opulent setting.

The space features traditional Chinese aesthetics, including carved wooden furniture, blue-and-white porcelain, embroidered paintings, fish paintings, and calligraphy. The layout follows Feng Shui principles, with fully reconstructed assets.

To highlight themes of fear and escapism, numerous empty bird cages symbolize confinement and the protagonist’s struggle against familial constraints, enhancing the dream’s oppressive mood.

Dream 2
Scene 2

In the production process, the production effect of dream core was adopted to add some scary atmosphere, so the dark tone of red and black was adopted. To achieve this style, we placed some trees of this color on the ground and in the corner.

Dream 3

Select the Asset of the mysterious enchanted forest, reduce the volume of the map, keep the objects directly related to the plot to re-combine and rearrange them and design the movement lines. Use blue mushrooms as viewer action guides. Use the trees, boulders, and plants as audience action stoppers.

Transition

For the transitions, I chose to visualise three symbolic images that represent dreams; they also serve as cues for the player's next dream, and they were set in black and white to differentiate them from the other dreams in the ‘dream centre’.