Film Summary and Abstract
Fabric of Reality follows the story of Dylan, a three-foot tall felted puppet, who is uncertain of where his life is going. The main character is portrayed as a puppet, not because he isn't real, but because he feels like a ‘puppet’. Fabric of Reality is about anxiety and uncertainty, self doubt, fixation, control, understanding, and a bit of stupidity. Dylan is someone who struggles with feeling a lack of control and autonomy, which leads him to search for control somewhere else. Or rather, in something.
After finding an object that he believes could give him answers or guidance to a better and happier life, he instead develops an unhealthy fixation with it. Dylan’s stupidity arises when he's unable to let go of the idea that he might not receive any answers that he so desperately wants. In the end, Dylan is faced with his own type of realization that he won't get the realization or big ‘ah-ha’ moment of truth. He instead does something that truly scares him and has never thought to do: continue on, unknowing.
My thesis project uses puppetry as a tool for communication. What might we notice when our feelings are represented through, or projected onto a puppet: Will we feel less alone? More connected? I want to use a non-human character to display some of the common existential thoughts, fears, and questions that many of us might feel about our own existences and identities. Dylan the puppet ultimately exists as a blank slate that lacks defining human characteristics, whose purpose serves for the audience to put themselves into the character. My intention of the film is to create space for the audience to look at the big picture of life; the sometimes depressing, chaotic, absurd, self-absorbed, and laughable moral quandaries of existence. A space to take life less seriously.
Process Work
The Screening
References
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