WHERE does a memory go when it dies?
00:07:11
Memory. noun, mem·or·y, mem·or·ies. the act or fact of retaining and recalling impressions and facts; remembrance; recollection: to draw from memory.
What if you could relive your memories - any of them? What if you had all your memories at your fingertips, all organized and at the ready, and it was as simple as just a press of a button to relive them? The Lake in the Sky explores these questions with heart and grit through the lenses of childhood, grief, nostalgia, and memory with energetic, high-concept, dark, and (at times) underwater sequences.
00:06:56
This project all started with a monologue - it was all about preserving the small moments in life and the instability of memory. I had seen an article a few days earlier on a study Fairfield University conducted - they took two groups of people and sent them through an art museum. At the end, they interviewed both groups on what they saw, but the catch was that they took one group's phones away. The group with phones took pictures of art they liked and moved through the exhibit as normal, and at the end, when asked to re-describe what they saw, the group without phones was able to remember much better.
That got the wheels turning in my head.
00:12:20
I combined themes of nostalgia, childhood, and memory to create a feeling I've been wanting to capture for a while. Whether it's a song, smell, video, piece of writing, or object, everyone has something that immediately takes them back to a time they once experienced. In this film, I want to capture a wide range of nostalgia; to symbolize the many things and thoughts that give the audience comfort. Whether it be a song, a place, nostalgic memories, I want to take them back to that one thing.
I wrote the script over the course of 9 months while finishing my freshman year of high school. I wanted to tell a really intimate, personal story with scale. I really challenged myself (and my crew) by shooting underwater (with a functional TV), with fire, night rain, having a fully functional memory machine in a location without power, etc while directing/acting at the same time.
00:03:58
I'm immensely proud of the final product and hope it's a film that can stay with people long after they leave the theater and spark important conversations about the impact of technology, the desire to preserve moments, fleeting nature of memory, and treasuring the present. Hopefully they have a fun, epic, and meaningful time on the way too.
- Caleb Reese Paul
Writer, Director, Producer, WARREN
The Lake in the Sky is a proof-of-concept for a feature-length version.