The Dreamlife of David L. (original title: La vie rêvée de David L.) P r e s s p a c k 2014
First ever feature film inspired by the student life of director David Lynch. The Dreamlife of David L. is a fictional feature film that takes inspiration from a key point in the life of director David Lynch: the time he spent as a student in a fine arts college. Initially attracted to painting, David Lynch ends up choosing the medium of film to express his talent. Far from being an attempt at biography, this film is an imaginary vision where the action could take place today. Which encounters or events leave their mark on the young David L. during this year as a student? The Dreamlife of David L. is a dreamlike journey that leads the viewer through the meanderings of this art school. There s no need to be familiar with the cinematographic works of Lynch to follow the young David L. step by step, going b ehind the s cenes w ith him. And by the end of the film, could viewers wonder if the story has all been a dream?
A film born from the desire to bring a dream to life. Behind The Dreamlife of David L. is a story of two friends Paul Lê and Julien Pichard who want to write a script based on a crazy idea: What happened in David Lynch s life when he was an art student? The idea appeals to them but very quickly they realize it wouldn t be enough to do a short film that s little more than a film-lovers homage. So they decided to put their heads together to write a completely original feature film script. And any similarity to real-life circumstances or to people living or dead would be simply fortunate. A year and a half in the writing, a year in preparation, and finally the dream became a reality: on July 22nd, 2011, shooting for The Dreamlife of David L. began in an art school. The dream is only just beginning
Two friends, two paths Julien Pichard Graduate of ESEC (Paris School of Cinematography), co-founded Transkom in 2005, an audiovisual production company that makes: fiction, documentaries, and web series as well as corporate films. Transkom created and produced the web series Hello Geekette, a Number 1 hit since October 2009 with more than 2.5 million views on Dailymotion. Since 2012, Hello Geekette has morphed into a TV series broadcast on the Mangas channel. Julien Pichard is also the author of several short films including: L Homme & les Mouettes (The Man & The Seagulls) 1996 (8mn), Serial Pinard (Serial Booze) 1997 (13mn) and documentaries: Losjin 2009 (26mn), Iles Chausey (Chausey Islands) 2011 (26mn). As a musician, Julien Pichard has composed numerous pieces for short film fictions, as well as for documentaries. He composed and perfromed the original soundtrack for The Dreamlife of David L. Paul Lê graduate of the French Press Institute, advertising copywriter. He has made several short films: Pas de bras, pas de chocolat (No arms, no chocolate) 1996 (3 mn) Gay Pieds (Gay Feet) 1997 (4 mn) J ai la fève (I found the fève) 1998 (3 mn) Profanation (Desecration) 1999 (3 mn) Echangisme (Swingerism) 2000 (4 mn) Paul Lê was co-screenwriter of the feature film Sur la Terre comme au Ciel (On Earth as in Heaven) by director Marion Hänsel (1992). Paul Lê has also published two novels: Quand la béatitude t effleure (When bliss touches you) and Je me dérangerais, à la rigueur, pour l Apocalypse (If pushed, I ll drop what I m doing for the Apocalypse) - Published by On vous écrira.
3 weeks of shooting The fire walked with them! Independent cinema, self-financing, crowdfunding A dream built on realities The Dreamlife of David L. is an independent feature film which has received no official production funding. To meet the film s budget demands, the two filmmakers came up with an original system of participatory sponsorship thanks to the web. By visiting a blog that gave a succinct explanation of the project, anyone interested could become a sponsor of the film. Sponsors came from all over the world: the furthest from Dubai; the least expected, a French banker living in Algiers, but also an Indian designer who s a David Lynch fan, and of course, all the community of the web series Hello Geekette who have followed the project from the beginning. To thank this community of loyal followers of the web series, it is planned to launch The Dreamlife of David L. on the internet, at the same time as it is released in theaters. This will be achieved through a VOD (Video On Demand) platform. A first in the history of French cinema, the two filmmakers were inspired by the success of the web series with its more than 2.5 million viewers. 20 days, 17 actors, 2 art schools, 120 extras The very mention of the name David Lynch had a magical effect during the preparation of the film and for the 3 weeks of shooting. Everybody who was contacted to take part in the project was instantly enthusiastic, whether artists, technicians, or for the loan of locations with a view to shoot. The reference to Lynch proved a highly efficient driver every time. This keen interest enabled the film to be finished within the planned timeframe: 20 days and a few nights. Contributions from two notable sources were essential to the smooth running of the shoot: first, the commitment of Prép art, a Paris school that prepares students for the French national art schools; second, the involvement of the Fine Arts School of the town of Bourges (ENSA) which spontaneously offered use of its buildings for the film over a 3 weeks period. In Bourges, the local press and television station also played their part in helping recruit extras.
The Fine Arts School of Bourges: a Lynchesque setting, with students in on the adventure The former Jesuit college dating from the 17th century which houses the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d Art (ENSA) of Bourges, was an ideal setting to shoot The Dreamlife of David L.. Monumental rooms, vast luminous studios, unique spaces the school s 64,500 sq.ft. (6,000m2) helped procure moods for the film that would have been impossible to recreate, even with the magic of a full-blown set. A genuinely close collaboration was established with the Fine Arts School of Bourges, in support of the shoot. The school s director, Stéphane Doré, was central architect of this partnership. Several students were thus able to work directly with the production designer, another group took part in producing a making of film behind The Dreamlife of David L., while others joined the film s technical crew. An unforgettable and enriching experience, at the very heart of the shoot, which also allowed the students to notch it up as an internship and therefore part of their course.
A new way to make films The Dreamlife of David L. heralds a new way forward for cinema. Not only by its methods of financing and distribution, but also by the determination of the two filmmakers to break away from the well-trodden path usually followed for a feature film project. The film s financing, mentioned in the section A dream built on realities, was made possible thanks to the personal commitment of the two filmmakers and by establishing an operation to attract participatory sponsorship via the web. To be more precise, the idea was not to make it without the CNC (France s National Centre for Cinema), help from regional funding or TV prepurchase but to show that the classic system: ask for help, wait, get help is not the only way to finance a feature film. Another aspect, directly linked to the previous point: all the actors and technicians who worked on this film were paid. This fact is sufficiently rare, in the case of a low budget feature film, to make it worth noting. Proof that independent filmmaking can exist without economizing on reality.
The Dreamlife of David. A movie by Paul Lê and Julien Pichard Image : Pascale Marin - 1er assistant réalisateur : Raphaëlle Boucherat - Son : Raphaël Fraisse Décors : Apostolos Skourtis / Christophe Simonnet - Musique : Julien Pichard Directeur de production : Jérôme Gallioz - Régie : Sophie Bouziri Transkom Production 2014 http://www.la-vie-revee-de-david-l.com - https://www.facebook.com/laviereveededavidl - contact@david-l.com