YUMENO – Leanne Sta Ana

YUMENO, a translation of ‘OF A DREAM’ in Japanese, is an experimental short film by Leanne Sta Ana about a transcendental experience of love that is destined to be forgotten — as all dreams are. When a girl finds love in a dream, we witness her memories already beginning to fade.

Inspired by the concept of subjective reality, Sta Ana investigates the realistic experience of dreams, the ones that makes you question what reality truly is, by rendering the feeling into that of an imagined love story – something you believe could be real but isn’t. Akin to a forgotten memory, dreams inevitably become lost in oblivion but the love felt will always remain. Through a non-linear and non-contextualised structure, YUMENO exemplifies how dreams are not bounded by rationality and are purely visceral, contingent on our emotions and inherent desires.

By seeking inherent beauty in what is usually taken for granted as the mundane, only natural sources of light are used within the film. Contrary to its reputation, the affect of natural light can be experienced as an almost tangible dream. Natural lighting in cinema is not simply a reflection of real life, but a subjective impression of what reality looks like to someone; it’s a version of reality, rather than a mirror. In a fragmented dream sequence, direct sunlight, magic hour and lighted candles are used to accentuate the sentimentality of love, memory and loss.

As there are limited ways in which we can manipulate natural light, it tends to create a sense of realism in cinema. However, Sta Ana conveys that through an abundance of sunlight, our perception of reality can become utopic. The brightness of direct sunlight helps build an idyllic world, ultimately symbolising the emotions felt within a perfect love that can only be dreamed of. Hence, while it seems that YUMENO exists as an oxymoron – a film about an idealised experience that is portrayed solely through natural lighting – we see that sunlight allows for a dreamy, ethereal portrayal of love.

In her research, Sta Ana realised that magic hour is the emotional expression of nature that we are able to witness in day to day life. Filming after sunset, in particular, creates an authentic atmosphere with a deep, dark blue colour from indirect sunlight. Thus, blue hour was deliberately used to create a moody atmosphere through hard lighting. The depiction of blue hour in the ‘reality’ shots aims to emphasise a sense of melancholia and solitude, in contrast to the bright, soft daylight seen in the dream sequence.

Lighted candles were specifically used for its flickering, inconsistent shadows, which mimic the oscillating and blurry vision of a dream. Like flames on a candle, the girl’s memories of the dream struggle to survive, fighting to be remembered. Although the effect is subtle, the combination of low light and candle flames produces a deep, golden colour that bridges the two worlds together, representing the state we find ourselves between dreaming and wakefulness.

Through her film, Sta Ana explores the ways in which natural lighting can be used to create dreamy, evocative worlds in an authentic way, whether it be utopian, melancholic or somewhere in-between. She ultimately aims to reveal that the affective experience of natural light is not as limited as we may think.

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