When Lyla Hersh began writing the script for her senior thesis film, “On the Nature of Dreams,” the only thing she knew for sure was that it would take place in the late 1990s. Hersh didn’t write her final scene until two days before the shooting date.
“I don’t think my advisor knows … it took a long time to get the script set in style,” Hersh said.
That rough guideline of a partly aesthetic and partly nostalgic feeling was the seed behind Hersh’s idea. This grew into a visually-driven senior thesis film about dreams, Freudian nature and a man who disagrees with dream reality finding himself at a party where everyone believes that dreams reflect one’s innermost desires.
“It’s basically about a man who doesn’t believe that dreams have any meaning,” Hersh said. “And he ends up at this sort of strange, surreal party … forced to question his beliefs.”
Hersh, who is from New York City, found her passion for film from a fine arts background. While attending a visual arts high school, Hersh became interested in production and set design for theater and film. At Tufts, she began her studies in film and media, as well as architecture and art history.
“I just really wanted to create something that I had a lot of fun with visually,” Hersh said.
Hersh admits, however, that it was easy to get caught up in trying to follow traditional screenwriting conventions. With Hersh’s continuously evolving idea, she questioned whether she was producing something that she enjoyed and was natural to the way she tells stories. Once she let go of that idea, her film came together.
“And so there’s less of a conventional arc to the story now … but it feels more true to me,” said Hersh.
She cites the Stanley Kubrick classic, “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), as her biggest inspiration — not just for its ’90s setting and eerie tone, but also for the narrative structure of the protagonist being careened from place to place.
Hersh filmed in a large Airbnb in East Boston. She describes herself as lucky for the apartment’s stunning features — beautiful fireplaces, intricate stairwells and an aesthetic that matched the script. Surprisingly, the owners were on board and supported her throughout the shooting process.
“They had all these Freud books they let me use,” said Hersh. “They were super excited about it.”
The only downside? Airplanes.
“It was so close to the airport that you could hear the airplanes in every single shot,” said Hersh. “That’s been fun to edit around.”
However, that wasn’t the biggest challenge for Hersh. It was the scale of the project. Hersh’s last project from two years ago only had two characters. Now she had to coordinate a cast and crew of 25 to 30 people.
“I think I underestimated how hard it would be to coordinate that many people,” said Hersh.
Hersh ran into some issues with continuity, explaining that some of the extras appear to teleport across the screen between cuts, which was hard to foresee. Despite the commotion, Hersh pulled it off with support from her tight-knit crew.
Hersh credits much of her success to film department members like Jennifer Burton, Khary Jones and Natalie Minik, and she also credits courses such as Crafting Your Vision and Script to Screen as the most influential to her project. Most importantly, Hersh points to her producer, Ayala Mehrotra, as a crucial collaborator for the project.
“She was so organized,” Hersh said. “That let me focus more on the creative parts.”
As for the future, Hersh is still deciding on what comes next. She plans to submit to film festivals once she’s happy with the results.
“I’m in the phase right now where I kind of hate it,” she said. “But that’s normal. It happens with every film … you do need a little space from it before you’re able to appreciate your footage.”
Hersh is also feeling the pressure of graduation and is trying to think realistically about her future career. Because of her background in the fine arts and set design, she’s been considering interior design.
When reflecting on her project, Hersh was most proud of herself for appearing calm, even when she wasn’t. “I feel like that’s the best thing that a director can be,” she said.
“On the Nature of Dreams” can be seen at the FMS Student Film Festival: Senior Honors Thesis on May 1 in Room LL08 in Barnum Hall.
