A Watson Street Pictures original · Supernatural thriller
The Dream Machine
Don’t open your eyes.
A failed artist visits his old friend’s gallery opening and tries a forbidden Dream Machine, which opens a time slip and shows him a vision of his daughter’s murder and his own role in preventing it.
The storyWhere it standsFollow the buildThe story
Sam Hale hasn’t finished anything in years. His marriage is over, his friend Marcus is barely holding it together, and a gallery opening is the first night out he can stand.
In a locked back room, the artist shows them a Dream Machine covered in a script nobody can read. It comes with one rule. Don’t open your eyes. Sam does. What he sees will follow him home, into the building where his daughter sleeps.
Some doors only open from the other side.
Who’s in it
Sam Hale
A failed artist going through a divorce. Tired and watchful. His daughter is the one thing in his life that is unambiguously right.
Marcus MacEwan
Sam’s friend, just out of rehab. Warm, charming and slipping.
The Artist
Sam’s old school friend and host of the opening. Patterned suit, long hair. He knows more about the machine than he says.
Siobhan
Sam’s daughter. Unnervingly perceptive.
The look
Concept stills made with AI for the teaser and look development. Hover for the original colour.
The machine
The real Dream Machine was invented by Brion Gysin in 1959. A cylinder cut with patterns spins on a turntable around a light, and the flicker on closed eyelids is said to bring on a waking dream.
The one in this story is different. It is covered in a dense forbidden script, copied exactly from a scroll found on a beach. It comes with one rule.
On the page
Spot black. Hard-edged shafts of white light. No gradients. Black is the dominant value, and white is earned.
Comic reference points: James Ng, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, David Mazzucchelli.
Where it stands
One story, built in stages. The short story comes first. Everything after it has to be earned.
Short story (KDP)
Second draft complete, about 9,100 words. Voice edit is next.
8-page comic preview
Scripted in full. Page 1 exists as a rough mockup. Artist search comes after the story launches.
One-shot graphic novel
Only after the short story proves the concept.
Short film
The end goal. A teaser already exists.
What’s next
Following the build
The adaptation is being documented in public, from old screenplay to short story, comic and eventually a short film.
Planned series, order may change
- 01Up next
The plan
Why this old screenplay, and the four-stage roadmap.
- 02Planned
Script to prose
What changes when a screenplay becomes a short story.
- 03Planned
Making it creepier
Adding the small domestic horror beats.
- 04Planned
The voice edit
Making the draft sound like me.
- 05Planned
Cover and KDP
Design, formatting, launch.
- 06Planned
Hunting for a comic style
Three art directions tested, one chosen.
- 07Planned
The 8-page preview
Commissioning and reviewing pages.
- 08Planned
Toward a short film
What the teaser taught me, and the plan from there.
She is your masterpiece.