I mentioned in my previous blog post that I would talk about some fandoms that have provided a good starting point for what I would like my fantasy film story to be like. The one that I will be discussing today is the Dream SMP.
The Dream SMP is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It is, in rudimentary terms, a play performed through many live streams on a multiplayer Minecraft server. I promise it sounds much more complicated than it actually is. Essentially, the different content creators all live stream, on platforms like YouTube and Twitch, themselves playing the video game Minecraft while they act like their character. I won’t go into full detail regarding every character (there are over 30) and the entire plot of the server since it can get very convoluted. What I will say is that this storyline does an incredible job of providing captivating lore, backstory, character motives, and conflicts that make viewers, such as myself, constantly tuning into the streams to see what happens next. Although, the way that the content is being distributed (each character/actor is able to stream and provide their own backstory, lore, and conflicts into the overall story) is a major factor in allowing this type of story to be told. Since my method of distribution will be a movie, trying to follow multiple characters and plotlines all at once like the Dream SMP, as riveting a story this could be, would be ineffective and confusing in movie format. Yet, I am such a big fan of the series that I would love to utilize some aspects of the Dream SMP in my film.
(Art by u/Every1TookMyName on Reddit, depicts every member of the Dream SMP, though some newer members are not seen here.)
Since the story takes place in a world unlike our own due to features like monsters, different dimensions, and supernatural abilities, the Dream SMP would likely fall under the fantasy genre. This is mainly due to the story being told through Minecraft; although, the world is not completely unlike our own. Minecraft is based on the real world because the game uses furnaces to cook food, pickaxes to gather stone, and uses diamond as one of the strongest natural resources. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I will be using the fantasy genre, but not in a way that requires me to create a completely different world due to my aforementioned limitations. So, since my film will be set in the “real world” in a manner similar to Minecraft, there are definitely ways I can find inspiration from the Dream SMP’s plot. Even though the cast is massive, there is plenty of ways for me to find inspiration. The story features wars over killed pets, stolen valuables, and a nation's independence, something that I could bring down to a small, 2-4 person conflict. I also really enjoy the dynamic between a loyal to a fault sidekick and a hero who turns to more “evil” actions to see their desired result.
Another plotline from the Dream SMP revolves around a character, Karl Jacobs, who can time travel. It is never explained how, but Karl travels to the past in order to try and learn more about the world of the Dream SMP, provide more backstory to pieces of lore in the current storyline, and try to fix mistakes. I find time travel to be a super interesting ability and love the variety of stories this power can help create, as one of the stories I had invented in middle school featured a character who traveled back in time to try and save the world. Though time travel is super tricky to work with, with the time loops and potential butterfly effects, as well as an effective method to portray time traveling. I do, however, really enjoy the concept and find it to be something from the Dream SMP that I can potentially use for my film.
(Fanart of Karl Jacobs from the Dream SMP time traveling by @TheLemonDrink on Twitter!)
Another thing regarding Karl’s time-traveling adventures, in one of his adventures he meets a character named James who is played by the same actor as Sapnap (see full cast photo for reference). When Karl first met James, James said “have we met before?” and fans of the Dream SMP created a unique idea based on this. In a Tiktok by user @twotrucksholdinghand (click the link to watch if you want!), they describe how the phrase could be a reference to Karl and Sapnap’s friendship in the main Dream SMP storyline, or it could be something more intricate. This being that the first time Karl meets James is not James’ first time meeting Karl (confusing, but please bear with me). After this initial meeting from Karl’s point of view, Karl time travels to another event before the first meeting, where James is once more. However, here, James knows just a little bit less about Karl since he hasn’t yet lived the day where Karl first meets James. To put it simply, Karl and James are traveling on opposite timelines, so every time Karl meets James he knows more about James as he time travels, but James knows less about Karl. If it makes it easier to understand, here is a diagram I made to visually explain the idea of the reverse timeline, though the Tiktok I linked does a great job explaining it.
After seeing this and doing some research into some other fandoms (blog posts about these soon!) I think that working with two different characters as they travel on opposite timelines is a super cool idea. I think this concept is something unique that I can work with for my portfolio project and I cant wait to see where this budding inspiration will take me!
See you all soon!
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