sublunar reverie by hissquiet

1 The scene fades in, and we, the viewers, open on an indie sci-fi romance - the palettes are moody, vibrant, yet soft. There is an immediate intimacy felt in the hazy lighting and cinematic pans of the environment. We are in a dream of sorts; It’s a flash back, the viewers introduced to our characters through their memories of past events that were significant. To some, our modern setting is home. to some it is new. We are eased into the world, gently, like waking from a dream, much like our characters.

2 Modern day, they are astronauts, or it is a futuristic urban landscape. The viewer, either way, is alien. This place is both vast in scale and completely overwhelming with industrial detail, yet holds a strange nostalgic feeling in it’s lighting and hazy atmosphere. We follow our characters, specialized in what they do. They are not in love with each other, not yet. But they are in love with this place, it’s scale, the work. They fit with the endless detail perfectly. It is the comfort of being made for something, a seamless, bone deep, knowing of a place and way of life.

3 A more intimate scene, we see how our characters share their lives. Little overlaps that happen inextricably in a compact place like this; overlaps unnoticed even by them. There is a view from a window, slanted blinds and some paraphernalia come into view. No one who lives there remembers who owned what first. At the right time and orbit, the window allows the light from the sun or closest star peek through. During these moments It is a liminal space, delicate. It changes and is impermanent. we, the viewer, watch the environment change around them, watch the characters themselves change, growing toward each other, toward themselves, becoming new. It’s small and sweeping all at once, just like their world, or space. There is likely a poetic monologue about touching hands and the light reflected off hair (or some gay shit like that).

4 Ah, yes. The feelings are realized. It’s love, of course. It didn’t have a name, but it there it is; and it is more comfortable than they realized. Our characters are not at the urban center anymore. Now they watch sun/star light on actual vegetation, in open space. There is a fence they sit on now, no longer the window but the wide sky, different and strange. There are more people here to share with, Families even. A chorus of many. It is filled with diversity of life. Their job has changed and they are afraid they don’t fit as well as they did, but the company and the call of animals makes the fear quieter.

5 The scene shifts forward in time - another small vignette of a moment. It is dark and the stars are out. Long grass or it’s equivalent bends softly to a warm breeze. Rocks and gravel crunch under foot. They are holding hands and there are little lights which float in the air, the same color of the starlight that would peek through the windows all those years ago. One lands on a child’s face, their delight illuminated in the glow. In this moment both the characters and the viewer are reminded of how the past and present collide. The two moments: memories, and present, mingle together sweet and gentle, soft and rolling as the wind in the grass. It is love. It is love, and there is so much to share it with. We watch as hands are clasped. In this moment joy and the touch echo out and ripple. It is a light that reaches across space, resting on what was, what is, and what will come. There is no fear, as the camera pans up and away, the scene on the ground visually mirroring the starlit canopy above as we leave our characters to the reverberations of light and sound.

(Thanks Barnabas for this beautiful write up)

hissquiet cultivates moments of eerie nostalgia and bliss using glistening tones and dark ambient sound scapes to blur the lines between comfort and chaos.

hissquiet.com