7 Thoughts On Wake – An Interview with Dave Clark

Wake via Cryt TV

David Clark is an award winning Creative Director with a 13+ year career in advertising in the digital and traditional space, with experience also in film and television production as a writer/director. CryptTV have picked up his horror short films Wake and #You’reDead.

In your own words, what is Wake?

Wake is a short film about a troubled mother who has to protect herself and her daughter from an unwanted intruder the night she experiences sleep paralysis.

Why did you use this particular title?

I chose “Wake” as the title because it’s sort of a double entendre in that it represents both “death” ( a wake) and “sleeping” (to wake up). And some say sleep is the cousin of death. In this film, the character fears death while she is sleeping due to the sleep paralysis. Sort of an interesting theme to explore. The candles used throughout is a visual representation of performing a ceremonial wake. Fire and flames of course always represent life and death in general.

Why did you decide to focus on this subject?

After experiencing Sleep Paralysis one night, I wanted to create a story that approached this subject differently and focused on the mind of the sufferer and depict what it psychologically and physically feels like.

Music is pretty prominent in the movie. How important is the music to the film?

I collaborated with my friend and colleague, Matt Pavolaitis, who is an Emmy-Winning Composer. I take audio and music very seriously when married with the picture. Some of my favorite recent films such as “It Follows” really use audio as a character. In Wake, the music did become its own character as it viciously painted the mental state of our lead character.

The movie delves into the mind of the sufferer of Sleep Paralysis. How hard was it to portray this on the screen?

It’s interesting, because as a sufferer while experiencing SP, it was one of the most terrifying moments in my life. I thought to myself, what if I can’t protect my wife or kids if someone were to break into our home. For the short, it was hard to figure out a way to truly visualize this terror. So I thought back to my own experience, and how I could remember talking to myself and hearing myself problem solve, because my mind was fully awake, even though I couldn’t move. There hasn’t been a film depiction that attempted SP exactly like this, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Why did you feel the need to have an open-ended ending?

I wanted to give the audience a moment to reflect on their own experiences. Maybe this was a dream, or maybe this was indeed real. Also, leaves it open in case there is ever a Chapter 2!

Can we expect more from this world?

I’m currently writing a feature version of this story. More room for backstory, and character development. We’ll see where that goes.

Check out the film here and find out more about him over at https://daveclarkcreative.com