Praedormitium

Praedormitium – one of many terms for a phenomenon known as “threshold consciousness”. Praedormitium is the border state in which the mind is caught in a hallucinogenic transition between sleep and wakefulness. While experiencing praedormitium, one may be subject to a variety of sensory experiences including sights, sounds, as well as numerous other cognitive and affective phenomena.

I shot Praedormitium back in the winter of 2019 during a snowstorm at 2 am. I had no plans at the time. I just wanted to get out and shoot. I have always been fascinated with the lonely, foreboding, and dreamlike feel of cold winter nights. After filming I didn’t know what to do with the footage, so it sat on my archive drives for nearly 2 years. Now, during the first few weeks of 2021, I felt compelled to finally take the footage out of storage and create a visual allegory for the surreal experience that was 2020.

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Shot on the Canon 6D + Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L

Aerial shot with the GoPro Karma + Hero 6 Black
Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects + Graded with FilmConvert Pro
16mm film grain & CRT font textures by Ezra Cohen
Music: Milkz – “tides”