About the Film

A Day Awake

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The concept for what would become A DAY AWAKE began with prog-rock experimentalists The Goodboy Suit's music. Inspired by the energy and intelligence of the song The Day Before, ideas which had been floating through writer and director Jacob Strunk's head began to coalesce into a single, unified vision. One of the strong themes of the film, one's relationship with their own identity and how that outlook would affect their life, would prove to be the driving force through the writing process. As the story progressed and the character of "Simon" took shape it became apparent that The Day Before had to play an intimate role in the film.

Pre-production began in early 2002, with Strunk writing the first draft of the film in one prolonged session. Though the final product would be much different, this early model would solidify the main themes of A DAY AWAKE and capture the mood prevalent in subsequent drafts and, ultimately, the final film; Simon is driven both by his paranoia and his rage, anger at his own helplessness, confused by the manifestations of his own mind. Reality becomes less and less concrete.

With the story polished and actor Ethan Wilcox cast in the lead role, shooting began in the summer of that year in Santa Barbara and Ventura, California. Cast and crew alike quickly fell into rhythm and production went smoothly, and with Director of Photography Robert Jones behind the camera, Strunk was confident that the images being captured on celluloid would live up to those inside his head.

At times though, even he would question the scope of the project. His first two days of shooting with Wilcox consisted mostly of directing actions, poses, locations: the more subdued portions of the film. Strunk could tell that beneath the surface, Simon was infusing himself in Wilcox and was anxious to be let out. A glimpse of this was seen during the shooting of a scene at an outdoor location. Under Strunk's direction, "Just go all out, just let it go," Wilcox began to slowly pace. As Strunk whispered to Jones, "Keep it rolling; let it roll out," the actor's demeanor shifted and Simon took over. Wilcox dropped to his knees, ran his hands through his hair and opened himself to the character and to what would become one of the film's most haunting images: Simon, pushed to near breaking, reaches into himself and extracts all the anger and pent-up hostility within him at that moment. Strunk clapped and, through puffs of smoke, said, "That was amazing, Ethan." Production moved on.

It wasn't until the final day of shooting that Wilcox's full scope of acting would be put to the test and the entire range of the character would be revealed, drawn out in the scenes which would serve as the backbone of the narrative, a reoccurring sequence in which Simon pours his frustration into the tattered pages of his notebook and finds himself pulled fully into the nightmare which has become his version of reality. Early on in the day, Strunk approached Wilcox, taking him aside and telling him, "This is it. This is where you do it, this is Simon." Confident in Wilcox's grasp of the character, Strunk stepped back and called for the camera to roll. Needless to say, Wilcox ran the gamut and then some, pouring unrivaled intensity into the character that manifests itself in the film.

With shooting wrapped, post-production began and, editing the transferred 16mm footage digitally, Strunk locked the door, turned off the light, slipped some headphones on, and set himself to cut the film.

An early cut of the film left Strunk enthused, yet disillusioned. As he had initially feared, the pacing and the prominence of The Goodboy Suit's music led the screening's audience to the conclusion that A DAY AWAKE bore a striking resemblance to music video, a medium which Strunk had hoped to avoid with the film.

"There's a stigma attached to 'music video' which causes an audience in that mindset to take the images they are seeing and the narrative unfolding before them for granted." That was the opposite of Strunk's intention of creating a thought-invoking psychological drama. With newfound resolve, he returned to the edit bay and sculpted A DAY AWAKE into its present form, focusing intensely on Simon's character and the moments of reflection which drive him on his journey of self-discovery.

A DAY AWAKE in its present and final form represents the culmination of months of both creative and technical work, and the combined forces of the team of filmmakers and actors.