Dandy, the Flower

A young man finds himself having a wholesome conversation with a dandelion flower, only to wake up and realize it was a dream.

A film by Jonathan Peterson
Charles played by Logan Reinhardt
Dandy, the Flower voiced by Lorelei Hanschke

Last fall I had a random bit of creative inspiration in which I felt motivated to write about an interaction between a struggling middle-aged man and an inanimate object. The idea eventually grew into a flower, but rather an extremely overlooked flower, a dandelion. As most people know, dandelions are weeds and are therefore undesirable. I sought to develop a sweet and wholesome character out of the overlooked flower. And through a wholesome and sweet conversation with the dandelion, the middle-aged man, Charles, could gain a new appreciation for not only the little things in life but life as a whole.

I wrote in a dream so I could have a lot of creative control and to hopefully be able to contrast with the reality Charles is from. Looking back, if I wanted to revisit this story, I’d write in an intro to Charles’ struggling life before putting him in the dream state in order to explore that contrast between dream/wholesomeness and reality/numbness.

Due to time, budget, logistics, and availability I had to change Charles from being a middle-aged man to a college student. I was more than blessed to have my good friend Logan Reinhardt act for me. He took on the role far better than I could have directed. And I know it is no small task to act against an inanimate object. For that reason, I had my friend Lorelei, who was the voice actor for Dandy, speak her lines on location and give him at least lines to act against for a few of the takes.

One beautiful little tidbit I gained from letting a close friend watch the film before releasing it publicly is that even though the story ends comedically and abruptly, it’s quite appropriate because Dandy has already mentioned in the dream that she knows that her life is short. Yet even in that knowledge she sees the beauty of life and takes the opportunities that come her way (like Charles).

But truly this film would never have been made without my friends who filled in as cast and crew. We’re all film students and therefore peers that love to inspire and help one another create stories. Without them nudging me to shoot this film over the afternoons of a Saturday and Sunday, this film wouldn’t have been shot. I tried to shoot it once on my own but gave due to technical difficulties with the camera and time.

Another tidbit is that I shot this film as a way to test my camera’s abilities. About a year ago I found out I could hack my old Canon Rebel T4i DSLR with Magic Lantern to shoot RAW video at 10/12/14bit color depths. However, the RAW video is uncompressed, eats through storage space, requires an extra stage of processing to edit, and relies on adequate light. I shot a lot of short clips around town or in nature for fun but wasn’t sure if I could actually rely on the camera and the footage to shoot an actual film. So, this little story felt perfect to test the camera and my abilities with it.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed Dandy, the Flower. To date, it’s the best project I’ve ever made. Though not perfect, the heart of it seems almost too pure for it to have been imagined or raised by me. I say raised because even though I wrote it, the film developed into itself, and I merely guided it into being. Those around me brought it to birth and I shaped it further in the editing stage on to what it is now.