Reset

The idea for Reset came from a big WHAT IF?..What if someone has no memories of his past and just creepily-casually adapts to his environment and forces himself to make sense of everything as time passes? What if that man was a criminal?

It was important to ground this concept into modern day reality which meant looking up if a condition like this already existed. To my surprise, it almost did - in the form of False memory syndrome - a mental condition acquired from the memories of a traumatic episode. Where a person's identity and relationships are affected by his/her false memories, recollections that are factually incorrect yet strongly believed. But science in films is only fun as long as the audience is curious and excited and really having fun with it - which is why I say the mental condition
shown in the film almost exists in reality - and in order to keep it fresh and engaging I chose not to divulge into the minutiae of FMS. As a filmmaker I believe this gave the story its much needed cinematic freedom to go ahead and fictionalise the severity of False memory syndrome to a large extent purely for the thrill seeking experience bestowed upon by a good psychological thriller, yet whose roots are grounded in real science.

On a viewing level This happily leads to having a strong audience perspective where you're rooting for the main character 1) Because he's suffering from this bizarre condition and 2) Where as a viewer you have as much idea of what's going on as Sean Baker.

Another viewpoint that not only propelled this idea into fruition but most importantly made the story highly relevant to tell in today's times was; The manipulated ways in which people, especially the youth of today view reality. Just like our main character-Sean Baker, who rather than questioning himself when faced with effects of his strange mental condition, begins believing his false memories and starts seeing himself a rich man with a lovely wife and a private yacht - Similarly, a reality viewed through the lenses of social media, influencers, fake news and the lack of scientific knowledge or sometimes the lack of simple logic is as dangerous a way of living one's life. The socially depleting sense of curiosity and the lack of open debate amongst an overload of polarising information, only ends up creating a highly manipulated False sense of reality at an alarming rate.