When a late-night DJ accidentally airs a long-forgotten cassette tape on public radio, hundreds of listeners across the region fall unconscious at the exact same moment. Sixty minutes later, they wake up. Confused, shaken, and irrevocably changed.
Every affected individual claims to have lived an entire lifetime during the blackout. Full lives, decades long. Love. Loss. Purpose. Children. Oceans. Farewells. Each story is different. Each memory is vivid. But none of it ever happened.
Now, those who heard the transmission must face a horrifying truth: their dream lives felt more real than the world they woke up to. And as their identities begin to fracture, a growing number of them want only one thing… to go back.
At the center of the phenomenon is a single analog cassette tape, broadcast once, never repeated, now seized by the government and buried under layers of disinformation. The signal on the tape defies all known science. It doesn’t just affect memory, it constructs it.
Through found footage, security logs, audio diaries, and fragmented interviews, Mindwave unspools a chilling narrative that blends analog horror with aching human drama. It explores the emotional terror of remembering a life you never lived, the psychological toll of knowing it was better than your real one, and the growing fear that perhaps... the tape didn’t malfunction.
Maybe it gave people exactly what they needed.
NOTE: A character named Mickey/Daniel is mentioned in a couple of the open roles. That is the DJ's name! (Just for clarification lols)
I'm not going to close out the project because there WILL be more roles open in the future, but the ones currently listed are CLOSED! As of today (July 31st) NO APPLICATIONS FOR THE CURRENT ROLES WILL BE CONSIDERED! The review process starts now, the cast list should be up by mid August hopefully!
- Best Regards,
Noah Caddel
The deadline for current role auditions has been extended from the 25th to the 30th!
Ok people that have already auditioned and people that are auditioning right now, I just wanted to come out and say HOLY SHIT, you guys are amazing! Just know that even if you don't get picked, KEEP AN EYE ON THE PROJECT!! EVERYONE THAT HAS AUDITIONED IS SO EXTREMELY TALENTED AND WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE EVERYONE PLAY A PART AT SOME POINT OR ANOTHER! It's taking me so long to genuinely cast the rest of the characters listed rn because you guys are all so talented, BEST OF LUCK!
See you on the flip side,
Noah Caddel
just so you know!
Real Life: A powerful and emotionally reserved CEO of an environmental firm.
Dream-state Life: Jenna - a warm, artistic woman who fell deeply in love with Daniel Wells and lived a quiet life by the sea.
Arc: Initially confused and disturbed by Mickey’s approach, Rachael slowly begins to experience emotional echoes from a life she never lived. Her journey is about unraveling the emotional disconnect she’s built in her career, and learning to accept (and mourn) a love that feels deeply familiar despite never happening.
Core Theme: Emotional resonance without memory; the soul remembers what the mind rejects.
"I looked in the mirror yesterday and didn’t recognize my own reflection. I saw someone softer. Someone loved."
"I don’t remember him. But I can’t shake the feeling that I should."
Real Life: A brilliant astronaut, highly disciplined, on the verge of launching into space.
Dream-state Life: A soft-spoken, content retail worker in a small town who finds peace in simplicity and companionship. He isn't at all prepared to go to space, and is highly anxious about it. Though the only problem is nobody else can complete this mission.
Arc: After experiencing the dream life, Eli no longer feels at home in the stars. He questions his ambitions, identity, and purpose. His arc reflects on whether greatness matters without inner peace, and if the life you build matters more than the life you’re told to chase.
Core Theme: What is success if it never made you happy?
"I trained ten years to see the stars. And now? All I can think about is folding shirts and hearing the bell over the shop door."
"I can't imagine what Mom would think about this."
Real Life: A German neuroscientist and memory researcher. Stoic, articulate, quietly tormented.
Dream-state Life: A dying teacher in a modest village who spends his final years with a woman named Annaliese.
Arc: Felix becomes obsessed with decoding the tape the signal came from, though his dream life personally haunts him. He represents the philosophical edge of the series, intellectualizing grief until it consumes him. Eventually, he begins losing track of which life was real.
Core Theme: Memory as identity. If you remember it vividly, can anyone say it didn’t happen?
"I know she wasn’t...'real'. But if I can still feel her hand in mine...doesn’t that make her real enough?"
"You do not forget thirty years of love in sixty minutes. The mind won’t let you. Neither will the heart."
Real Life: A former FCC employee who intercepted the original transmission and has been documenting all known cases since.
Dream Life: Unknown - they refuse to speak about it.
Arc: Vincent/Lucia becomes the narrative backbone of the series, providing context, data, and philosophical musings on what it all means. Their slow unraveling and obsession with “finding the source” reflect their own guilt about suppressing the tape.
"It was never meant to air. We intercepted it too late. That’s on me."
"I catalog the abnormalities. I interview the dreamers. And every night, I wonder... what if the tape knew who needed it?"
Real Life: Does not exist.
Dream-state Life: A quiet, sweet, intelligent woman who shares Felix’s final years in a small village.
Arc: Though she never appears in the real world, Felix talks to her often, as if she’s still around. Her absence is a constant ghost in Felix’s tapes and breakdowns. Felix believes she may have been a mental construct tailored perfectly to his emotional needs by the signal.
Core Theme: Grief that sharpens, rather than fades.
"We wasted so many years before we let ourselves be happy, Felix. Don't waste what you still have."
"You always said the sea made you feel small. I said it made me feel more real than anything else."
