In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Chris Eldridge

Ways in which Lucid uses conventions of real media products

The pace of editing of Lucid is quite slow and consistent, this is a convention that you would expect to see throughout many real media texts.

Inconsistent and fast paced editing is a convention usually observed throughout action scenes which Lucid does not contain so therefore we follow the convention.

The slow pace of editing helps give Lucid a very everyday feel and makes it relatable to the viewer

Ways in which Lucid uses conventions of real media products

The use of a recurring prop in the form of the bunny throughout the film is a convention which you can observe in many real media products.

We included the bunny to link each of the different ages of Will together so that the viewer knew that they were the same person.

An example of this is in Inception where several of the characters carry around props called “Totems” which allow them to know if they are dreaming, these are carried around throughout the film much like the bunny in Lucid.

Cobb’s “Totem” in Inception

The Bunny in Lucid

Ways in which Lucid uses conventions of real media products

Throughout the dream sequence we follow conventions with our use of lighting.

Stereotypically in real media texts, a dream sequence would usually be presented using high key lighting and a possible glowing effect.

We have used this convention in our own product by using very high key lighting in the dream sequence as well as a blue tint to let the audience know that it is a dream.

As you can see, the lighting in the

dream sequence is both high key and

has a blue tint applied to it.

Ways in which Lucid develops conventions of real media products

One way that Lucid develops conventions is by the way that Will grows older.

Conventionally in a film, a character would age linearly if at all whereas in Lucid, although Will progresses linearly to the old man, we then find out that the old man was just his dream.

This does not break convention because Will does age in a linear fashion however this in not immediately apparent until Will wakes up again and you realize it was all a dream. This helps to reinforce the whole theme of the film.

Ways in which Lucid develops conventions of real media products

It is quite common for a short film such as ours to finish with a happy ending.

We have developed this convention by ending on a happy ending but having the viewer not really sure whether it is actually happening or is in the dream.

This development of the convention helps us to reinforce our original message of ‘is life a dream?’.

Ways in which Lucid develops conventions of real media products

Our voiceover develops conventions of short films. It is common for short films as ours to have a

voiceover, however the content of the voiceover is usually different.

Conventionally, voiceovers are used to explain the story by literally saying what is happening.

Ours is also used to explain the story but it does this in a different way, by explaining the concept of dreaming which helps to explain to the viewer how Will dreams the future version of himself being lonely.

We enter this world of life, a human being with the ability.... – Lucid 2014

Ways in which Lucid breaks conventions of real media products

Many short films and feature length films use a single actor to portray the main character or protagonist.

This helps to build up familiarity between the audience and the character.

In Lucid, we use 6 actors to portray Will at different ages, this breaks convention because it is very unusual to see this.

This idea is not used often as it could confuse audiences, however in the case of Lucid, we use the bunny to ensure that audiences are aware that each of the 6 actors are playing Will at different ages.

Ways in which Lucid breaks conventions of real media products

Quite often, short films will have a circular narrative or a linear narrative.

Lucid breaks this convention by having a non-linear and non-circular narrative.

It could be said that Lucid has a linear narrative because the sequence with the old man is in a dream, however I would not argue that this was the case as it acts as a view into the future regardless of the fact that it is a dream.

Ways in which Lucid breaks conventions of real media products

Conventionally, a short film would have a large amount of diegetic sound such as dialogue.

In Lucid, the only diegetic sound is the sound of the mobile at the beginning.

We chose to break this convention because we wanted our film to be led by the soundtrack and voiceover as we thought this would give it the sort of philosophical style that we were going for, whereas diegetic sound would make it quite normal and possibly boring.