2.  Our short film attempted to fit into two categories of
conventions.
 The two sets of conventions are; the conventions of short film &
the conventions of dream sequences.
 Although many argue short film as a genre, I do not agree to this
based upon my research by watching many different types of
short film such as Vincent (Burton, 1982) and Magnetic
(Rabbath, 2012).
 As a result, I argue that there are few things that dictate what is
a short film rather than length (usually 3-10 minutes).
 Short films can be any genre and I Lucid does not attempt to fit
into any specific one, its rather a psychological reflection on the
concept of dreaming, it is quite postmodernist in this way.

3.  However, there are a few common elements I have
noticed throughout my research into short films which
could be called conventions.
 One convention is having few main characters, this is
mostly due to the short length of the film but it is still a
common element worth noting.
 Another convention is a relatable everyday situation,
however this often has a twist to it, for example in
Magnetic where the boy experiences rejection which is
relatable but then uses the magnetic wristband to try
and attract the girl which is the un-relatable twist.
 Another convention is plot twists. Although these do not
appear throughout every short film, they are fairly
common to keep the short narrative interesting.
 Another commonly seen element is the use of narration
or a voiceover, this can be seen within Vincent with the
voice of Vincent Price narrating in rhyme.

4.  When I say dream sequences, I also include
products about the concept of dreaming.
 Dream sequences are often very slow paced
and „hazy‟ and can combine scenes of past,
present and expectations of the future. This
convention is displayed in Vanilla Sky (Crowe,
2001), especially in the final sequence.
 When a character enters a dream sequence,
we often see scenes of them going to bed or
being knocked unconscious which is also
backed up by visual effects to display to the
audience that they are in a dream, such as
tints and a ripple effect transition, however
sometimes a simple fade to black is used.

5.  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.
 This also helps Lucid to fit into the dream sequence
conventions.

6.  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 and also to represent the concept of dreaming
because teddy bears/cuddly toys are something most
people associate with dreaming/sleep.
 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.
 As a result, I think that the Lucid bunny fits in very well with
products about the concept of dreams, however this does
not help it to fit into the Short Film genre necessarily.
Cobb‟s
“Totem” in
Inception
The Bunny
in Lucid

7.  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.
 When the 70 year old Will sees the younger version of
himself with the girl, this shows the convention of blurring
past with present, this is a typical element within dream
sequences.
As you can see, the
lighting in the dream
sequence is both
high key and has a
blue tint applied to it.

8.  Lucid sits at just over 4 minutes which means that
it fits into the conventions of short film length
which tends to be between 3 and 10 minutes.
 Lucid conforms to the convention of having a
relatable plot, this is because everyone has
experienced dreaming and all of our viewer
base would have been the same age as one of
the characters at some point. This helps to make
the film easier to identify with and allows
audiences to sympathise with Will more easily.
 Lucid also contains a small plot twist at the final
sequence which leads to a happy ending, this
can influence audiences emotions and prove
successful.

9.  One way that Lucid develops conventions is by the
use of multiple ages of the same character.
 Conventionally in a short film, there would be few
main characters, in Lucid we do not break this
convention as technically there are only two main
characters; Will and his girlfriend, however we
develop this convention by having lots of different
ages of the same character.
 This develops the convention of short films having
few main characters

10.  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 (i.e. Narration in
Vincent).
 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

11.  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?‟.

12.  Many short 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.

13.  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.
 Lucid does not follow Todorov‟s Equilibrium
Theory very clearly, although it could be
argued that it partially does.

14.  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.

15.  Common conventions for a short film
poster are;
 A picture of the main character.
 Lighting and colour scheme to reflect
the nature of the film.
 Font and layout dictated by genre.
 Credits.
 Small amounts of text with bold fonts.
 Simplicity.
 Often portrait.

16.  The poster features small amounts of bold text in
the form of the title, the full credits and the names
of our group. For the full credits, we used a font
called SF Movie Poster which is common
throughout many film posters.
 Lucid is also quite simple, featuring only one large
image and the lighting and layout reflect the film.
The lighting is quite dark which represents Will‟s
loneliness at the beginning and the white faded
title helps to reinforce the theme of dreams.
The Lucid titles
The Dark Knight
titles

17.  The poster develops the convention of featuring the
main character on the poster because rather than
doing this it features a main prop within the film.
 This is unusual but develops the convention as the Lucid
bunny is very important within the film and is seen many
times, similar to a main character.
As you can see, the
bunny is the main feature
of the poster, even being
in front of the title

18.  The Lucid poster is in landscape format,
which is not different from every short film
poster but the majority of short film
posters are in portrait.
 Although the poster mentions the
production studio in the titles, usually a
short film poster will feature some kind of
logo or emblem of their respective
studio(s).

19.  A magazine article featuring a short film will
often include elements such as;
 Screenshots from the film.
 Reviews of the film.
 Large quotations from the article.
 Interviews with makers.
 Film logo/title.
 Ratings (either /10 or /5 stars)
 Information on the film (genre, running time
etc.)

20.  Our magazine article features many of the
conventions of a magazine article, as found out in
my research of them.
 The article features the Lucid title in the SF Movie
Poster font, this conforms to the convention of using
the film‟s logo/title.
 The article also features screenshots from the film
which is also commonly found and can make
audiences want to watch the film.
 It also includes an information box with information
such as cast, certificate, length and release date.
 The article also includes a quote “A philosophical
interpretation of the question of reality” in bold which
is a very generic element of film based magazine
articles.

21.  A convention of film reviews in magazine
articles are to have some sort of scoring
system for example a rating out of 5 stars.
 Although Lucid does have a rating out of 5
stars it is incorporated into the text rather
than being a visible diagram of the stars
which is commonly used.
 We decided against using physical stars
because they would look out of place in
the article.

22.  The magazine does not include interviews with
cast members or producers, we decided
against conforming to this because we wanted
the article to be entirely review based.
 Also the main focus of the article is the bunny
rather than the fairly small screenshots of Will in
the film, this is because we wanted to create
synergy between our 3 products by use of the
bunny.
As you can see, the bunny
features much more
important than the
screenshots

23.  Lucid conforms to many conventions of
both short films and dream sequences,
however it does not have any conventions
which place in a specific genre such as
action scenes or comedy.
 The magazine article and poster are fairly
generic however the use of the bunny
across them in unconventional but helps
the synergy between our three products
and strengthens their marketing.