By Jasmine Gurung

1. Evaluation Part 1: In what
ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?

2. We believe that our trailer for the production, “Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds” does challenge,
use and develop the forms and conventions of real media products. We used clear signs and
signifiers as well as semiotics to show our hybrid genre of thriller/drama such as showing drug
abuse on camera, from teenage drinking to how the editing shows the protagonist’s hallucinations
to create an abstract and eerie atmosphere. We challenged conventions of thriller movies that
portray women under the ‘Male Gaze’ as suggested by Laura Mulvey that happens in most movies.
We did this by making the cast all female to suggest that the female character, Lucy, does not need
help from men or need to be saved by one. As well as this, we made the protagonist a teenage girl
as they are seen as a vulnerable group; we decided to make her a heroine to show how she can
solve her own problems without the help of anyone else. This goes against Vladimir Propp’s strict
theory of narraive where a woman is normally seen as the Princess or prize of the male hero. We
also used Todorov’s theory of narrative such as having the friends get ready for the party
(Equilibrium) and the drugs taking the toll on Lucy (Disruption); however, we challenged this and
developed our storyline as we made the Resolution and back to Equilibrium a mystery with the use
of text close to the end saying “What will happen next?”. This is to move away from normal
conventions and to keep the audience guessing about their own theories of how the movie will
end, therefore triggering them to want to watch the movie after seeing the trailer. This is similar to
how Aronofsky shows parts of the movie in the trailer for Requiem For A Dream but leaves the
ending a question to the audience.

3. Our trailer’s links to popular movie about drugs: Trainspotting and Requiem For A Dream
Our Poster: Trainspotting Poster: Requiem For A Dream Poster:
For the Trainspotting poster, it includes each character showing a happy expression except
the protagonist ‘Mark Renton’. It shows them in black and white with only the heading of
the movie’s title in bright orange to bring attention towards it. This is similar to how we
have concentrated and inverted the colour of the mirror that our protagonist is looking at.
In the Requiem For A Dream poster, it includes the picture of the eye and again, each of
the characters affected by drugs in the movie below. The extreme close up shot of the eye
is related to the close up shot of Lucy’s eyes a the end of the trailer to show emotion
through her eyes and her innocence in her eyes.