LUCID DREAMS

BENJAMIN LESLIE JOHN PARKES ROBERT SIMON THOMAS WOOD

Brief Synopsis

• A teenage boy, X, depressed and in excruciating love, decides to take some hallucinogenic drugs to take his mind off the girl, Y. He downs an entire bottle of it, when the recommended amount is little under half of that. Little did he know that the drugs would totally make his mind on her, and thus, in the trip, he sets out to find her. He then finds her and a chase scene ensues. You see him, chasing nothing, which shows he is tripping, and then he catches her. It then rewinds to Y actually being there, being chased, and they run through an alley way and eventually he is about to catch her when suddenly, everything goes backwards. Scenes shown before are rewound, intertwined with clips of him happy, running and walking around a vast open field. Once X is back to has come back to near his house, he walks backwards into the middle of the road, and he gets hit by a car. The film ends with a close up of his face, as the driver phones someone to say what has happened.

This shot was a reference to Tarantino as he features a box or briefcase with a mysterious light coming out of it in most of his

films. This was to create a sense of ambiguity.

Forms and conventions of media products

In our piece, we challenged many moving image conventions:• POV shots: We use many point-of-view shots as these are very useful in showing intoxication and also help the audience to identify with the characters, as it’s personal being through the character’s eyes. • Linear narrative: Unlike a lot of films, we didn’t keep to a linear or strict narrative, as we felt it would be more interesting to let the audience interpret in what order the film would actually have been in. This tests Todorov’s theory of narrative. We also introduced a doppelganger, of X being very happy in his imagination, whilst in real life, everything that he’s done to find the girl he loves is being rewound and undone, with him eventually getting hit by a car.

• Drugs: We addressed drugs in our film, which is often considered to be a taboo and rather controversial topic, though we did it in a way that demotes them by killing the main character because of an overdose. Nice.

This shot shows the emptiness and loneliness felt by X from the vast expanses of space , as all of what he is experiencing in his trip is imaginary.

Representation of social groups• Our product portrays young love and the angst that comes with it, and how someone will go to any length to be with the one they love.• The fact that he takes drugs to take away the pain of being in love shows our generation/social groups (16-24) unwillingness to face facts that sometimes things don’t always work out for the best.

• It also highlights and addresses the youths fascination with the wrong kinds of drugs, and how when used in the wrong way, they can lead to serious and often fatal consequences.

Distribution/Target Audience• As it is a short film,. There is no market for it in the mass cinema industry. Therefore, we imagine it would fit well in art house cinemas, film festivals or online, on websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr etc.

• To be distributed, we’d imagine it would fit well with Film4 or Channel4, as they always keep a keen eye for short films and also, the matters addressed are features that would fit better on C4 rather than the BBC or itv.

• Audience-wise, it’d somewhat be aimed at 15-24year olds, as the main characters are of that age and therefore, there’s a sense of identification between the audience and the characters. Content-wise, there is nothing graphic nor suspecting that would make it unsuitable for children.

This shot show’s the two main characters running towards two lights that look like car headlights, referencing the end scene. The silhouettes of the characters is

spooky and creepy, creating a sense of dread.

Technology• In this project, we learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro to it’s full potential, using different transitions, video effects and audio effects. This was a step up from last year, as we used Adobe Elements, which was far more basic.

• We learned how to use the Sony DCR-VX2100, an overall more technologically advanced and professional camera, compared to last year where we only used a basic Handycam. The trail effect on the camera proved particularly useful to show intoxication, and for general point-of-view shots.

Skills/knowledge progression• In this project, we use a far wider variety of shots and angles such as: tracking shot, close-ups, panning shot. We tried a trombone shot it proved unsuccessful. These shots greatened our

knowledge of what we needed to make something more interesting to watch.

• We also used gained knowledge of narrative to create a different and non-linear narrative that is left open to audience

interpretation. This was useful to create meaning behind the film. We learnt from last years film

• We also learned how to use a tripod to the best potential, by not only using it effectively for panning shots and steady shots, but we also managed to tilt it so that we could have a steady off-

angled shot, to be used to create a sense of disorientation.

Things We Would Change…• The weather – we would have preferred to have filmed it in the summer because you can be more assured that there’d be nice weather rather than rubbish and quick changing weather, though the fog worked to our advantage.

In different scenes, the natural light changes and therefore creates many continuity errors that we wouldn’t have had if we had filmed it in summer.

• Psychedelic Imagery – Although Premiere Pro was an excellent programme all round, it wouldn’t allow us to add psychedelic effects to our film, thus making it harder to create a great sense of intoxication. Had we been able to use different types of software, we may have been able to get require effects.

Conclusion

Overall, we think our project was a success. Although in

hindsight, there are things that we could change, we

have definitely learned from these things and can put

this new found knowledge to good use. We’ve

enjoyed making the film and the project overall,

whilst learning a lot.