The author discusses their media product, a thriller film titled "Living Nightmare". It uses conventions like a shy, young male protagonist who is revealed to be the hero. It represents a typical middle-class British family and portrays the father as dominant. The dream sequence is inspired by films like "Nightmare on Elm Street". They hope to attract 15-20+ year old audiences who prefer horror and action genres with complex twists. The author analyzes shots, music, and editing choices used to attract this audience and build suspense. They also discuss the technologies and skills learned through creating the product.

1. -908056169025-908051008380Evaluation1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctzgf0nNevs Our character is the hero, but is represented as a young typical boy who is shy and weak. This is different from any film that included a hero, who is shown straight away, for example Batman. In Batman, the audience could tell who the hero was as he was training. We chose to have a different type of hero because we wanted something unique and different that appeals to the audience. Living Nightmare is an action/horror thriller. The overall sequence is about a boy who has been left alone at home. He has watched a clip from ‘The Living Dead’ and is very paranoid and affected by it which then, results in him falling into a trance. He is then woken in his dream; chained up to a chair and taunted by the Games Master. We got our inspiration from ‘The Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Inception’ because we wanted a horror and an action to mix to make the sequence unique. From this we got an idea to make a dream sequence with action, suspense and thrilling horror. The dream sequence is similar to ‘The Nightmare on Elm Street’ as Freddy is able to kill people through their dreams, which is similar to our film, the Games Master can kill and hurt people through their dreams. This creates a unique atmosphere as the voice over isn’t revealed. This way, the audience is eager to find out who it is. The dream sequence created has a bit of action in it, as Sai is pleading for help and the Games Master is provoking him by taunting him. We used a 180° shot and an upbeat tune in the background; this made the shot seem more intense. Our sequence is similar to ‘Inception’ as it’s a very static shot and has the audience gripped. However, in Inception the impulse in the scene’s appealed to the audience. Sai is the main character, and the hero of the film. He gradually figures out how to defeat the Games Master and stop him from killing his parents. The audience are introduced straight away to a young shy boy, when Sai is being comforted by his mother. The convention used in the sequence was not showing everything. The fact that Sai is the hero is not shown straight away to the audience because we want the audience to keep watching. This leaves the audience on edge and hooked which is an enigma codeOur Thriller uses a different contrast in the characters such as heroes, as the audience doesn’t see Sai as being the hero, but you see him being a typical young boy. At first, the characterisation of Sai is shown to be shy and weak as he is bullied at school. Yet the attitude of his character shows that he tries to be independent. However, when Sai comes into contact with the villain in the dream, it then shows a big contrast as the Games Master has bigger status and power over Sai from the way he is controlling him. The location is set in a house; this is shown by an exterior shot to show where the film it is set. Also, we used the back garden as an abandoned place. This was shown in the dream sequence as it gives an insight of the mysterious place. When editing, we found that the beginning of the sequence was too slow; to create a tense and sympathetic atmosphere we used quick shots to build up the atmosphere. This challenged the conventions of real media as it was difficult to add a lot of action in the scene when we wanted the audience to feel the suspense building up. When Sai was falling into a trance, we used a close up shot of his face and had a heart beat sound which started getting faster to build up the tension. A close up shot was used to show the facial expression and to create more tension. We then added slow sympathetic music, which then continuosly played until the end of the dream. We used a canted shot as it was slowly moving up, showing a distorted and weird atmosphere in the dream.-2692404399280We opened the sequence by having the film Logo ‘Teknequz Studios’ appear with a black background, which then faded out and then faded in and then showing the distributers ‘ Panther Film Presents’. Instead of the font sliding in or dissolving, we decided to fade it in and out, because it would be presented in a more professional way. When including the transition of the way our credits will appear on screen, I was inspired by The Strangers (2008) as it creates a more dramatic effect. <br />4439285-31750<br />We hope that the thriller is achievable and at a correct level to have the BBFC rating of 15. We chose this rating, as we included elements of violence and gory scenes. We had used a shot from the film ‘The living Dead’, when Sai is watching a certain scene from the clip. We chose 15 because then people aged 18 and over, are still able to watch it; rather than this being a strictly rated 18. There are a lot of gory scenes, yet it is not shown right at the beginning of the sequence. Our main element was blood, to make it seem more gory and irresistible for the audience to watch. We got the main style from Nightmare on Elm Street, because the character doesn’t know whether they are sleeping or not. We used a similar style to show a more complex twist.2) How does your media product represent particular social groups? The social group is represented as a typical middle class family, with a brown British ethnicity. The father is more dominant over the mother and Sai since he is portrayed as being the head of the family. For example, in one of the shots used, we had the father driving the car. This represents that males normally drive the car, not females. -2901952192020Our thriller represents the male and female characters to be realistic, yet the Games Master to be stylised and different. To begin with, our first shot of the mother and Sai talking, we can already see that the mother has a close relationship with Sai and disciplines him well. She is represented as a typical mother, who is very loving and caring towards her son. Sai is portrayed as a typical boy, who is listening to his mum; however the audience doesn’t know that he is the hero of the film. The father is represented as an eager and arrogant person. From the mid shot of the father looking at his watch and fidgeting, we can tell that he is impatient.In contrast, we see the representation of the Games Master, only through voice. He is represented as being a very evil man, who likes to hurt and taunt people. He is shown to be a cold, heartless man and very psychotic. <br />3493135-158750<br />The shot in the dream sequence where Sai is chained up shows that the Games Master has a higher status than Sai as he is the one suffering. We can tell this by him being chained onto the chair. We used a quick shot, showing the Games Master sitting on the swing. The Games Master had appeared on the swing in the first shot, until we included a flash of lightening. It then cut to the second shot, where the Games Master had disappeared. 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product, and why? Even though I had been researching films that were distributed by Hollywood Companies, I think our film would work better with a British film company, like Working Title. Living Nightmare would appeal to these distributers because it has a unique storyline, and uses British actors and locations. This would appeal more to the British audience because they are more aware of the settings used and can relate to the actors. The BBFC rating for the thriller is aged 18, since there is violence and gory blood scenes. A UK -238125930910distribution company may be interested in the thriller, as it may appeal to a wider audience and also has a unique and interesting storyline. In contrast, our thriller has a different selling point because it has a different twist in the plot compared to The Nightmare on Elm Street. The storyline is quite similar to other thrillers, as we have twists and confusion throughout the film. Inception was a big American funded film. Our thriller slightly relates to Inception, due to the dream sequence, therefore it may appeal to a wider audience, for example an American audience who may be interested in the representation of British actors and the locations. 4) Who would be the audience for your media product? Our target audience is from the ages 15 -20+. From the research, we had concluded that some people aged 15 still watch 18 rated films. Therefore, our BBFC rating for our thriller would be for 18+. Our target audience preferred the sub genres in a thriller to be an action and horror. From our research, we found that the most popular responses had said that they prefer a complex twist, with a lot of suspense and tension building up throughout the film.<br />3693160229870<br />We created this by using a 180° shot when the character is feeling faint, as this builds up suspense to the audience because they want to know what is happening, until he reveals what is on his foot. We focused on the music, by using atmospheric and upbeat music, to create the pace and tension that builds up. From our interviews, our audience preferred the locations to be realistic yet when having complex twists, having something different and unusual. Therefore, we had the house to be the main location. Whereas in the dream sequence, we made it seem as an abandoned place that creates an unrealistic atmosphere, and it would appeal to the audience. 5) How did you attract/address your particular audience? From the overall research of the interviews and questionnaires, we had gathered what our audience looked for in a thriller. Our audience look for something different that keeps them on edge when watching. The preferred type of thriller was horror and action which is what we made The Living Nightmare similar to. Our audience are also attracted by the acting. We have represented the Games Master as the villain, who is dominant over Sai. This is also emphasised on the colour of the clothing, as he is wearing all black, which represents him as being dark, evil and mysterious. This appeals to the audience, as 35667951971040it brings more suspense and mystery to it. This way they would be eager to find out who the Games Master is. <br />In the dream sequence the audience is able to feel sympathetic towards Sai as he is represented as being weak. We have a mid shot, showing his fear and how weak and helpless he is. We used a canted shot, when revealing Sai’s mum and dad who are unconscious. As Sai pleads for help, the voice over occurs, leaving the audience confused and questioning who the person talking is and figuring out who it could be. This is similar to the film Saw, and Phone Booth. We used quick shots of the villain on the swing, to give an insight of what he is like. We used a quick shot to leave the audience thinking who it can be as it slowly reveals who it is in the end. Also, the heartbeat and dramatic music creates the tension and builds up the confusion Sai is left in. From this, the audience is more likely to be drawn to it, as the music helps emphasise the action and horror. From our audience feedback, the audience were very impressed. The audience thought that the shots were very good, as we used a variety of different angles. The majority of people commented on the 180°, and how it was dramatic and built tension. Furthermore, our audience found the storyline interesting and different. They were very impressed by this as out film wasn’t based on a typical horror, therefore this mainly appealed to them. We also asked them about the soundtrack, and the audience found that the music really emphasised the acting and made it seem a lot more realistic. 6) What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product? <br />4312920262890When using the equipment, there were many advantages as well as disadvantages, which we did overcome. Trying to have the camera up straight, and not slanting to a canted angle was quite tricky; however we did overcome this and resolved it. I have learnt how to use Final Cut Pro through this process we got to use many features and effects to include in our final production. When filming the shot on TV, it was on manual focus so the camera doesn’t focus on the lighting too much. However, we also did other shots, experimenting with the TV, and automatic focus. We ended up using the manual focus shot, but had to change the lighting and make it darker when editing. We learnt how to change the effects on the camera, and how it can affect the type of shot. We had difficulty in getting the lighting correct when editing, but we got there in the end. Another problem we had was as the microphone on the camera picked up the dialogue, when adding the voice over into the shot, the dialogue from was louder than the voice over. However, we fixed this by making the voice over louder and lowering the dialogue. We used a separate microphone for the voice over, which we then recorded. In the future, we can get the voiceover to speak over the camera microphone; therefore -1225553422015it can pick up the voice better. We used a majority of music which helped create an atmospheric scene. We used a heartbeat which then slowly faded into a slow sympathetic music, changing and creating a sympathetic mood from one shot to another. At the beginning of our sequence, we used transitions when showing the opening titles. We used a black background with the logo, with then faded out and faded in the distributers of our production. We also used slugs, which we put in between a transition to show another opening title. This made the shot seem very smooth and professional. <br />347218052070<br />When we were blogging, we learned how to create and add new posts with information of our research on the thriller. We added pictures of when we were on the set and snap shots of our practical thriller. From this, we could make references to the work, and create a link to YouTube. This can let the people watch our final production. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctzgf0nNevs7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When planning our preliminary exercise, we had many different ideas and types of shots to use, and planned it out on a story board. However, it was a lot more difficult than we thought when actually doing the shots practically. There were problems on how to set the tripod up straight, so the camera wasn’t canted. We chose to have a parallel shot in one scene, however it got very difficult, and when in the edit suite, we decided to change it to a shot reverse shot. When editing, we realised that the continuity was not up to scratch, though it was our first time. We faced a few problems, by having jump cuts, and also by cutting the previous shots too late, leaving a long pause until the next shot. Overall, we did end up getting the hang of editing and learnt the basic skills needed when editing. During our thriller production, we had a lot more problems than expected. Yet, everyone in the group knew what needed to be done. From our script development, it helped us a lot when filming, because then we knew as a group what type of shots are needed.We were able to overcome our problems, which were discovered mainly when we looked over the work, and realised there were many continuity errors, and some shots were not up to good standard. This led us going back and re shooting the shots that needed a lot of improvement. In that moment of time, it became very stressful, however, when looking at the final produced piece, it was all well worth it. 146053810635We had the right suitable locations and actors, as well as props to produce a good quality, professional thriller opening sequence. We came up with many different angles shots, which came in handy when editing, when we had different shots to choose from to create a professional looking sequence. Compared to the preliminary exercise it was a lot of hard work, yet more creative because we didn’t stick to the script all the way long. During filming, we did change the type of shots used and started exploring with the ideas we had. Luckily, we were able to find good music which created a lot of tension and suspense throughout the sequence. For example, we used upbeat intense music, to create the tension and suspense building up to reveal something. Overall, our group worked very well, and even though at times we weren’t that organised, we did change that around and put a lot of effort into this production. We believe that our production was quite successful, and also seems quite professional.<br />Word count: 2963<br />