Davina Padhiar

Evaluation1) 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 thriller has many conventions and codes of a thriller genre.

Sai is the main character, and the hero of the film, 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 (2007). In Batman, the

audience could tell who the hero was as he was training. We

chose to have a different type of hero because from our survey

we found that our audience wanted something unique and different.

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 Evil Dead’ (1981) 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’ (1984) and ‘Inception’ (2010) because we wanted a horror and an

action mix to make the sequence unique. We got our ideas from the film ‘Nightmare on Elm

Street’, because the characters in the film don’t know whether they are sleeping or not. We also

used a similar conventional style in our story however with a more complex twist.

From our survey we got the idea to make a dream sequence with action, suspense and thrilling

horror. Our dream sequence is similar to ‘The Nightmare on Elm Street’ as Freddy is able to kill

people through their dreams. We also used this convention in our

sequence as the character of the Games Master can hurt and kill

people through their dreams. Another code and convention that

can be seen in our thriller is the use of a voice over. In our clip we

feature a voice over which isn’t revealed, keeping the audience

eager to find out who it is. The dream sequence which we created

has a bit of action in it, this is shown when 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 thriller is similar to ‘Inception’ (2010) as it too has a dream and action sequence.

Our thriller used static shots, impulse music and has a storyline that gripped our audience all of

which are typical codes of a thriller genre. In our clip Sai gradually figures out how to defeat the

Davina Padhiar

Games Master and stop him from killing his parents. The audience is introduced straight away to a

young shy boy, when Sai is being comforted by his mother. The fact that Sai is the hero is not

shown straight away to the audience because we want the audience to keep watching,

anticipating the next scene. This leaves the audience on edge which is an enigma code and a

typical thriller convention. Our thriller also has another typical convention; that is good vs. evil

and a hero fighting against the odds. This can be seen in the dream sequence when Sai is tied to a

chair, and the Games Master is talking with an evil voiceover showing that he has power over Sai.

When Sai comes into contact with the villain in the dream, the Games Master has bigger status

and power over Sai. This is shown from the way he is controlling Sai. This is in contrast to the

character of Damien in The Omen (1976). In the film, Damien is portrayed as an innocent young

boy when in reality he is evil, he is the Omen. The film is about a young boy, who is taken over by

the devil and becomes evil. However, in our film Sai is portrayed as being a typical innocent boy,

who then turns out to be the hero.

The location of our sequence is set in a house

which is a typical conventional code used in

thrillers. This is shown by an exterior shot to

show where the film is set. We used the back

garden as an abandoned place in our dream

sequence as it gives an insight of a mysterious

place. From this the audience can tell there are two completely different locations; one in reality

and the other in the dream. This is another conventional code that is seen in mainstream thrillers.

When editing, we found that the beginning of our sequence was too slow. As a result to create a

tense and sympathetic atmosphere, we used quick shots to build up the atmosphere. This

challenges conventions as it adds a lot of action to build suspense. When Sai is falling into a

trance, we used a close up shot of his face and had a heart beat sound which gets faster to build

tension. We used canted shots in the sequence to show typical conventional distortion and to

show atmosphere. We also added slow sympathetic music, which continuously plays until the

end of the dream to keep our film interesting. Again this is a typical convention used in thrillers as

in The Sixth Sense (1999), where a young boy is able to see dead people.

We opened our thriller sequence by having conventional titles. The film Logo ‘Teknequz Studios’

appear with a black background, which faded out and faded in. We then showed the distributers

‘Panther Film Presents’. Instead of the font sliding in or dissolving, we decided to fade it in and

out. When including the transition of the way our credits would appear on screen, I was inspired

Davina Padhiar

by The Strangers (2008) as it creates a more dramatic effect.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our social group is represented as a typical lower middle class family, with an Asian British

ethnicity. The father is more dominant over the mother and Sai, and is stereotypically portrayed

as being the head of the family. In one shot we see the father eager, looking at his watch and

being impatient thus showing his dominance.

Our thriller represents the male and female characters

in a stereotypical way. The father is the head of the

family and the mother is portrayed as the carer and

represents the modern British Asian family as we see

them in normal Western clothes. Our thriller has no

aspect of traditional Asian culture such as clothes,

language or religion. To begin with, our first shot of the

mother and Sai talking, we can 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 don’t

know that he is the hero of the film.

Age also takes a role in our sequence. The father is the oldest and dominant member of the

family, the mother listens to the father because of his age, and Sai listens to his mother as she has

a higher status due to her age.

Regional identity can also be seen in our feature. From the dialect of the characters voices, the

audience can interpret that they are from London.

In our thriller, we have used a British modern Asian family and

have not included any traditional representations of the Asian

culture such as traditional dressing, or language. This is in

contrast to ‘Bend it like Beckham’ (2002) which is about a

traditional British Asian family, and a girl who doesn’t follow her

parents’ traditions and runs off to Germany to play football. In

this film we can see many representations of the Asian culture,

such as the cultural dressing, the Asian music and the language

used from one to another.

Davina Padhiar

We see the representation of the male Games Master, only through voice. He is represented as a

very evil man, who likes to hurt and taunt people. He is shown to be a cold, heartless, psychotic

man.

The shot in the dream sequence where Sai is chained

up shows the Games Master with 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 short take

showing the Games Master sitting on the swing to

emphasis his power. He has come into their garden which also emphasis his power over Sai. The

Games Master appears on the swing in the first shot, until we see a flash of lightening. It then cuts

to the second shot, where the Games Master disappears making him appear like a ghost.

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 company, like ‘Pathe’ and ‘Entertainment Film

Distribution’. 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. Our feature would

be funded by the UK Film Council as it is a short feature film that would appeal to the UK

audience.

A UK distribution company may be interested in our thriller, as it appeals to a wider audience and

also has an interesting storyline. Our story is about good vs.

evil and uses typical conventions of a thriller such as gory

blood scenes, violence, twists and confusion throughout the

film. An example of a British Independent Film which has

become very successful is Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

directed by Danny Boyle. The film has a British Asian as its

lead actor and many unknown Asian actors as its cast.

Another successful British independent film is ‘The King’s Speech’ (2010). This film is a different

genre to our feature, has many well-known British actors such as Colin Firth, the storyline talks

about the Royal family and has an American actress to appeal to the American audience.

Our film would not appeal to a big Hollywood company as it does not have any American actors or

have any Computer Generated Imagery to create any special effects like Avatar (2009). Avatar

Davina Padhiar

cost $300 million to make. This film has spent a large amount of money towards their research, 3D

cameras and motion-capture tools to create the world of Avatar.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is from the ages 15 -20+. From our research, we

had concluded that some people aged 15 still watch 18 rated films on

DVD. For example, the film Saw (2004) is rated 18, although people at

the age of 15 would still watch it online or have access to a DVD.

The BBFC rating for our thriller would be 15. From our research we

found that our target audience preferred the sub genres in a thriller to

be an action and horror and thus we have included elements of

violence and gory scenes in our sequence. We also discovered that

most people preferred a complex twist, with a lot of suspense and tension throughout the film.

There are a lot of gory scenes in our thriller, 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.

5) How did you attract/address your particular audience? We created a 180° shot when the character is feeling faint, as this builds up suspense and the

audience can see what is happening. This technique also

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 with

complex twists, having something different and unusual.

Therefore, we decided to have the house as our main

location. Whereas in the dream sequence, we made it seem as it was an abandoned place. This

creates an unrealistic atmosphere, and would appeal to our audience.

From the overall research of the interviews and questionnaires, we had gathered what our

audience looked for in a thriller. We found that our audience preferred something that keeps

them on edge when watching. They preferred a thriller with horror and action which is what we

made our film 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

Davina Padhiar

audience, as it brings more suspense and mystery to the film. It also adds anticipation and makes

the audience eager to find out who the Games Master is. For example, in Phone Booth (2002), no

one knew the villain on the phone who was with the victim, and how he knew every detail of the

victim’s life. This kept the audience interested; they wanted to find out who the person on the

phone was, this was not revealed until the end.

In our 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. This was in the dream

sequence, when the Games Master was talking and it

showed that Sai couldn’t do anything as the Games

Master had more power over him. 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. This is similar to the film Saw

(2004). We got the idea of the Games Master, from the character of Jigsaw in the movie.

Similarities can also be found in the film ‘The Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984) as victims are

physically hurt in their dreams and it is happening in reality as well. Our villain also tortures

people. We used quick shots of the villain on the swing, to give an insight of what he is like, to

leave the audience thinking who it can be and to gradually reveal 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, we found that

audiences liked the film as they thought that the

camera 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. They were very impressed by the film as it wasn’t based on a

typical thriller, which 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.

Davina Padhiar

6) What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product? During our research we learnt how to use Google and YouTube in different ways. It helped us

learn more about the forms and conventions of a thriller. Along with this, to get an accurate result

of the questionnaire, we could produce pie charts and graphs to show our target audiences

responses.

When 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.

I have also learnt how to use Final Cut Pro during this process. We

got to use many features and effects in our final production. We

learnt to use fade in/out transitions to use in our video. We had also added a typewriter effect on

the credits when showing the distributers. When filming the shot on TV, it was on manual focus so

the camera did not focus very well. However, we tried other shots by experimenting with the TV,

and automatic focus. We learnt how to use manual focus and auto exposure, to change the

lighting and make it darker when editing. We accomplished getting the lighting correct even

though we found it difficult. There were aspects such as lighting, sound and dialogue which

required a lot of effort however I believe we

achieved a good standard.

We were not successful in the lighting, as the

footage shown on TV is still at a bright focus.

I had also learnt how to get the timing of the

shots and record it onto the log in sheet. This

helped us because we could look back at a

certain time and pick out the shot we want

to use.

Another problem we had was that the microphone on the camera picked up the dialogue off

camera. When adding the voice over into the sequence, the dialogue on screen from the dream

sequence was louder than the voice over. However, we learnt how to improve this by using the

dubbing facility; it fixed this by making the voice over louder and lowering the dialogue. In the

future, we will use the same microphone for all our sequences and is something we have learnt.

Davina Padhiar

We decided to use a piece of music from a CD, which we then learnt how to import it onto Final

Cut Pro and add it to our sequence. However, we then decided not to use the music. Nonetheless

I have learnt useful skills on how to import music from a CD to the computer. Another facility on

Final Cut Pro I have learnt is how to add music to the timeline which helped to create an

atmospheric scene. I also learnt how to use

incidental music, such as a slow paced

heartbeat which slowly faded into a slow

sympathetic music called ‘Changlet’. We used

this because we wanted to create a

sympathetic mood when changing from one

shot to another.

At the beginning of our sequence, we learnt how to use transitions. During the opening titles such

as the names of the distributors, we used a typewriter affect. We chose a black background with

the logo, which 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. Fade in/out was also used when the credits appeared on

screen throughout. At the same, we used a Ripple transition when Sai was falling into his dream.

I also learnt how to blog on Blogger.com. 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. I had also learnt how to change the

background of our blog page and get it to a certain theme similar to our movie. 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=Ctzgf0nNevs

7) 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 on the 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 action sequence (split-scene) in one scene.

Davina Padhiar

However it got very difficult, to make the camera level 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, even though it was our first time. We faced a few problems, such as having jump cuts, cutting the previous shots too late and leaving a long pause until the next shot. Overall, we did end up getting the hang of editing and learnt the basic skills. We had learnt how cut in and out of shots, to make it start at a certain time when adding it onto a timeline. We found that the main shots used, were close-ups of the reactions used to build up tension. This links to thrillers as we can use close ups of something to create a scary and tense atmosphere.

During our thriller production, we had a lot more problems than expected. Yet, everyone in the group knew what needed to be done. We came up with the script, by describing our initial ideas and talking through it. Our script development helped us a lot when filming, because then we knew as a group what type of shots were needed. I learnt that we wouldn’t always rely on the script, because as we went along we came up with different ideas of the shots used, which weren’t included in the script.

We were able to overcome many of our technical problems, such as the lighting from the TV that was over exposed. When looking over our work during editing, we had realised that there were many continuity errors and some shots were not up to standard. This occurred in the scene when Sai is revealing what was under his sock. This wasn’t successful because there was a continuity error where his leg went from one leg to another. This led us going back and re shooting the shot. AT that moment of time, it became very stressful, however, now looking at the final produced piece, it was all well worth it.

Compared to the preliminary exercise it was a lot of hard work, yet more creative. 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.

Word count: 3, 757