A2 exam question 1b - Narrative

The media production I’m going to be talking about in relation to narrative is my second media product. This is a short film called “Lucid Dreams” created in a Drama style. This chosen genre thus required that our story would have a main character, where upon situations would occur which could heighten tension. We tried to make this as realisitic as poosible by targeting a teenager audience. Firstly, the film opens with the protagonist in his bedroom taking an unknown drug. The main character at this point in the film is shown as an imperfect and strange character as his bedroom is bare with strange lighting and the use of drugs.  After this, the character is shown walking out and around town disillusioned by the drug and the girl, and he is sent into a dream like state in a field where he finally catches up with the girl. at this point it is shown that, as he was walking out of his house, he was really run over. Its a bleak and blunt ending, but it tests our audience as we edited this subtly. The film does challenge many of the conventions of narrative. There is no seeming structure to the film, for example Gustav Freytag believed that many narratives follow the structure of Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action & Denouement/Catastrophe/Resolution. I like the way me and Ben have created something that is original in its structure and editing. We chose barely any dialogue, which made the audience focus more on the storyline and image. The music carried some of the meaning of our piece, as some of the lyrics fitted the characters mood. The song by Animal Collective was well selected. "And I -
I should be floating but I'm weighted by thinking" We chose this carefully as it reflected our mood of the piece.
 As 'Lucid Dreams' is created in a Suspense style, meaning that the events are dramaticed for effect and meaning. No dialogue is used, this does not follow Freytag’s suggested narrative conventions.
Overall, Lucid Dreams focuses on telling narrative through images and building suspense as the character spirales out of control . The film does not fit into narrative conventions in some ways as there is the sense of bad overcoming good in the story, along with the dramatic  and tragic climatic ending. The ending however is not resolved, nor, for example, is it explained how he got run over, or why he was day dreaming. This is because the genre for the film is Drama style, thus I chose to tell narrative in a different and interesting way.