Task 7- The Cross Platform Idea
Nightmares is an interactive thriller exploring the relationship between our nightmares and reality and is set around a new experimental clinic for extreme sleep disorders.
What happens while you sleep?
Targeted at 18 to 30 year old fans of horror and thrillers, the full narrative will play out over the internet through blogs, vlogs, the website, social networks, and also on television. The TV element will work as a standalone series not reliant on the internet content. There will also be a gaming element as fans battle it out to work out the full story from clues across all of the platforms.
Starting initially with targeted blogs while the project is developed, these will then lead people to the website which is set up as an institute for experimental sleep therapy. Users would be encouraged to log in, watch fake video’s of people with extreme sleep disorders, share their worse nightmare experiences and chat on a forum, and use photo-fit technology to draw reoccurring faces from their dreams. All content would be available to share through your social networks. Some of the stories and photo’s posted on the site will be woven into the latter TV element as a unique talking point.
The ‘institute’ would then announce the dates of its first televised sleep clinic via the website, email and on social networking groups, while rumours are planted across the forums warning that something is going to happen.
The eight-part TV series is set in a Sleep Clinic where there are 6 patients with a range of seriously strange sleep disorders, plus various odd specialist doctors and nurses. On the second night of the trial a patient is found dead and all the security footage is damaged. The ward is locked down and the police called in. The stress and trauma plays havoc with the other patient’s symptoms. Nightmares and reality become confused and as the specialists and police try to piece together what happened they start to struggle with their own night terrors. There will be many sleepless nights ahead before it becomes clear what happened.
As the TV show rolls out, the website will encourage viewers to help solve the case by piecing together evidence from extra footage, back stories, puzzles, the forums, the original blogs and more, with a prize for the winner. The TV series concludes with a resolution, but one of the doctors remains unsure and the story continues online for a period of time with their video diaries, until they too mysteriously disappear (possibly around the time that the DVD is released and the truth unveiled). Alternatively the ending could be left open for the fans to continue their speculation, or for the possibility of a follow up series.
I’m Jim, I’m 19 and a student. I love horror films and thrillers and spend a lot of time on websites talking to other fans about films, books, TV and anything a bit creepy. Someone posted a video on one site of this women who acts real strange in her sleep, a bit like that girl from Paranormal Activity. The video led me to this site with loads more videos of people who do some crazy shit in their sleep, one man looked totally possessed! Anyway I got chatting on the forums there and saw there’s going to be a TV show. Someone on the forum reckons something real bad is going to happen. Can’t wait!
Visual Treatment- What the website might look like.
I’m Liz, I’m 26 and teacher. I don’t use the internet all that much but my brother told me on facebook to check out this Nightmare website ‘cos I used to have night terrors when I was younger and do some really strange things. I was quite intrigued by the site, there’s a disclaimer saying its not a real but I did watch one of the videos and had a quick look at the gallery of faces from peoples dreams, one looked freakishly similar to someone who also popped up in my night terrors. Its crazy the things we are capable of when we sleep. I’ll check out the TV show when it’s on and I might even go back on next week and share some of my old terrifying dreams.
The cross-platform nature of this story is perfect for the horror/thriller genre as there is already a massive existing online community of fans and followers who are very passionate and dedicated and more likely to involve themselves in the concept.
Thrillers and ‘who dunnits’ are also common television formats, and this sort of psychological thriller would appeal outside of the target demographic.
Task 8 – The Online Promotional Strategy
Target existing fanbases
Create a following through blogs and twitter
Use videos hosted by existing platforms such as Vimeo or YouTube.
Connect to more Social Networks and establish groups to keep people updated.
Email everyone who registered with the website to make sure they know when then the TV shows on and the subsequent 'who dunnit' challenge
Continue the story after the TV series has ended with video diaries
This is pretty good! The personas are quite well-used and the mock-ups of what we see on each screen are really nicely done and helpful.
If you had done an NABC analysis, we would know a bit more about suitability for demographics, benefits to users and potential funders. A timeline would also help to show when each element comes on-stream and for how long.
The 7 secs/7mins/7 days is a good way of demonstrating the stickiness of the proposal.
But this could be fun and engaging.