Evaluation Question 1

Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The generic conventions we used for our media product were mainly mystery and paranormal, these are generic conventions of a Thriller genre and we portrayed mystery through the use of making the film start as if it is halfway through a story line so the audience ask questions the whole way through the film. Paranormal was used as we tried to make the camera look like it was a ghost so they audience feel like they are watching Ethan, we did this by using an over the shoulder shot near the start and the tracking round the corner and through the hallway, these shots give the film the paranormal look. It goes against a generic convention of following one person as we have 3 main characters.

Our film is similar to films such as The Sixth Sense (1999) because it talks about a child who is mentally ill and can see dead people, our piece is similar because Ethan is mentally ill and he also sees his dead brother. Other similarities include the use of many naturalistic lighting shots such as in our piece making it seem real and natural. The way that the boy acts and is dressed are similar to ours because he acts mature and dresses in quite plan dull clothes such as in our piece. It is also similar in the use of characters, having a male, female and young male to be the stand out three characters same as ours.

Differences between them include how The Sixth Sense has a more of a horror feel whereas we wanted to make it mysterious we did this by the use of sound.  It is also different in the kind of shots used as we focused more on mid shots and close ups where as, The Sixth Sense uses more 2 shots and long shots. It is also different in the use of following 3 different characters and story lines. It is also different in the use of actors from different countries as we tried to appeal to more of a mass audience.



Our film has been majorly influenced by films such as The Sixth Sense and Pain Is Beautiful (2012) because they both are psychological thrillers and one focuses on a disease in Pain Is Beautiful where William has a mental disease and can't feel any emotion such as Ethan in our piece where he can't feel any emotion. Ours was also influenced by The Sixth Sense on how Ethan can see dead people such as the young boy in The Sixth Sense.