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

A typical convention that you would find on a film poster, establishing the actors.

In terms of using actors, originally we planned to use established drama students but we did not have time to plan around their schedules as they were always really busy, or we could have been shooting scenes whilst they were busy in lessons or after school. Therefor we found it more beneficial to use ourselves, other media students in our class and people who were not busy during free periods as we did not want to disturb people during their frees if they were doing homework or coursework. We came to the conclusion that we (the directors) would be the main stars of the film.

The positioning of the actors on the poster was also vital as I had to make it look like a psychological thriller and that it would stick to the conventions of the genre and would have comparisons to other films in this genre such as "Shutter Island"

This draws close comparisons with "Shutter Island" as it has similar body language and facail expressions which inter-links the iconography between them. However, it challenges the "Shutter Island" poster as the colour schemes are brighter and the ages of the stars are significantly younger. It was important that our stars were so much younger due to audiences of our age being able to relate to the film and draw comparisons with it. It was also really vital in terms of while the actors were young in the film, it allows young people to empathise with the characters, instead of usually in the psychological thriller genre, actors are older and more established, such as Leonardo DiCaprio in "Shutter Island". In this way it does challenge the conventions of psychological thrillers and creates its own niche amongst the genre.

With making the actors younger than a typical psychological thriller we have given my film a unique selling point which has differentiated itself from the conventions of a normal psychological thriller. The uniqueness of the film has utilised a gap in this genre and it has filled it by showing a different side to this genre (adolescent side). Hopefully this has given it its own identity whilst capable of sticking with the conventions of a typical psychological thriller.

This scene highlights Jack's blank expression and it reflects on his state of mind that he is unable to move forward after the death.

Furthermore, along with the uniqueness of the film, we managed to give the film a emotional selling point as the audience feel sorry for my character in the film as they see him coping badly with the death as he continues to blame himself, even though it was not his fault Stephen was killed in the accident. Therefore the message is really felt by the audience that they would like Jack to get over it as they see him suffering for something he could not have changed as he walks around school with a blank expression and people are concerned for his well being.