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

I think our film opening does defiantly challenge forms and conventions of real media products!
When we got given the task we wanted to make our product something different to other ordinary Thriller films. Thriller was the best genre to pick for my partner and I as we wanted to create a sense of enigma. The enigma was created with the man playing 'The Agoraphobic' not wanting to leave his house and the mystery being for the viewer to think why not? and what has happened to him in his past?

When looking at different movies some Thrillers have used colour grading to create a sense of thrill to the movie. For example 'The Stepfather'. Previously when I was analysing the film opening I noticed that colour grading had been used to make us think that the character is doing wrong even though not much has been revealed about him within the first 2 minutes. My partner and I then thought this would be a great opportunity to incorporate colour grading into our own piece. As the man is suffering for Agoraphobia he's physically and emotionally not in right state of mind therefore the 'dull, dark' colours express that he is in fact depressed and living life on the edge.

Similarly Mise-en-scene plays a contribution to revealing more about the character and his condition. For example, his scruffiness of his unshaved face, messy hair and slouchy clothes show that he has nobody to impress and has given up with looking after himself as his condition has gotten to much for him to handle therefore he's let it take over his life. With the house looking cluttered and the bright garish colour of the kitchen cabinets implies that his furniture is outdated and that he hasn't been keeping up with what's in fashion as he in fact doesn't know. Going back to the way the character looks we wanted him to stereotypically look like somebody who is suffering from a mental illness therefore no makeup has been used in his face, in fact the lighting has been made to look dull so it reflects his weakness of physical body. We wanted it look like life has be drained out of him.

In conclusion the enigma has been created between the character and us. As the clip never fully explains to why the man is looking at looks of books and maps we can only assume that he is trying to overcome his illness however its still a mystery to us. There is also another section which leaves us clueless in which being the moment when a mysterious package arrives at the door. The jumpiness of shots and unanswered questions creates the enigma.

Challenging conventions of real media products
From my research I found out that not many films have decided to base their story lines off of 'Agoraphobia'  this in facet could be a good thing and a bad thing.
As not many film companies have explored the illness it would be a new thing in which my partner and I can bring to the film industry. It wold mean more people would have a chance to learn about the illness as I feel that the majority of teens and above are clueless to what its actually about and how people can feel imprisoned by it. I also think from releasing it will raise awareness and make sufferers feel that they are not alone and can turn to help to cure it.
However, what we found challenging is to think if people would actually want to watch it. Maybe the reason why film producers have not looked the illness may be because its a dead part of the industry, some people would rather see a common illness such as amnesia and OCD as its in their comfort zone and they think they'll understand it more compared to agoraphobia.

Together me and my partner Cordelia thought we would add in lots of jumpy shots. When we showed some viewers most of them would comment on the flickering shots, being that they were too confusing and too much to handle. However, after we explained to them the reason being why we added the shots to express the anxiety and jumpiness of the man they then agreed to what we said and viewed the opening in a whole new perspective to what they initially viewed it as being.