Q1 - How does your media product use, develop or challenges forms and conventions of real media product?

I have decided to compare our thriller opening The Return to another thriller opening called Panic Room. I have chosen to compare our film with Panic Room because they both have a narrative opening.




 Also, as our thriller opening challenges the traditional way of opening a thriller, using a narrative title sequence, I thought it was a good idea to compare it to a the conventions of a real thriller.
In order to make the differences clearer, I have made a little montage of both videos.

As you may see, our opening sequence challenges Panic Room in several ways. Panic Room have Columbia as their distribution/production company. As our film is an independent student film, it is produced by our college's studio City And Islington College Studios.

Panic Room have their title shown right at the start of their opening sequence, while ours is at the end. Also, they have started their opening sequence with an establishing shot of New York when we have immediately started our opening with the story.

Our thriller also challenges the conventions used by Panic Room by using a wide range of shots. While they only have establishing shots and a long shot at the end, we have used mid-shots, close ups, long-shots... But this is mainly due to the fact that they have decided to start their opening sequence with establishing shots.