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

My media opening scene uses some of the classic conventions of the rom-com genre such as the typical couple going through a bad situation involving sadness, shouting and arguing. My opening scene details a break up which is a common factor of romantic comedies and used in many typical films of this genre. my opening does not really challenge forms and conventions of romantic comedies. My scene uses close ups and point of view shots which makes you see what the character is going through, through their eyes which is quite a personal touch. This would make the audience relate to the character a lot more. I decided to use these in my opening scene so the audience will feel sympathy for Kevin and grow to like him. I have looked at many other films in the romantic comedy genre pretty much all of the films follow the same codes and convention so I decided to stick to similar codes and conventions as these particular films.  Some of the films I looked at was 'When Harry Met Sally', '50 First Dates',' Notting Hill' which contain particular conventions such as the 'boy meets girl' scenario and the protagonist falling in love, like in the film '50 First Dates' the protagonist, Henry, falls in love with Lucy.

The majority of films in the romantic comedy genre follow Todorov's theory which follows five stages of a film which are the following:

1. A stage of equilibrium at the start. (Things are stable and balanced in the lives of the characters.)

2.A disruption of the equilibrium by some action or conflict. (Something happens which throws things out of balance.)

3. Theres a recognition that there has been a disruption. ( The characters realize something is wrong and they need to take action to fix it.)

4. There is an attempt to restore the disruption. (the characters take action to fix what has gone wrong.)

5. Equilibrium is reinstated. (The problem is fixed and the balance is returned to the characters lives.)

And my opening scene basically follows the same five steps but just skips the first stage because we stat the scene off with Kevin losing his girlfriends which has no equilibrium but from then on follows the same format as the theory.

Also a lot of the films I looked at, the opening scene created good enigma which left me wanting to know what happens, so it made me et stuck in to the film and carry on watching it. My scene creates good enigma seeing as the viewer would want to know what happens to Kevin and his love life. The only element of the genre we challenged was probably the class in which the characters are in with that being middle class. Most of the films i looked at, the characters were doing well for themselves and are mainly high class such as 'Notting Hill' 'Five Weddings And A Funeral' but we are going for middle which is different to most rom-coms  and adds a slight unique feel to our film.

My opening scene will be middle class because the elements that put it in to this catergory is the location. Its not near any where such as Notting Hill or Chelsea and does not look as good as that area. the characters costume portraits them as being middle class seeing as we are not wearing a smart shirt with a blazer and trousers, my film just has Kevin wearing jeans shorts and a T-shirt.