The Portrayal of Claustrophobic Behaviours and Events in Film

Abstract

The recent outbreak of Covid-19 as a global pandemic has taken a toll on people worldwide. Based on an article from Malaysiakini, the number of calls to the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) increases significantly everyday indicating the large community who faces emotional and psychological distress during these hard times. Some have even related the situation as claustrophobic events. For creative content creators, claustrophobia can be an attractive story but requires different and complex techniques of presenting it. Therefore, in order to effectively inform amateur filmmakers on claustrophobia, this research focuses on the claustrophobic events portrayed in four nominated or award-winning films which simulates real claustrophobic events. The target audience for this research will be focused on amateur filmmakers and young content makers who are a vessel to help educate audiences on claustrophobia in a right manner. It is important to do a critical analysis on how successfully films have relayed this message to their audience with their visuals alongside with relatable stories and characters. Film has the ability to bring spotlight to claustrophobia for it is a perfect tool of education and definitely for entertainment, escaping from reality. This is supported in a Forbes article where it claims that there is an increased consumption of digital content from mobile apps to movie and music streaming due to the world’s population under lockdown. By studying how films portray the message of claustrophobia, it will help amateur film makers and short film content makers to have further information to relay their message effectively to their audience.