Paranormal Activity

Compare the impact and the effectiveness of the Paranormal Activity’s film and poster

 

 The purpose of the poster and the trailer is to advertise but in different methods. They both try to tell you a narrative and give you hint to what the film is about. They both use synergy to relate to each other like the same bedroom and actors.

 The poster is separated into three parts. The top part is black and has connotations of darkness and horror. The text is in white bold text to catch your attention; it says ‘Paranormal Activity is one of the scariest movies of all time’ which is praising the film. It also says ‘you will be affected as it’s hard to ignore’ is also praising the film and suggesting you should watch it. ‘Nightmares are guaranteed’ suggests the film is a must watch horror movie. They’ve used the generic elements to make it look real and to appeal the horror fans. The review is also from the famous website bloody-disgusting who are well known for reviewing horror movies, so the horror fans will know this is a good recommendation.

The middle part of the poster shows you a man and a woman in bed. This suggests that they’re the main characters in the film. The woman is pointing at the shadow on the door like someone is there and not supposed to be there. It makes you wonder what it is or what is going to come through the door. The mise-en-scene is dark and that suggests that something bad is going to happen to them. Their facial expressions make them look scared and worried like someone is in there room with them. The door is open and the woman is pointing at the door which suggests that someone or something is going to come through the door. The man looks protective of the woman because he is reaching over to her and trying to protect her. The woman is young, attractive and dressed in her nightclothes, so she looks like a stereotypical vulnerable female victim. The time at the bottom of the picture suggests that it’s late at night and that’s when paranormal activity usually happens. The image is recorded by a camcorder which makes you wonder if it’s based on a true story or if it’s like a documentary.

The bottom half of the poster has a black background like the top half of the poster. The bottom half has the title in red and the font is smudged to represent blood, it’s the biggest and the brightest text on the poster to catch your attention. The title stands out the most because the rest of the poster has no bright colour to it. It asks you a rhetorical question, ‘What happens when you sleep?’ and you can see them in bed late at night which makes you want to find out what happens in the movie. ‘Don’t see it alone’ suggests that it’s a must see movie but it’s that scary you can’t see it alone. It could also be a way of making money because people will bring their friends along.

You can also demand it in your area by visiting the website which helps them make more money. You can see the name of company who made the movie and some other information at the bottom as well. There are no names of the actors or director so this keeps up the illusion that the film shows real events.

 

 https://youtu.be/F_UxLEqd074

The trailer starts off with a state of equilibrium so it a bright, happy, suburban home. It’s filmed by a camcorder so it suggests that it’s like a documentary, to make it seem more frightening if it’s really happening. The camera tilts so this implies something is wrong and you hear a man saying he’s filming. The camera turns to woman called Katie who is showing a bit of flesh and the camera is looking down at her which suggests that she is vulnerable. She’s making jewellery; she’s young and attractive so she is a stereotypical woman doing a female pastime. The man who is called Micah is possessive over the woman so he represents himself as the man of the house and represents her as being weak.

Micah says his girlfriend Katie thinks there’s a ghost in the house. He says it like he doesn’t believe her and is doing this just to prove her wrong so he is sceptical. While he is saying this he is looking at himself in the mirror with the camera, the camera is looking up at him making himself look strong and powerful like he is in control.

There’s a quick fade to black and time passes, the mise-en-scene is now dark which suggests that something bad is going to happen. He says ‘Doors locked alarms on’. The locked doors represents that they are trapped and he starts putting white powder down in front of the stairs and while he’s doing that the frame of the door makes him look trapped.

There’s another quick fade to black and you can see at the bottom of the screen the time has changed. They’re in bed and the mise-en-scene is very dark and quiet now which suggests something is going to happen. The door is wide open and it makes you think something is going to come through. It dissolves to a later time and you hear footsteps both of them wake up. It cuts to Micah’s point of view with the camera and it shows you the footsteps in the white powder. He then says that the footprints are only going in the room and not back out which suggests that whatever walked through the powder is still in there with them, setting the scene for the audience

There’s a shocking forzando and the screen looks like there’s interference on it and then goes to a title card saying ‘one of the scariest movies of all time’ which is praising the film. It’s also from a popular website called bloody disgusting what does reviews on horror films, and their recommendation will be important for fans of the genre.

The next sequence is them panicking and you can hear a paranormal investigator say ‘You cannot run from run from this because it will find you’. This makes you want to see it even more because it makes it sound like an exciting film. The camera looks down at the woman making her look vulnerable and scared. There’s a non-diegetic sound of a heartbeat that is representing the victims panicking.

Another title card ‘freaky and terrifying’. It is also from a popular website called Weekly Entertainment and they review big popular films, so the audience think the cases are related.

In the next sequence Micah looks at the computer and he finds an image of a mark that Katie has. There’s a flash image of the marks the woman has and it shows you the reaction from Katie, so the audience think the cases are related.

The next sequence is the man picking the woman up from the floor. As he does this you can see the marks on her leg. Its makes you want to see how she got the marks and who or what is causing them trouble. He says ‘it looks like something bit you’ as he is picking her up, so the audience wonder what ‘it’ is

There’s a quick fade to black and title card ‘Experience it’ shows up. At this point of the trailer you know what the films about and now you want to know why it’s so big. You start hearing voices getting louder and louder as there’s a montage of clips to build excitement.

Everything goes silent and it shows you the couple sleeping. There’s a non-diegetic sound of someone walking, it raises suspense because you can see no one is moving. Then you see the bed sheets lift up like someone is climbing in with them. There’s a crescendo building up then all of a sudden the door slams shut loudly to shock the audience

It finally shows you what the film is called and the title becomes disjointed, as if he’s been disrupted by paranormal activity. Everything goes silent again and all you can hear is Katie saying ‘Please’ over and over again and the final scare is someone flying towards the camcorder to knock it over. The camera shows the fan spinning to suggest that the footage is real and a forzando underlines the shock for the audience.

It ends with the credits, the release date and where you can find more information about it. There’s also text at the top saying ‘you demanded it’ suggesting that it’s popular and you can click the link on the website to demand it in your area.

I think the trailer is more effective because the trailer gives more information about what the film is about. The poster gives you an idea what type of genre the film is going to be. The trailer and the poster show the same iconographic imagery of a documentary like film so it’s from real footage of ‘Paranormal Activity’. Both of them would be much bigger marketing campaign if they used the film’s website as a hub.

how does the opening sequence of x-files: squezze

Adam Wilson How does the opening sequence of X files: Squeeze? This episode is about a man who murders 4 people every fifty years to have their liver and hibernates until the next fifty years come along. There are two FBI agents Scully and Mulder who try and hunt him down. The murder gets yellow eyes whenever he sees his victim and covers his tracks but takes one personal object from the victim. Every episode of X files begins in the same fashion with a murder or abduction so the audience expect what is going to happen. It uses conventions of horror, thriller, science-fiction and some different happens but it’s always weird. The opening shot is an extreme long high angled shot pan of Baltimore, Maryland with a sunset in the background. This suggests that it’s getting dark and when it’s dark you usually expect something bad is going to happen. There’s a dissolved shot to go into shot two. Shot two is a high shot of a man; this suggests that someone who is watching him is singling him out so he is the murderer’s victim. There’s a series of editing when it’s changing between the man and the pathway but it get closer to the pathway every time it changes, the director is trying to indicate that there is someone watching the man under the pathway. As the sequence comes to an end the man is about to step into his car and the image is slowed down and de saturated this means the murder has chosen his victim. The close-up of the yellow eyes under the pathway is meant to suggest that the murderer is not any normal murderer. The sound in this sequence builds up the pulsating sound to cover up the diegetic sound. As the camera closes up on the eyes the sound builds up. The next sequence he walks into the building, it doesn’t show what’s around him. This could mean that there’s someone around him, it also doesn’t show what’s behind him then it jump cuts straight to where he comes out the elevator. When he comes out the elevator it shows a red light, the red light suggests that something bad is going to happen. When he walks out the elevator it shows what’s behind him and the camera does a close up shot so were limited to what we see. Then the man walks around the corner to his office but the camera starts following him from behind to make it look like someone is following him. When he comes out the elevator it shows a red light, the red light suggests that something bad is going to happen. It also shows the cable shaking; this suggests that the killer is slowly climbing up. The man walks into his office; they do this because they don’t want you to see the killer. When he sits down there’s little light so it looks like he surrounded by darkness. His facial expressions show that he is tired and he’s had a long day. There’s more evidence that he’s had a bad day when he picks the phone up and tries to ring his wife his wife. His wife doesn’t pick up so he leaves a message saying he’s had a bad day. He walks back out his office to make a cup of coffee, the editing is used to build up the tension by closing up on the man’s face so we can’t see what’s around him, it cuts to the vent and you faintly hear someone breathing, the strew on the vent starts slowly starts unscrewing, it falls out and a hand pops out of the vent. It’s clear now that he is the target so it focuses on him. You can tell that something bad is going to happen as he walks into the pitch black office. The crescendo builds the tension up because you know the killer is in the office. The door slams behind so you can’t see what happens and so you can’t see the killer because its pitch black. All you can see is the door handle is rapidly moving and then the door get smashed and the sound dies down. The next scene it slowly moves across the table and shows all his things and if you look back you realise the little globe is gone, this will come back later on in the episode. It also shows the face of the man dead and he looks yellow like the murders eyes. It eventually shows the killer going back through the vent but you don’t see who it is.

The Very First Wilhelm Scream

This is the very first Wilhelm scream.

The Wilhelm Scream Compilation

These are examples of the Wilhelm scream. Its in many movies like star wars, toy story and Indiana Jones. The first film it was used in was Distant Drums.

The Wilhelm Scream Compilation

sound

Sound effects from adam_wilson

Editing

Editing helps to construct a narrative. it cuts out the boring activities into quick burst. An example of editing is the assassination scene in North by North-West between Rodger Thronhill apartment and the United Nations there are 27 scenes in total. Editing can be used to create excitement and tension for example the shower scene in psycho when Marion dies the pace slows down as if her life is slowly leaving us.




Transitions



Dissolve:

One scene dissolves into another, overlapping for a moment



Fade out/Fade in:

One scene fades out to black completely, then another fades in



Wipes:

One scene wipes across the screen, revealing or replacing the next one. This can happen in any

direction



Iris:

The next scene replaces the last by appearing from the centre like the iris of an eye



Jump cuts:

Two scenes that feature a common element right after one another, so something stays the

same but the rest changes. This is used for disorienting or comedy effect.