Thursday, 7 October 2010

TEASER TRAILER ANALYSIS: Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity 2 is due to be released and the end of October 2010. Last year the first Paranormal Activity was released in America. Made on an extremely low budget of $15,000 the movie was produced independently by Oren Peli in his own home. Acquired later on by Paramount/ DreamWorks the horror movie was released worldwide. The film received a massive $193,311,485 in revenue, making it the most profitable film of all time.
First of all we are introduced to the certification of the film which is shown for a lengthy period, and advises people under the age of 17 to be accompanied by an adult. Real life footage shows people walking into the cinema and settling in with their attention to the main screen. At the bottom left text appears continuously to explain briefly to the viewer of the unexplained actions. The movie starts and we are introduced to the two main characters who discuss these freaky events that are happening to one of them at night. We are then moved on to the horror where unnatural and unexplainable events take event. The trailer at this point has frequent slides where there is just text, and then we are shown the movie action followed by the audience’s reaction. This editing pattern is continually going on, and speeds up to a much faster rate revealing more unnatural footage. This is then stopped at a sudden Holt signifying the end; the ending reveals the title ‘Paranormal Activity’ in the font style adopted by the film. The footage of the film is recorded mostly on video camera, and the hand held technique adds the effect that the drama actually happened, as photos in the movies fall off the walls. With edits non-diegetic generated sound effects are used for emphasis. The video camera microphone isn’t high tech and a great piece of technology to make a film with, however it grabs the attention of the audience as everything sounds so realistic.
The second word in the title (activity) jolts with lighting action and so does the edits during the ending. The edits are emphasized with heavy slams to add effect and to scare the audience at the intense moments.
Audience
The target audience for this teaser trailer I think would be aged 15 to 40 both male and female. The certification of the film is 15 so the film should automatically not be targeted to any below the age group. I would also say that the target audience would equal proportion of male to female. This film is shown to only people over the age of 15, as children may fear aspects of horror; jumping objects and edits, sound emphasis effects and unsuitable footage and language. By legislation standards it is enforced to age certificate the film and to make it clear at the start of the trailer/film, which on this exemplar does so.
Mise en scene
The teaser trailer includes elements that indicate the horror genre, these elements being part of mise en scene. First of which being the setting; a house is used as the main setting which follows stereotypical guidelines of a horror genre, as houses tend to be haunted. The caption is record at night, for the spooky ghost and spirit themed storyline. The lighting is low key to be specific.
Editing
Throughout the trailer straight cutting edits are mostly used, however emphasized by something else. This emphasis maybe made up from non-diegetic sound effects, that in effect boosts the horror in the frame. Another way to scare the audience is to speed the edits ups and change an edit at an unexpected time.

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