CASE STUDY - Paranormal Activity (2007)

'Paranormal Activity' (2007) directed by Oren Peli

Synopsis: After a young, middle class couple moves into a suburban 'starter' tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to...

Who is it aimed at?
This movie was rated 15 and over because it contains some strong language, moderate horror, intense scenes and moderate supernatural themes
How did it attract attention?
Its unsual camerawork and low budget attacted a big audience because it looked different to all other horror/thrillers.
The film earned nearly $108 million at the U.S. box office and $194 million worldwide.
Reviews?
Paranormal Activity received mix reviews,
An average of 7/10 people from Rotten Tomatoes enjoyed the film and gave it good feedback and reviews.
Roger Ebert from the sunday times claims
'It illustrates one of my favorite points, that silence and waiting can be more entertaining than frantic fast-cutting and berserk f/x. For extended periods here, nothing at all is happening, and believe me, you won't be bored.'
On the other hand, Australian film critic finds "it was extremely unthrilling, very obvious, very cliched. We've seen it all before."
The film was nominated for ;Best First Feature' in the Independednt Spirit Awards 2009.
This film was so successful 'Paranormal Activity 2' is coming out in cinemas October 22nd 2010!

'An American Werewolf in London' and '28 Days Later'

Using your notes, write a comparison of the different ways in which the two openings define themselves as horror films.

An American Werewolf in London (1981) directed by John Landis

Opening credits:

Deserted landscape until a car drives down the road. You meet the two main characters, they are young American men. They walk the rest of the way and enter 'The Slaughtered Lamb' pub where it then goes quiet. The villagers at the pub warn the two men to 'stay on the path' and 'beware the moon'. The dialogue here adds to the horror genre of the film. The Americans ignore their warnings and walk through fields instead, the notice its a a full moon and it starts raining.

 

28 Days Later (2002) directed by Danny Boyle

 

Opening credits: .

Jump cuts move through the setting. A panning shot informs us the scene is set in a Primary Research Centre Lab in Cambridge, England.The audience see violent images on TV screens, you notice monkeys in cages and one tied to a table forced to watch the images on the screens. The dark setting adds to the horror genre. 3 English animal protesters enter shocked by what they see. They dialogue, full of swearing also adds to the film genre. A lab scientist notices the 3 protesters and attempts to ring the alarm. One of the 3 violently stops the scientist and warns him not to make a move. They intend to free the monkeys from the lab but are informed that the animals are infected with rage. They don't listen to him and the women character begins to open a cage, she is jumped on by an infected monkey and is pushed to the floor. As the others attempt to help her, blood splatters on the floor and walls. The blood, violence and disease theme are all conventions of the horror film genre.

Comparison:

Both opening credits can relate to the horror genre as they both include blood, warnings through dialogue and victims from animals. They are both set in England but in different places and are set in different times. 28 Days Later is more modern, this is because of the language and also the mise-en-scene (research lab).
In the first 5 minutes, both films open with at least one person being victimised by an animal. But in 28 Days Later, the first victim is a women, in An American Werewolf in London, the first victim is a man.

Horror Film Case Study

Horror Film Conventions:

• Dark Abandoned Locations
• Monsters and Zombies
• Death, Diseases, Destiny
• Supernatural
• Psychos, baddies with masks
• Victims
• Gore and violence
• Possession by the evil

An American Werewolf in London (1981) directed by John Landis
Opening credits
Deserted landscape until a car drives down the road. You meet the two main characters, they are young American men. They walk the rest of the way and enter 'The Slaughtered Lamb' pub where it then goes quiet. The villagers at the pub warn the two men to 'stay on the path' and 'beware the moon'. The dialogue here adds to the horror genre of the film. The Americans ignore their warnings and walk through fields instead, the notice its a a full moon and it starts raining.

Introducing My Team

IZZY BOOSEY http://izzyboosey.blogspot.com/

A passionate Media Studies school girl, also studies English Language and Sociology. She works the camera well and is good at editing on the Macs. Izzy is fun to work with and is always enthusiastic about our ideas and practical work.

JO MOLLOY http://jomolloy.blogspot.com/

As well as Media Studies, Molloy takes History, English Language and Philosophy and Ethics. She is very good at editing and also drawing storyboard. Jo is great to work with, she comes up with great ideas and comments well on other ideas we have.



MOE CHIPOFIA
As well as Media Studies, Moe takes Sociology, Biology and Psychology. He wasn't oringinally part of our group and so did now appear in our preliminary but we are very happy to have welcomed such a hard worker into our group. Moe is very good at drawing the storyboards, is a good cameraman and has also taken part in acting!

Everyone brings something different into the group, we manage to come up with good work together and yet seem to have fun every lesson. I am looking forward to planning, filming and editing with these guys! :)

Evaluating my Preliminary Task

Task: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
Preparing for the task: Drew storyboards with short explanations of each frame, shot type, diaologue, exteriror/interior. Assembled a tripod and camera.

Filming


My group and I managed to maintain a 180-degree rule shot. For example, shot number 7, the camera slowly panned across the room following character one's actions.

In shots 4 and 5, character 1 is walking up the stairs. In shot 4, we filmed a back view of her walking up, in shot 5, we filmed the front view . For both of these shots, we maintained a long shot to show the full body and the surroundings. We used this for audience not to be confused of where the film was taking place.

Shot reverse shot was used towards the end of our clip, dring the exchanges of dialogue between the two characters. They were both looking in the opposite directions to show to the audience they were looking at eachother. For these shots, we used an over the shoulder frame.

In our preliminary task, we used match on action, shot reverse shot, many close ups, 2 shot, over the shoulder, long shots, extreme close ups while maintaining the 180-degree rule.

My role during the filming was not only to act but to direct the shots and the positioning of other actors.

Editing
I am happy with the final result apart from some minor details. If we had more time during editing, we would have looked into adding titles and transitions between shots, ike fade in and outs aswell as a blackout at the end for dramatic effect. The space we used during fliming i found was limiting and loud. But, the background noises of the road and interior (diegetic sound) added a more realistic ambience to the film. When it came to the two characters meeting, we were on the balcony. The balcony was a good space as it was quiet and calm but, was limiting for long shots and camera movement. I think our shot reverse shot was successful because it was appropriate to the diaologue being said. If we had more lines to exchange, I would have looked into shots of characters reactions as the other characeter was saying a line.

I think we worked very well as a group and shared responsiblities equally when it came to acting, filming and editing.

Using the camera was simple in this case, the tripod was steady and could extend to a great height. We, as a group, had difficulty with Imovie but our editing, in the end, was successsul.