Paranormal Activity Research

Paranormal Activity Poster

The main colours of this poster for Paranormal Activity are blue, black, white and red. The red denoted blood, horror and danger. Red is only used on two parts of the poster, the name of the film and a small piece of text at the bottom of the poster. Blue denoted calmness; this is ironic considering the film is about a paranormal experience. Black is used to show mysteriousness, black is a fairly blank colour and can cause confusion with what it actually means. The colour white can show light, innocents and it is seen as a heavenly colour. This shows that using the other colours there will be death, danger, mysterious actions and confusion. All the colours that are used on this poster are usual conventions of what colours you would find on a horror poster. When I was looking at The Fourth Kind poster, which is also about paranormal activities, the colour blue was used, I have noticed the wide use of this colour in a lot of films about aliens, demons and other paranormal creatures. The picture used is in the centre of the poster. This is the main focus as it is the only picture on the poster. The picture is in the settings of a handheld camera or a CCTV camera. This is made obvious by the grainy image and how it is in a blue shade. This is what you would usually assume a CCTV camera would look like. It also has the time at the bottom of the picture; this is another link towards the idea of the picture being used as a CCTV camera image. The image is framed by text and a small white line which acts as a picture frame. This make the picture stand out more, as it has a frame, it also draws attention to the picture, as it gives a small space of a brighter, light colour, otherwise the picture would just blend in with the black background. The layout of the poster is fairly simple, there is a lot of text on the poster, and the image is framed by the text. The text is at the top and bottom of the poster, this gives it a better balance, and it also breaks up the poster. The picture is positioned in the centre of the poster, this helps break up the text and creates a good flow so that the audience isn’t concentrating on too much at once. The usual conventions of the layout is that the small print is at the bottom of the poster, it doesn’t take up too much space and doesn’t attract much attention off any of the other items on the poster. There is also a quote from the horror film review website Bloody-discusting.com, this is at the top of the poster, and this is another convention of a usual layout of a horror film poster. With the quote being at the top of the poster, this will be one of the main focusing points of the poster, humans like to know what other people’s opinions of things are. The tagline is positioned about the name of the film, there is also another tagline used underneath the name of the film. Personally I think that taglines built audiences up to see the film. If the tagline isn’t very good, the worse you think the film will be. The tagline for this film is scary, in a way it warns people not to see the film by yourself, this will make people want to see it more as it is saying ‘’don’t go alone’’. The tagline is in a white font. This makes it effective and as it is a little bit bigger as the other fonts, it makes it stand out a lot more. This is a clear indication that the text is in fact the tagline. The font of the text is all the same throught out the poster. The text looks like the text from a CCTV camera, this links in with the storyline of the film and also the picture on the poster. The USP (unique selling point) of the poster is the picture. I haven’t seen a picture like that on another poster. I think it links in really well with what the film is about and gives the audience a clue to what the film is about as you can see a shadow and the main characters pointing towards it in fear. I really do like this poster, everything links together really well and it tells the story using a picture, title, fonts, tagline and a quote.

Paranormal Activity Film Magazine Cover

I have found it basically impossible to find a film magazine which features Paranormal Activity on the front cover. I have searched all different film magazines including Uncut, Empire, Total Film, Odeon and Movie Club magazine. Hopefully I will be able to use my knowledge on general horror films and the research to help produce my film magazine poster.

Paranormal Activity Trailer

Sound

You can hear the audience of the film talking in the background at the beginning of the trailer. It makes the trailer seem more realistic as it is showing the reactions of the audience throughout the events of the film. There is a lot of talking through the trailer, this helps the audience understand what is going on and what the film is about. There are a lot of loud sound effects like Booms, footsteps, screams, atmospheric sounds, heartbeats, floor board creaking, slamming of doors, flickering sounds and what sounds like a gunshot. All these sound effects make the trailer a horror trailer, without all the sound effects the trailer wouldn’t have the same effect on the audience. There are gasps and screams from the audience, this makes it a lot more scary as it is showing you real reactions from a film. There are also eerie silences throughout the trailer. This makes you expect a loud bang, so it causes tension and suspense throughout the audience.

Light

The film is being recorded on a handheld camera so the lighting is pretty much natural, outside lighting or artificial light from indoor lighting. Night vision is used in reactions shots of the cinema and in the night of the actual film trailer. It also makes it seem much more eerie. Bright light is used in the form of a torch. It concentrates light on only certain areas, so the audience will focus on only where the light is shining. CCTV camera lighting is used; it looks dark and dingy, with a blue/grey tint. this make the audience feel scared as anything in the dark and at night becomes instantly scary.

Mis-En-Scene

Text is used at the beginning of the trailer when you see the shot of the audience waiting to go into the cinema; the text explains what the audience is waiting to see and how they will react to the film. There are a lot of reaction shots; this is mostly of the audience. It makes the trailer seem a lot scarier because you are seeing real people reactions towards the film; it also creates an adrenaline rush, seeing other people’s reactions make you question both the film and how you will react towards the film. TV static is used in between some shots and also in between text transitions. At the end of the trailer it shows where the film is going to be shown. In one of the shots you can see the cinema screen and the heads of all the audience, this makes it seem as though you are in the cinema watching it too.

Editing

The shots are very quick and of a fast pace A lot of close ups and zooming in is used, this is used to show exoression on people faces. Reaction shots are also used, especially in the shots of the audience. The transition of fade to black is used a lot throughout the trailer; this is commonly used through most horror film trailers. The transitions are mostly quick but there is a few slow fades to black is used, this makes you feel although when an images does finally appear it will be bad. This causes tension. Some of the shots are fairly slow, this is only when the audience is being shown something that has happened. There are quoted from different horror film websites, the first quote is from the website that is used on the poster. The quote sticks in your head the more times you see it. Taglines are used too, this makes you built up an emotion towards the film, and this is usually feared. Name of the film is shown on the screen for quite a while, this give the audience time to digest the name of the film, and to think about what the film is going to be about. After the long shot of the title a very brief shot of a girl is shown up, this is in a white and black tint, this is only shown quickly so it looks like a subliminal message. Then it flashes straight to the text of where the film is going to be shown again.