FS Task 7 - Individual: Deconstruction of Opening Sequence - Paranormal Activity

Genre:

·        This franchise of films are dominantly a hybrid of supernatural and psychological, this is due to the hauntings set within the domestic sphere, these hauntings however are not a visible character such as Freddy Kruger in a nightmare on elm street.

·        The opening conveys the family, shot through home videos and enables us to see them in a positive, happy light juxtaposing the events to come. This challenges the usual stereotype of a horror as there is no major scare in the opening scene, purely the title sequence along with the parasocial interaction of the family ‘pre haunting’.

·        This text neither conforms or threat the characteristics as the scenes shown are purely based on scenes that are not creating any visceral pleasure.

·        Most of the paranormal activity films conform to this opening, and has a greater build up to the disequilibrium making it more realistic.

Film Language

Camerawork:

·        One of the main characteristics of the paranormal activity franchise is the use and effectiveness of the handheld camera to make the audience feel present in the shot, this not only creates a realistic tone but adds to the verisimilitude created in the film, however in the opening this is just showing the couple together laughing, meaning the audience have more empathy for them when the haunting occurs.

·        the handicam again is used to portray a close up of the wife in a point of view (POV) to show the intimacy between the couple.

Editing:

·        continuous editing is used to convey no sense of urgency and a relaxed tone which is heavily juxtaposed later in the film with fast cutting rates. This use of continuous editing enables the audience to be in a peaceful state of mind before the hauntings occur, creating more visceral pleasure.

·        as the main protagonist is in control of the camera we can see what mood he is in and the tone created through his actions, in this opening the shots are relatively smooth and the cutting rate is slow.

·        there is a filter over the top of the shots composited on top in post-production to create a more realistic mood.

Mise-en-scene:

·        the fact that the opening is set in the same domestic sphere as the hauntings and the disequilibrium will occur in, make it more scary for the audience as there is such a contrast in tones between before and after the ‘hauntings’.

·        the simplicity of the set (inside the house) again makes it more realistic for the audience as they can relate it with their own home.

·        when their house is robbed the set is destroyed creating an enigma code making the audience question the reasons behind this attack.