Paranormal Activity 1 Screenshots

 The first shot of the trailer is an establishing shot of the setting that the film takes place in. In this case it is an ordinary looking surburban house to give a more realistic tone to the film. Due to the film being about 'paranormal activity' this creates more fear in the audience as it looks like these horrible events could happen to anyone.

 The next shot is a mid shot of the main woman sitting casually at her desk. This establishes her as one of the main characters and intoruces us to her straight away. The clothes she is wearing and the normal set up of her home, dim lights and work equipment, suggest she is an everyday character which, yet again suggests realism and that this story could happen to anyone watching, thus creating more fear.

 The next imidiate shot is a medium-long shot of a man holding a camera. This suggests he is the secondary character and,due to the way these characters are talking, suggests they are a couple. The hand-held camera also lets us know that these characters themselves are filming what we are about to see, and again gives more of a sense of realism. Within the first three shots, and first few seconds we have our setting and main character.

Imidiately after these first three shots introducing us to the story you get the main plot with the picture. This is an establishing shot of clearly there upstairs and outside their suggested bedroom. It is dark with only one dim light giving a sense of fear. Again, this does not look like a set, but someones average home.

 Next, the plot is introduced with the speech of the characters and what the main man is doing in this shot. He is putting down powder to see if their will be footprints in the morning as if a ghostly person has walked through them. This is a mid-close up shot of him, in average lightbulb lighting and this is now creating a fear because they are suggesting an unwanted presence in the house.

 This is where fear and the conventions of horrror films really comes in, as it is now night, as indicated by the time in the bottom right of the screen by the camera. Having the camre on all night and having this main feature still allows that sens eof realisma and having this clearly shows this is not an on set film/trailer. The lighting is clearly very dark and it is of a long shot showing the scaping of their whole room, to allow them and us to see if anything happens in their room at night.

After this shot ia an imidiate blackout, that is editing quickly after the previous shot. This induces fear as it unexpected and the fact it is completely black makes the mood dark and eerie. It gives a sense of something bad about to happen.

The sense of something bad happening shown by the previous image is solidified with this image and the one next. It shows that something has stepped through the powder and there is something in their house. Knowing this, the audience watching would be getting worried now as something bad is happening. This showing of something bad happening is a conventioon of horror film. The fact that we dont know what it is specifically is also a convention as it gives an air of mystery and unknowing. This would enduce fear as it is the fear of the unknown.

 This image anchors the previous as it clearly shows an unwanted presence walking throught this powder. It is an amateur medium shot focusing on the ground which shows us that the man is still working on his camera and there is no higher tech invovled making it more real.

The next edit is as if static is interrupting signal and is a convention of horror films.This gives a sense of them being alone in the house as they cant reach the outside worls. The noise used over this shot is also of static solidifying the effect of loneliness.

 We then see clearly what the shot and it is now off words and rating from critics. The tagline used shows us fear within the other shots as critics are commenting that is 'the scariest of all time.' These words are on a conmplete black background to fit with the convention of the horror, and to keep with the dark mood. These critic shots are done profesionally and without the handheld camera to give more of a sense that it is still a film an audience can watch in this cinema.

The next shot is more quick in edit, the shots are picking up in speed creating tension for the audince. This shot shows the main woman in distress at night. The night element and the fact she is scared helps the mood in becmong eerie for us and the main characters are now clearly getting scared themselves. This is a medium long shot to give us insight into the background and how eerie the house is at night. The camera is still in use at this point.

The next image is quickly edited between her being scared and the previous critic to give us a sense of what to expect from this film. It influences the aqudince using the two step flow method of the audience being influenced by critics. 

This image is black, white and grainy giving it a supernatural feel. It showing the story from another persons point on the computer which gives the story more depth as the story is meant to have happened tomore than one person. It is a cloe up of the computer to try and include the audience in the characters life.

This is again, a grainy black and white image from thier videocamera giving a creepy feel within the trailer. It shows the ghostly figure getting into bed with the characters. The lighting is minimal as this is at night as this shot is a close up of the ghost to create more fear.

Another critic has been introduced anchoring in the audiences mind that they 'must see' this film. This suggests the film is again a good watch and will influence the pre-determind horror audience.

The next image is off the camera at floor level with them, connotating disaster is happening as the camera appears just left on the floor. It shows the characters on the floor, so as victims, with the woman clearly hurt and psychologically scarred. She looks scarred as he has to pick her up off the floor. The fcat that the she is already on the floor when we see this shot suggests she had been there for a while, creating more fear for her. 

This image anchors the previous one of her being hurt, physically and psychologically, as she is just lying on a blanket trying ot give herself comfort, but the man lifts up her shirt to show a bad bruise. This enduces more fear for her as she is becoming hurt by this ghost. At this point the editing has increased in pace to build on the tension and the music has become quicker.

For this next cut, the background is pure black to connotate horror with grainy white/green text over it. This is beggining the end of the trailer by giving taglines. It is influencing you watch this film as it is an 'experience'.

This image goes back to their setting to remind us, this increasingly scary horror is happening in a normal home to normal people. This shot is again dark to keep in with the mood as is blurred to show fear from the camera as there is no time to focus it. The further down the corridor, the darker it is as no lights are used and this gives a scary creepy feel as now we know of the gost and we fear it may be down there.

This shot shows the main woman in a medium shot acting stressed out and panicked at this point as the trailer is nearly coming to an end. She is in her front room with high key light shining on her like an interigation. behind her there is no light to create the dark mood and mystery of what is happening in the dark. This shot of her talking is quickly edited as she is only talking for a few seconds, but in these few seconds she is snappy in her words to show her fear. her voice is just louder than the music, and the music is still playing to keep the tone going.

This is a close-up image of a burnt picture the woman is holding of herself when young. The picture is a typical convention of a horror, as it shows a young girl on her own, vulnerable. The picture is in bright lighting making it happy but the surrounding setting is till dark and eerie giving a juxtaposition of images. This jars the image and the trailer to give an uncomfortable feel as well as an eerie and fearsome tone.

This is a follow on from the 'Experience It' shot and is typical of trailers to break up its tagline with more images within the trailers. This effect builds tension within the trailer as to what is going to happen and as to what is going to be said. It is in the same style of the previous shot creating a dark mood with the dark unnatural colours used.

This shot is a medium close-up of the woman sleeping at night when all the paranormal activity in her house happens. This shows fears as from this trailer we now know everything bad happens at night, another typical convention, and this shot lets us know something bad is about to be happening to her yet again. It lacks natural night and the only light is coming in from a window giving a spooky feeling.

This is one of the last shots and this creates a lot of fear as the lighting on the camera is using night vision giving unnatural colour to these long shot. It gives a creepy feel as nothing seems natural and the picture of her on the floor looking spaced out on her own, creates the sense that this ghost has taken over her by now and she is not herself anymore. There is barely any natural light so there is no reasurrance of things becoming better in this shot.

This is the last part of the tagline 'Experience it for Yourself' and ends the trailer with the audience wanting more and wanting to 'experince' the film. This shot contines with the previous shot with the look of night vision in use as the background is an off colour with the text in a dissmay of juxtaposed colours. this adds to the mood of horror.

One of the last shots is off the main setting of the film where the paranormal action takes place. It shows the two people in bed, in the dark with the door open and the camera rolling. It anchors the trailer all together and shows where this film is taking place, giving the audince an idea of what to expect.

This shot keeps with the dark mood of the other images with text and this shows simply the title so the audience know what they are watching and know what to go and see in the cinema.

This adds to the horror element of nothing working or going well. Its clear static with the static noise tos how things have most definitaley gone wrong this far into the trailer.

This shows the last scene of the film as the last in the trailer to, and it is a grainy camera picture of the man being thrown at the camera. This creates a jump in the audince keeping them watching until the last second and still enducing fear until the last second of the trailer. It keeps the audience guessing and wanting more.

This anchors the other static shot and shows that things are definitely wrong and bad things ARE happening. It gives the illusion that the camera has cut out because of what has just happened and again will sacre the audince to the very last second.

This final image is the conventions of all trailers. It tells us where it is playing and when it is on to let the audience know when and where they can watch. It shows the ratings and the producuion offices to get a pre-determind. People knwoing of these companies will know there previous work is good and will assume this trailer is too.