RESEARCH 30 - TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF SEQUENCE - PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

CLEMS	PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
CAMERA	·         The camerawork in the trailer uses point of view shots as characters are filming in their house with a hand held camera. Therefore allowing the audience to connect with the characters as everything is shown from their point of view so the audience are able to find out information at the same time as the characters. ·         Also the point of view shot puts the audience in the shoes of the character and this means that there is no dramatic irony as the audience know no more than the characters themselves. ·          The camera movements are very shaky to reflect that the characters are filming. This is a convention of the horror genre as it makes the audience feel involved as they share the nerves and unease that the characters do. ·          This choice of camera movement allows the film to look more realistic as the medium shots only show what the characters can see in the house. ·         Mid-shots and close-ups are used to show the audiences reactions to certain scenes in the film.
LIGHTING	·         The colours used in the house are quite plain and simple reflecting the modern feel of the house and the characters that live there ·         The black of the night suggests evil, and darkness whereas the white of the characters bodies implies purity and innocence so perhaps demonstrates the contrast between the goodness of the characters and the evilness of the supernatural. ·         Also throughout the film there is natural lighting, to remind the audience that this is being filmed, so when it’s in the day its bright, whereas in the evening we can see the lighting changing implying that something is coming.
EDITING	·         The calmer, more balanced scenes are shown at the beginning and the more frightening, shocking scenes are shown towards the end causing the trailer to appear unbalanced. Therefore it’s able to remind the audience about the tenser and scarier scenes. ·         Instead of using straight cuts, the film uses dissolve transitions to white noise to remind the audience this is a home video. ·         The pace of the film is made fast through quick cuts of the video camera becoming faded. By doing this, if becomes difficult for the audience to be able to see what is happening ·         The fast pace of the film is emphasised through cutaways as this makes the trailer seem disjointed which creates an uneasy feel.
MISE EN SCENCE	·         The setting used is an ordinary family home and the choice of decoration and props used such as the laptop suggests that this is a modern family, therefore it can relate to the younger audience. ·         Although, even though the setting is modern props such as the chandelier implies that they are mixing the old and the new, which could also suggests that there must be some history in the house, causing the scary events. ·         The bedroom is repeatedly used as a setting where the supernatural events occur. Usually, the bedroom is associated with comfort and safety however the trailer takes this feeling away as the comfort is replaced with feeling uneasy.
SOUND	·         The film uses very little sound, there is no non diegetic sounds to create an atmosphere but, because there is very little sound, tension is built because audiences are waiting and expecting that something will make them jump. ·         Furthermore, by having no non diegetic sounds, a sense of verisimilitude is created as the setting is a normal, quiet home where background music is not needed in order to create an atmosphere. This allows the audience to relate more to the scenes as they could imagine it themselves, this is also another convention of horror films. ·         Diegetic sounds are used in the trailer to create a tense atmosphere as well as creating a sense of verisimilitude. ·         Bangs and loud noises are also another convention of horror films as people often associate this with making them jump or violence. These are played when something frightening happens as this is more likely that the audience will jump.