Case Study 1

Case Study One:

1)Institutions

Name of film: Paranormal activity (Thriller/SuspenseHorror)

Director: Oren Peli

Production Company: Independent film produced by Steven Schneider and Jason Blum but distributed by Paramount pictures and Dreamworks pictures.

Release Date: October 14 2007 (Screamfest Film Festival) January 18 2008 (Slamdance Film Festival) September 25 2009 (limited) October 16 2009 (wide).

Country Made: United States

Box Office Returns: The film opened on September the 25 2009 to 12 theaters taking $36,146 on its opening day and $77,873 on its first weekend for an average of $6,489 per venue. When it expanded to 160 theaters on October 9 it grossed a total of $2,659,296. It then quickly went on to gain $19,617,650 as it was shown in 600 more theaters. On the weekend of October 23 the film rose to the number one spot for box office, beating the expected film Saw 6, in total Paranormal Activity has grossed over $141,423,097. It has become the most profitable film ever as it only cost $15,000 to produce/make.

2)Audience

The film was targeted originally for teenagers although the film became so popular that most adults are also watching it. That said the film was intended to be more horrific but people apparently left the cinema as it was too much for some to handle, too frightening, so the producers let the director have his original film back which was then shown around cinemas to get a unbelievable profit. Consumers have quoted the film as being scary but just enough to make you want to see more and not run away.

One user comment from IMBM shows their view on the character known as Katie who is played by Katie Featherston. "In the beginning we meet a young female who was concerned with what was happening to her, this could be a metaphor for the fears of the new house and her boyfriend Micah. As we get to the final scenes she has been reduced to a person on the verge of a breakdown, and we are deeply concerned for her well being. Each night that passes makes you experience a deeper and greater feeling that something bad was going to happen and most people wont like it. The actress creates a believable and sympathetic character which turns the film from an effective thriller into something quite extraordinary.

3)Technology

New technology has increased the way that films are now made and produced for cinema use. The way that this film is different to the rest is the way that the film has been filmed which is through a camera that the characters own, similar to the Blair witch project. That said the camera is also used at night when the couple is asleep by recording the room in night vision, again a great jump in technology. Films can now be produced in completely different ways and this film is just one of those ways. It is possibly made in this way because the film is based on a real life event which was shot with a camera thus its almost like reviewing the film that had originally been produced/made.

4)Codes/Forms and Conventions Of The Thriller Genre

There is a lot of digetic sound in the film which is usually shown out of screen e.g. a loud bang. These sounds are believed to be from the "demon" which has been following Katie since she was only little (8 years old) the sounds that are heard through out the film include:

-loud bangs

-whispers

-gasping

-footsteps

-shouting

-screaming

-knocks etc

This raises tension as you see how the characters react thus it makes you conform to the ways and react in the same way, which is to be scared or nervous which is what the film aims to do to the audience/consumer. That said there is also non-digetic sound which aims to make the consumers react in exactly the same way, they want the audience to be scared, that's what the film is there to do. The sound is usually music which is usually played at night when the couple is asleep.

The film has been filmed through a camera that the characters hold however there are different effects. There are high shots of the male acting tough to the loud noises and low shots of the female being scared which shows their personalities clearly. The camera is often shown as the two main characters point of view as they are the only ones who hold the camera during the full film.

Katie as shown on the left is wearing her clothes which she wears for bed, you can see this as she isn't wearing clothes that you would wear outside. The female is wearing a white vest which could be worn in order to keep her warm and the white colour of it suggests that she is a good or pure character. The checkerboard shorts that she is wearing gives a hint that they are for bed use and the typical underwear/bed clothes are checkerboard so this had been stereotyped. The character isn't wearing any make up, again showing us that the female isn't going to go out or leave the house as most women that age wouldn't leave the house without wearing makeup so this suggests the fact that she is going to or has been in bed. You can clearly see a railing of a banister that Katie is holding on to, possibly for support as she is scared, this hints at the location which is presumably at the top of a set of stairs. The lighting is from the night vision on the cameras thus showing us the characters.

The two characters are wearing clothes which are pretty normal clothes, nothing too smart or fancy which could suggest that they are middle class or maybe slightly higher as the background looks rather expensive. He is wearing a shirt and tie while the female is wearing a black top. They are both smiling at the camera and are sitting quite close to each other which could show that they are a good couple and have an sexual relationship. He is wearing white while the female is wearing black which could hint at their personality's as the female could be the villain character yet she is smiling with a typical good character thus she may not be aware of what she is or that she is evil/bad. The location looks like a living room as they are sitting on a couch near a window however they could be in a conservatory so by this still image the location is not yet known. The lighting is coming from the camera and the artificial light of the lamp which is in the room.

The genre is a cross between a thriller/suspense horror as the film intends to scare the audience as well as create a well produced film. This is shown by the poster which is at night and has the words "don't watch alone" which suggests that the film is scary or has some fright factor. The fact that there is screaming and an unusual injury which cant be explained also shows the genre of the film. The injury is a bite mark made by something unseen which shows that this film fits the genre of thriller and horror well.

The film has been compared to The Blair witch project, which is also filmed through a camera, for various reasons. These things include:

-never seeing the actual creature (witch in the other film and the demon in this one)
-loud sounds

-seeing just the characters that the film is about.

The Narrative Structure of the film is linear which means that it goes in a straight timeline with no going back in time. That said there are a few gaps in the timeline as nothing happened for a few nights so they took it out of the film, this meant that it went from night after night to missing a couple of night yet the film explained what night it was so the consumers wouldn't get confused. Most of the sequences are seen through the male character Micah which could be because the camera is his however Katie does hold the camera at various points. Although all the night scenes start with the camera filming the couple by its self. The producers probably used these methods so that the audience could experience the film through three different eyes so that they would experience three different things and emotions. Katie with being scared and frantic, Micah with being a joker, tough and investigative and the Camera which shows both emotions mixed together and films most of the action.

5)Representation

Three characters in the film, i believe, are stereotyped. These characters are Katie, Micah and the demon. I think that they are all used in different ways that is exactly how someone would view them as being. For Katie and Micah is is to due with their gender while the demon is stereotyped with how it acts.

First of all I'm going to start with Katie. She is always seen as being timid and scared at night which is a typical female character, the "female in distress" She never seems to want to connect with the demon but she is seen as wanting to leave the house apart from when she is possessed by the demon, which again makes her seem like a typical girl who is always scared. Katie wants to call the male who specialises in demons straight away yet her boyfriend stops her from doing so which makes her and Micah fight quite a lot.

Micah however is the complete opposite to Katie. He likes to joke around and doesn't believe in the ghost or demon which is a typical male character. He is also stereotyped as he goes to look for the demon in the house and tries to connect with it, he also swears at the demon when he gets annoyed with it. Katie at various points calls him immature as he is always with a camera thus bringing the well known quote "boys and their toys" to mind.

The demon is stereotyped by making it invisible, scary and angry which is what a typical demon is. The fact that it also possesses Katie makes it that more typical for a demon yet for awhile the consumers and the characters in the film think that the demon is actually a ghost until a physic tells them that its not a ghost/spirit. This makes the creature seem like it could be anything and that its scary to think that they thought it was a ghost for all of that time.