1. Dom Aitken
MS2 MEDIA PRODUCTION PROCESSES

2. PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY

3. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
• These films was originally developed as an Originally developed as an
independent feature, the film was acquired by Paramount Pictures.
• The first film was directed by Oren Peli.
• The film was reviewed as “one of the scariest movies of all time” and “bloody
disgusting”, “genuinely horrifying” – Film Threat, “people were physically
shaken” – Dread Central
• The audience for this film would be 15 + because it was rated a 15 by the
BBFC. I think that the target audience would be 15-25.
Read a review here:
http://screenrant.com/para
normal-activity-reviews-
kofi-27600/
Watch A Trailer here”
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=F_UxLEqd
074

4. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY ANALYSIS
Visual codes
• The dress codes of this trailer are really quite casual. This is because it is filmed in a
normal home and done on just a normal home camera. This represents these people as
normal, everyday people. I think this is what makes this film so scary because it happens
to an ordinary family which means it could happen to you.
• The setting of this film as I have said is in a normal house in a suburban area. This house
is fairly big and the camera being used is fairly big and expensive. This connotes them as
being fairly well off and wealthy.
• The gesture codes of this trailer get more and more dramatic as them trailer progresses. It
begins with just normal house life in what goes on around the house and other average
things. However, as it goes on the gestures of the characters get more and more intense
and dramatic. This is really shows right at the end as it finishes with one of the characters
being thrown into the camera that has been set up in the bedroom.
• The lighting in the trailer is very good in the day time sections of it as the camera is lit by
sun light and the house light. However when then the lights go off, the camera has to rely
on night vision. This shows that the scary things happen at night and not really during the
day when there is light all around.
Textual Analysis

5. Technical codes
• Filmed by one home camera that was apparently purchased by one of
that characters at the start of the film. This means that the audience feel
closer to the action because it is filmed by a home camera with no
obvious special effects which makes it feel more real for the audience.
• There are lots of parts with very loud dramatic music that cuts out with
the camera. This has a big impact on the watcher because you never
know what is going to happen next, and because the noises are so loud
and so sudden they are not expected by the audience.
• Lots of frequent cuts to loud drum noises or crashing sounds. Editing the
footage to the music which works really well on the audience because
they see and hear what they are watching at the same time which can
have a really dramatic impact.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY ANALYSIS
Textual Analysis

6. Narrative codes
• The trailer starts off showing a line of people that were some of the first people to watch the
Paranormal Activity film, it then shows what the start of a section of the film when they get the
camera and try to capture what is going on in the house.
• The trailer then progresses on to show some of the more jumpy and scary parts of the film.
However, you hear the voices of the film but some of the time the camera shows the audiences
reaction to what they have seen.
• This creates real suspense for any audience because they are watching an audience (just like
them) freaking out at this film and they wonder if they would react the same.
• Also it creates enigma because it doesn’t show you some of the things that the audience
appear scared of.
• The scenes we get to see in the trailer become more and more scary as it progresses and so
the audience becomes more and more frightened of what they are seeing, furthermore what
they will see at the end of the trailer as it seems to get worse and worse.
Textual Analysis
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY ANALYSIS

7. INSIDIOUS

8. INSIDIOUS
Background Information
Release Date:
29 April 2011
Director:
James Wan
Writer:
Leigh Whannell
Stars:
Patrick Wilson – Josh
Lambert
Rose Byrne – Renai
Lambert
Ty Simpkins – Dalton
Lambert
Box Office:
Budget:$1,500,000
Gross:$53,991,137
Watch the Trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=E1YbOMDI59k
Read review Here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/f
ilm/2011/apr/28/insidious-
review

9. INSIDIOUS
Visual codes
• The dress code for Josh is normally work dress and this is shown in the professional looking shirt and
how he has it tucked it, also the beige trousers that he wears also is conventional and stereotypical of
office clothing.
• Renai throughout the whole film casual clothes connoting typical house wives that stay at home and look
after the children. This could represent her being the loving, caring one for the family as she is the
woman in the family and this is very typical of women in the media as they are often represented as
people that need to get married and raise a family at home while the man goes out to work.
• The gesture codes for this film trailer, at the start, everything seems calm, relaxed and typical of any
family, however, as the trailer progresses things start to get a lot more tense and uneasy for the whole
family and this reflects in the gesture codes of the characters.
• Renai seems calm and at ease at the start of the trailer but from when she hears the strange voice in the
baby monitor she then from then on becomes much more uneasy, tense and scared.
• Josh’s gestures are a lot more stereotypical for this genre of film as he is the one that has to hold the
family together as he is the man of the family, this means that he is more in control of his fear as
apposed to Renai who really lets go and becomes scared at almost anything.
• The setting of the film is in the families new house in a suburban area and this connotes some elements
of wealth and well being.
• The lighting in the trailer changed with the tension of the film. So at the start there was a lot more light
and this made the audience feel reassured as mot many scary things tend to happen in daylight.
However, as the trailer progresses, the lighting becomes less and less meaning that the audience
become more and more scared as they anticipate what is going to happen because of the fading light.
Textual Analysis

10. INSIDIOUS
Narrative Codes
• The trailer is about a family that has just moved into a new house, this plays an important part in the film because
the audience thinks for a long time that it is the house that is haunted, but then later in the film, a bomb shell is
dropped on the mum and dad as they are told they it is in fact their child is haunted, not the new house.
• We find out that the child has been possessed and is letting demons into their house from a place called “the
Further”. As the child becomes weaker and weaker, the demons possess more and more of him.
• Applying Propp’s character theory, Josh –the father of the family- would be the hero as he has to hold the family
together and stop them breaking down, however, he could also be a false hero as at the end of the film, he gets
possessed by an evil old lady spirit and kills the women who has helped them. The princess would be Renai as she
needs to be calmed down and saved from the demons, however, she could also be the hero as she does begin to
take hold of situations and is probably the character featured most in the trailer.
• Applying Strauss’ narrative theory, there are some very obvious binary oppositions such as the light and the dark as
the trailer builds, the good and evil as they have to rescue their son from demons. These are the conventional
oppositions of the Horror genre and this trailer follows them well.
• Using Todorov’s narrative theory, the equilibrium starts with a clip of Josh sat in a chair which again links into the
non linier story. The disruption would be when their Son Dalton falls off the ladder and hurts himself and then goes
into a “coma”. The recognition of the disruption is when the parents find out that he is not in a coma but it is
something else. The attempt to repair is when Josh calls in help to try and make Dalton better, then the
reinstatement of the equilibrium shows what Josh was doing in the chair at the start.
Textual Analysis

11. INSIDIOUS
Technical Codes
• The technical codes of the trailer include very clever use of camera shots and angles and
lots of quick cuts so that the audience is always kept guessing at what will come next.
• One of the more interesting camera shots is when the camera is looking directly at Josh
but we can also see over his right shoulder. This is perhaps the scariest section of the
trailer because it all happens so fast. In this shot Josh is standing talking to Renai when
the demon that is trying to possess Dolton appears out of no where behind him. He
doesn’t get attacked it just stares at the person that Josh is talking to. This may be seen
as unconventional because when the monster of a film appears you normally expect it do
attack someone or something.
• Furthermore another scary camera movement is when the camera is going into Dalton’s
room to see what is in there. This is also scary and build tension in the audience as it
feels like you yourself are walking into the room to see what is there. It is done
deliberately slowly so that the audience will anticipate that something will happen.
• Another technical code is the way that the editing has been done. The camera shots
normally change as the metronome clicks in the background. So as the metronome
increases, the camera shot rate increases meaning that the tension of the audience is
also increases.
Textual Analysis

12. Saw 2

13. Saw II (2005)
93 min - Horror | Thriller - 28 October 2005 (UK
• Jigsaw locks a few unlucky people in a booby trapped shelter and they must find a
way out before they inhale too much of a lethal nerve gas and die. But they must
watch out, for the traps Jigsaw has set in the shelter lead to death also.
• Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
• Writers: Leigh Whannell, Darren Lynn Bousman
• Stars: Donnie Wahlberg, Beverley Mitchell and Franky G
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

14. SAW 2
Visual codes
• The dress codes of all the characters in the trailer are wearing casual clothes as
they have been taken from a normal day in their lives. This represents them as
just being normal people and this therefore makes it more scary for the audience
as they think it could potentially happen to them.
• The gesture codes of the characters are very subdued at the start of the trailer
as they don’t know what has happened to them and they don’t know what to do
about the situation they find themselves in. However, as the trailer progresses
they get more and more desperate to try and escape with their lives. This is
reflected in their gestures as they struggle to survive.
• The setting of this trailer is set in an abandoned house in the middle a run down
city.
• The colures are mostly dark being very conventional of the horror film genre.
Textual Analysis

15. Narrative codes
• This trailer begins with flashback of the first film to remind the audience of what has happened
before. This can be scary for the audience as they know what they are getting into, and most
people will know that as these kind of films progress they get worse and worse.
• It then goes into a room with a load of people standing around not knowing what to do, there is
also a man on the floor. He looks like he may be dead. This is frightening for the audience
because they don’t know what he is doing there, and in the first film the man of the floor plays a
very important role in the film.
• The voice the voice of Jigsaw then starts and explains to them what they have to do to survive.
• The clip then progresses into what the characters try and do to get out of the house and
survive. It shows clips of what they have to endure to live.
• This is very conventional of horror films because they normally show what the people have to
go through before you watch the full film. An example would be in Paranormal Activity.
SAW 2
Textual Analysis

16. Technical Codes
• There are a lot of very shots fast cuts in this trailer which stays of the
conventions of other films in the horror genre.
• This is done so they audience gets to see a lot but only small sections of it
so they not a lot is given away so some enigma still remains.
• There are also some fades into new sections of the film so we as an
audience that a new scene is being shown.
• There is also a lot of cutting the camera shots with the music to build tension
and suspense within the audience. This again is very iconic and conventional
of horror films.
SAW 2
Textual Analysis

17. The Orphan

18. • A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly
as innocent as she claims to be.
Director:
• Jaume Collet-Serra
Writers:
• David Johnson (screenplay), Alex Mace (story)
Stars:
• Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman
THE ORPHAN
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Watch a Trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=2ywOPNNii9w

19. Visual Codes
• The dress codes of Esther is very unconventional of horror films as she looks like
a well dressed and formal school girl. This shows that as she doesn’t dress
normally, it shows that she herself may not be normal.
• The dress codes of the rest of the family are very normal and casual because
they are just a normal family and have nothing unusual about them. It is only
Esther that is the problem.
• There gesture codes are conventional of the horror gener as they start off normal
and at ease, but get more and more scary and crazy as the trailer progresses.
• The setting of the trailer begins in a ordinary orphanage as she is addopted into
a new family, the trailer then moves into the families house and local area, such
as school.
THE ORPHAN
Textual Analysis

20. Narrative codes
• The story starts with Esther in her orphanage where she has grown up. Applying
Todorov’s theory, this would be the equilibrium.
• It then moves into the families house and we meet the other children in the family. We
then see her new school and she gets made fun of by one of the class.
• We then see her in a bathroom crying and screaming, this then builds into them parents
having to go and see someone about Esther's behaviour.
• We then see on screen in text that there is something wrong with Esther, and this is also
the tag line for the film.
• We then get to see things that Esther will do in the film and get prepared for what she will
do in the whole film. This would be the disruption.
• We don’t see a real ending to the trailer as it ends with Esther pushing her sister in front
of her mums car and the screen freezes and moves on into the final section.
THE ORPHAN
Textual Analysis

21. THE ORPHAN
Textual Analysis
Technical codes
• The trailer starts off with some slow cuts and fades to set the mood and tone
of the trailer.
• This again is conventional because it starts off slow and calm and then when
it progresses it gets faster and faster and more and more intense.
• The camera is normally looking down at Esther showing that she is viewed
as lower then the rest of the characters in the film.
• It shows that there is something wrong with her because we associate lower
people as people they have things wrong with them and cant cope with
normal life.