Assignment 5 completed 2

ASSIGNMENT 5: FILM STUDY & CONVENTION IN A FILM

Russ and Pam (for both is BLACK)

Targets

We have chosen the level from C-B. As it meets mine and my partners grade. My one is a B and my partners is a C. (that’s the colour yellow)

Exploration of task

Film of choice and reasoningWe chose ‘Paranormal Activity’ because: Good example of thriller We’ve watched it before It has supernatural horror.

Genre

Thriller: tension specific parts of the film creates climax makes the audience scared will want to know what will happen. Thriller: anticipates what will happen to

the couple keeps us on the edge of our seat.

Sub-genre

Thriller: when the demon hunts the girl when she is vulnerable.

Romance: when the couple would sleep together and cuddle each other while sleeping sign of protection.

Horror: supernatural occurance.

Hybrid

It would be a: Thriller – a lot of tension (subgenre) Romance – shows the relationship

between Katie and Micah (sub-genre) Drama – a lot of over exaggeration when

the demand does something (genre) Paranormal activity is a hybrid because it

is also based on a true story (documentary).

Stam theory

Stam says that the genre is not so easily defined under the ‘main genres’ but can be classified in other ways such as budget, ethnicity focus or performer based. However paranormal activity is not only thriller, because you cannot make an audience scared if there isn’t any drama to make it even more scarier than it is. This leads to having a drama genre and a thriller subgenre.

Mittel theory

Mittel theory is that genre is used to sell products. This theory would relate to the film paranormal activity as there would be similar codes and convention that often make reference to their audiences knowledge, which is a thriller movie as it normally based on suspense and tension. The audience would know it’s a thriller as its trying to scare the audience by creating tension or even base it on a true story and something bad happens, it would be even more scarier as it’s a true story.

Semantics

Semantics How these are evident in your film (in relation to its genre/sub-genre/ hybrid.

Characters In thriller movies, the innocent victim is always a young female victim. The villain which is the demon comes at night. In every thriller/horror there's always a hero. In this case it Katie’s boyfriend Micah. (romance). Micah would be the hero as trying to protect Katie as she becomes possessed every night.

Semantics


Location It takes place in the main characters house but most of the action happens in their bedroom.

Semantics


Story traits The male main character (Micah) experiments with his camera, supernatural occurrences takes place at night which is captured in the film, the supernatural force is attached to the female lead (Katie), the haunting start getting stronger and stronger as the night pass by, Katie wants to seek help and put an end to the haunting but Micah ignores her pleas and continue to do so and in the end they both suffer which Katie is possessed by the demon, kills Micah and disappears without a trace.

Semantics


Costumes Katie’s and Micah’s costume is very casual as the story is all based at there house. However their costume in night wear as its mainly filmed at night because that’s where the suspense and the tension happens as the demon would come during the night time. In this case for Katie its mainly shorts and a long baggy top.

Semantics


Props there props have been used throughout this movie. For example the camera stand, where Micah would stable the camera on the stand especially at night where is needs to be steady so the whole night would be recorded and see any suspicions about the demon. However this prop would be important as it needs to film the most important parts of the film (when its night) so the camera stand would be useful a lot.

Syntax

The moral message of paranormal is that its based on a true story, and how people would get affected by being possessed and what would end up happening to them. However it also shows how close ones would also get affected and feel, during, and after the bad situation of Katie being possessed.

The moral message of the film is that curiosity killed a cat or most likely demon possessed girlfriend kills curious idiotic hard headed boyfriend

Tone

This was taking place at the beginning of the film and they didn't use any artificial lighting it was all natural lighting, which is from the sun. However there wasn't that much sunlight it was almost cloudy which then sets a mood of boredom, and almost sets a scene of being tired.

Convention list of that genre/subgenre/hybrid

Conventions of genre/sub-genre/hybrid

Examples from range of real film

tension Final destination

Innocent young female adults being the victim

clinic

hero Insidious

survival The resident

demon Drag me to hell

mystery The wicker man

Convention analysis

Conventions of genre/subgenre/hybrid

Examples from the film

Comparison to other films in the same genre/subgenre/hybrid

tension tension happens at night when the clock speeds up and stops to normal time which means the audience is expecting something

final destination, similar by waiting who would die next unexpectedly, and different because final destination people would die unexpectedly whereas we know what's going to happen as the demon would always attack at night time.

Convention analysis




Innocent young female adults being the victim

when Katie is being attacked from the villain and being possessed for example:-when she kills herself at the end-when being dragged from the stairs.

this is similar to clinic because the pregnant woman was attacked by taking her baby away and fighting the villain to get her baby back, whereas in clinic the villain is seen and is not a man, it's a woman who sells their baby to other parents who would like baby's

Convention analysis




hero when Micah (Katie's boyfriend) is helping her from suffering and being possessed by the demon, he does this by:-researching the symptoms-filming and looking at the video tapes to over come this.

in insidious the hero would be the dad helping his son from being dragged out of real life and living his nightmare where he can see the demon, whereas in paranormal the victim and the hero dies at the end, whereas in insidious the victim lives but the hero dies from saving his son

Convention analysisConventions of genre/subgenre/hybrid



survival Katie and Micah being tormented every night by the demon and they to survived till the very end of the movie

The resident, is about a young doctor who bought a loft in Brooklyn, she feels that she is being watched yet she shrugs off the feeling until things get a bit overwhelming as the feeling of someone lurking in the shadows watching her every move .

Convention analysisConventions of genre/subgenre/hybrid



Demon Katie being dragged of the bed by the demon

The female lead falling in to the train tracks, the man tries to save her before the train hits but hands appear from the ground and pulls her into the flames

Convention analysis




mystery Demon attached to katie since she was of a young age

In the wicker man, a sheriff went to investigate a missing girl from a small island where darker secrets dwell.

Dominant ideology

Dominant ideology Example/evidence from film

Trying to survive Katie and Micah carrying on their lives although they are being haunted by the demon

Not being possessed Katie trying to protect herself and not fall into the demons hands.

demon wont be involved in her life anymore

This shows as the demon has known her every since she was little and has been following her from house to hour and during her childhood and teenaged life. Katie and Micah has been doing anything so the demon would leave them alone and the demon would get out if their life.

Audience

Paranormal is for a mass audience as different aged groups can watch it and still be entertaining for them.

the target audience would be teenaged groups and young adults, a the characters are young adults and people who are watching them would want them to feel the same way as the characters s t can be even more scarier.

The secondary audience would be children that would be with an adult to watch it.

Audience

Details of audience

Target audience

Secondary research

Explain why they would be attracted (watch) the film

Age 15 to 25 30 and 40 they would be attracted to watch the film because the actors are young just like the audience would be and would see how they would react in scary situations.

Gender Male and female

Male and female

they would watch this because its about a couple going through a bad situation and wanting to know how they would overcome this situation (because they have the same gender)

AudienceDetails of audience

Target audience

Secondary audience


ethnicity People who understand the English language

People from other countries who might have the movie in subtitles of their language

They would watch the film because it is shown across the globe.

Social class Middle to working class

Upper and lower class

they work to earn money and would want to watch something to also be entertained.

Social group People who are into watching thriller

Other social groups who watches just for entertainment

they would watch this because they might want to meet new people that would be interested in this film as well as they would.

Audience

Details of audience

Target audience

Secondary audience


Sexual orientation

Lesbian, BI, Gay and straight

same because its for everyone not only for straight people.

Profession/role

Working class (teacher)

students they would be attracted as to watching the film because it might be they are taking their time off to relax

Audience theory McQuail

People would watch this movie or even buy it for many reasons for example:

Reasons why people watch the film

explanation

entertainment People would go there for fun and to enjoy themselves, they work and with the money earned they would go and spend the money to enjoy themselves.

information People will watch this for information because the movie is a low budget film that made millions of money after is was shown.

Personal identity People who have interest or love watching supernatural movies.

Documents

Assignment 5 completed 2