Textual Analysis - Paranormal Activity

Script Page 2/3

Script Page One

Film Outline

We have decided, while scripting this outline, to split it into two - therefore, two of us can script the first half and two can script the second. Sancha and I are doing the first 60 seconds and the first page of the script - Dale and Luke are doing the last 60 seconds and the second page of the script.

Chant for horror movie

For our horror, we needed a biblical chant to use in our scene with the witches. After research on the internet, we decided upon this:

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up. Repeat TWICE.

PITCH

 

 After feedback from the class, it appeared there needed to be several changes made to our film outline. Therefore, we have made several adjustments and are now more happy with our film.

Textual Analysis - Narrative

The Others:
The opening sequence in this film consisted of a voice-over telling a fairy tale with disturbing illustrations to accompany it. We didn't really feel that it was very effective, as it did not highlight the genre as clearly as it could have. A woman in all white awoke screaming; this contrasted the title sequence. We liked this dramatic contrast and it linked very obviously with the psychological sub-genre. We also liked the introduction of the children - it gave it a sense of mysterious, supernatural behavior. The candle lighting was suitable for this type of movie. Although we enjoyed this, we feel it's not suitable for our film as it highlights the wrong time period.

1408:
We enjoyed the title sequence to this film, with the presense of the preacher, talking in the background. It contrasts the theme and genre. We thought that the appearance of the titles in the car headlights was particularly effective - it gave a smooth, subtle transition to the titles. In the first three minutes, we were given the background story of our main character. Something we found particularly effective in the opening 10 minutes was the use of varying camera shots; the shot from inside the cabinet we found to be very effective - the sense of a point of view inside the cabinet was interesting and we would like to incorporate a similar style into our film.

Silent Hill:
We enjoyed the opening ten minutes of this film - the use of biblical references we found to be very effective (i.e. when we see bible passages in shot and/or crosses etc.). We feel that using a biblical reference in our film would be good and would help to reinforce our chosen genre. The varied flashing images were interesting and could be used in our opening to a horror. The aerial shot where we saw the transition from a normal setting to a representation of hell was a very interesting idea, which worked well. The contrast between this firey setting and the settings that followed (such as a meadow on a summers day) really helped to create tension.

Dark water:
The introduction to this film really caught the attention of the audience - the young girl singing insy winsy spider created an eerie atmosphere. We noticed that the colours in the main character's flashbacks were full, easily creating this sense of a memory. The reoccurring rattle of the toy during the flashbacks made us feel that there was something significant about this subject. The buildings in the settings look really old and run down and this goes well with the genre. We particularly liked the shot where you could see the woman looking out of the window whilst it rained.

Opening Titles Ideas

Opening Titles Research

20 Second Titles - Brain Storming

Homework Exercise - Marking Previous Work

- Have a look at the mark scheme below to get an idea of each level.

- Then watch all 4 videos

- Now using the mark scheme give each video a mark out of 60 and explain why...?

We would give this film a 34 out of 60. We feel that there was evidence of continuity errors and the story line was confusing. We thought that the lighting and shot types were good and they showed a variation of shot types.

We gave this a 28. No issues with continuity but we feel a larger variety of shot types could have been used. There are some errors with the sound and the story line seemed to be a joke. Evidence of some good shots - i.e. point of view.

We decided this deserved a 40. Some lighting errors - too dark at the start but the other scenes were lit very well. A good variety of shots and angles were used well and the costumes were good.

We decided to give this clip 37 because the start of the clip uses good methods to create tension such as the long clips and the creepy non diegetic sounds in the background. The lighting in the clip is poor, as you cannot see the characters face throughout the clip, whether this is intentional or not its not very good to watch.

First Post - Research and Planning

This is our first post as a recently formed group - made up of Luke Bull, Dale Horton, Sancha O'Donnell and Sarah Carter

We have decided as a group to make a Psychological/Possession based horror film. We plan on making the opening two minutes.