Film Opening Deconstruction - Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

Film Opening:

Synopsis:

The film starts at the end of the third film in the time period of 1988. It continues where it left off and ends with a guy names Kent telling two girls that he will help them with something which will benefit them in the future. It then jumps to 2013 in Santa Rosa, California. The set scene is during Christmas time and the dad, Ryan, is with his daughter, Leila, as they wait for his brother, Mike to show up as he is staying with them after a bad break-up. Ryan's wife, Emily doesn't like the idea of Mike staying too long and joining then is a friend named Skyler.

Ryan and Mike come across a camera and old tapes while going through stuff. They play one of the tapes and see two girls, Katie and Kristie. One of the other tapes shows the two girls in a room with Kent asking Kristie what she sees and she describes Leila's room which creeps Ryan out. She is asked if she sees 'him' and Kristie replies with, 'yes' before a bright blue flash goes over her face and the power cuts out. As Mike is recording the family, he hands the camera to Ryan who then sees that the camera is picking up particles in the air. Leila then starts acting oddly as her hands starts bleeding as it is pressed against the bathroom mirror while she is speaking backwards. As they leave, the handprint fade into the mirror before it cracks. When Ryan and Skyler replayed the footage, it seems as if Leila is saying 'Bloody Mary'. Ryan starts to leave cameras in the living room and Leila's bedroom and on the first night, a shadowy spirit forms next to Leila and she wakes up and talks to it comfortably. Ryan then notices and walks into the room and Toby vanishes into thin air. She calls it 'Toby' when asked about it. Mike and Skyler are outside with the camera when the notice a ripple in the pool. A dark cloud then jumps from the pool and goes into the woods where they find Leila alone. It is then realised that Toby's presence is only ever noticeable around Leila.

During the second night, Ryan and Mike stay awake as they try to catch new footage. Ryan goes into Leila's room and watches her sleep for the night. He then looks towards the window and a demonic face starts to fly towards Ryan which terrifies him. The next day, the review the recording to get a better look. They later enter Leila's room and sees that she's drawn weird symbols on her bedroom wall which Ryan recognises from some papers he found with identical symbols.

On the third night, Leila wakes up and follows Toby to the living room and she turns on the gas and leaves it on until Emily comes down and turns it off. She then sends Leila back to her room but the gas then turns on by itself again. A couple of brief moments later, a loud thud was heard in which the angel fell off the top of the Christmas tree. Ryan and Emily contact Father Todd as they are worried about how Leila's been acting. He goes into her room and tries talking to her and then rubs holy water over her forehead. Moments later, Leila starts growling and lunges at Todd while her parents try to pull her off him.

On a lot of the nights after that, many paranormal events including Toby keep on happening. On one of the nights, the adults notice a crack forming in the wall of Leila's room which opens up to a tunnel which she then climbs through and stays in for a few hours. As they notice she is gone, they scramble to find her only to see her back in her room, seemingly dazed out saying that, 'he's going to take her away'. Even though they forbid her to be friends with Toby, Leila refuses to listen. As they decide everything's going too far, they decide to call Father Todd to get rid of Toby permanently. As Leila is not possessed, they can't do an exorcism, but an extermination. That night they soak some sheet in warm water and draw a circle with a star in the middle of the floor that everyone stands in. They then grab Leila and prepare for the cleansing. Toby then starts to shake the house like an earthquake and lunges at everyone, eventually killing all of them until only Emily and Leila are left. Leila then runs into the tunnel in her wall as Emily follows her through it. The tunnel leads to the basement of Katie and Kristie's old home back in 1992.  Emily sees Toby and begs him to leave her alone as he got what he wanted, but he then kills her by grabbing her by the throat and snapping her neck. The film concludes with Leila taking Toby's hand and walking away.

LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2473510/synopsis

Production:

Solana Films

Paranormal Activity (2007), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $193.4 million

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $177.5 million

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $207 million

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $90.9 million

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $78.1 million

LINK: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0336921/

Distribution:

Paramount Pictures

''Paramount Pictures International is responsible for marketing and distributing Paramount movies to audiences around the world, with offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  Paramount Home Entertainment is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of DVDs and Blu-ray discs for films and television shows distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation, as well as many of Viacom's leading brands including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET''.

LINK: http://www.paramount.co.uk/inside-studio/studio/divisions

Analysis

Setting

The glowing pink on the right hand side knowingly connotes to sweet, girly, playful etc. People suggest mostly good things come from the colour pink so in this film, the pink may represent the little girls’ good side and what she was like before she was possessed and the shady blue side characterises her new side – what she’s like now after being possessed. The bright, white light mainly means pure and good but in this case, it’s the opposite as she is being taken into the bad side.


Costume

In the Victorian era, the colour white was known for purity and virtue. It also has a biblical meaning for holiness which links to the whole storyline as it is revolved around spirits. They also both have very dark, almost black hair. The colour black connotes death and the unknown which associates to the film as you don’t know who’s causing all the bizarre events to occur.

Motifs/Reoccurring Imagery

The figure is black which connotes death and sinister events. When the form rises up each night, it looks a tree so branches coming off at the top and the sides. A tree symbolises spiritual growth and transformation which links to the plot.

Effective Shots

It’s easy to tell that they’ve gone back in time in the opening because of the props used and what they look like. They look old-fashioned and like designs from the 80’s which is the time period this part was in. The light from the bulb on the floor is shining directly on to the man’s face so if people were to come down the stairs, his lifeless body would be the first thing they see whereas everything else is dark. The whole scene is filmed in a point of view shot because as people are looking back on the footage from the camera, what we see as the audience is what they see. The colours used in this shot are quite ‘old-fashioned’ colours so a murky pink colour and the designs looks out-dated as well. Pink connotes to nice, romantic, etc. which doesn’t at all relate with the story. Brown is also used in this scene so on the staircase and the rug and brown is more of an earthly colour. The light which is shining on the man’s face symbolises death as the light is almost ‘calling to him’ and when people have near death experiences, most of them describe it as seeing a white light and being led into it.


Transitions/Camera Movement

The whole film was shot in a Point of View shot so there weren’t really any transitions. Point of View shots are effective because, while the audience are watching it, they are seeing everything from the camera so the point of view from the person who is holding the camera. Each character in the film, except the little girl, had a chance to hold the camera and film their surroundings. This is effective as the viewers can then watch the film from each character’s point of view and they can see what each person is seeing and feeling. As it is filmed on a camera, it looks more like ‘home footage’ so the audience could then feel as if it is happening to them.


Credits/Typography

The main three colours in this cover are red, white, dark blue and black. All the colours except white have an association to dark, sinister things like death and devil whereas white connotes to things like spirits and purity. The font is in red and white and they have coloured the word, 'Ghost' in white so it links together.  As I mentioned above, the font looks as if it were words written on a security camera which again, links to the story as the whole film was filmed with a camera in a P.O.V shot. As the title cover goes light on the inside to darkness on the outside, this links to the setting as in the little girls' room there was a bright, white hole in her room which lead to another dimension

Focus Group Responses

Orla Fletcher-Dowd: ''I wasn't really a fan of the opening as I hadn't watched any of the other Paranormal Activity films so I wasn't intrigued to watch more but as the opening started at the end of one of the previous films, it made me wonder what had happened so I am keen to watch them now''.

Sahar Khan: ''I like when the scene is set and the lighting that is used as it creates an atmosphere to make the audience feel as if they have travelled back in time to the 1900. This is an advantage for the rest of the movie as the audience are intrigued to the plot of the movie''.

Clara Bowater: ''Personally, I didn't find the opening that effective for me as I haven't seen any of the Paranormal Activity series as I'm not a fan of horror films so I was a bit confused but then as I was told, it started on a scene that was the ending of one of the previous films which I thought was a clever idea''.

Yuli Moore: ''The opening looks like something I wouldn't really enjoy and because I've seen all the other Paranormal Activity films, I feel like this would just be a similar storyline which can get quite boring''.

What I have learnt from this analysis and how it might influence me in my production:

The things I have learnt from this analysis is that point of view shots are effective when creating tension and it's always the best to use low key lighting when filming as that creates a more eerie atmosphere. I think point of view shots are the most effective when creating a horror movie as you can see everything in the characters own eyes and it's like you're there experiencing it for yourself. It also produces a very 'shaky' look which tells the audience how the characters feeling in that situations so it the camera was moving slightly while filming so it looks like any ordinary old family video, the audience would be able to see that that person was feeling afraid at that moment. When using a darker setting, it goes well especially with horror genres as you're always expecting something to happen and it creates more tension, especially a part in a film where you're waiting for something to jump out at you.

*As I couldn't find this opening online, I haven't included an embedded video or a timeline but I have added everything else as I have seen this movie before and have had pictures from the internet to help me remember.