RH - Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Paranormal activity (Oren Peli, 2009)

Genre:
The film belongs to the supernatural horror genre, it is conventional in the fact that it starts of in a quite large family home, however paranormal activity is famous for its USP which is in the way it is filmed, the handycam filming in this film is done in a way to show the protagonists explore the house as well as stationary surveillance camera shots to show the entirety of the house. The opening of the film also has a sentence saying that 'Paramount Pictures would like to thank the families of Micah Sloat & Katie Featherson and the San Diego Police Department; this is a way of implying to the audience that this story is true which is conventional to supernatural horrors even if the story isn't entirely true.

Form & Style:
The opening scene gets straight into the film introducing the relevance of a handycam at a very early stage, the opening scene is all live action and has no credits at all in order to keep the continuity of a home movie aspect. In the opening scene we are straight away positioned with the man in the couple who is called Micah but this later switches between Micah and his girlfriend Katie as she starts to use the camera.

Film Language:

Mise-en-scene:
The Mise-en-scene in the opening scene shows us that we are positioned in a family home in America on a sub-urban street this idea is reinforced by the clothing the couple wears. We are also told that the camera cost half of what Micah earned today meaning that Micah is potentially well paid or the camera was cheap this most likely means the couple are slightly above middle class, this is reinforced through the set since we are later shown the two in the back garden while Micah is swimming in their pool.

Camera:
The camera throughout the whole opening scene uses the same techniques since it is all handycam and the movie is meant to seem like it is home made and therefore a lot of the shots are not framed well sometimes focusing on certain things for example Micah often films Katie. The only shots that are properly framed is when the camera is placed down, however these shots can carry on going even when no one is in frame and they can only be heard off screen. The only static shot which is framed taking into account the rule of thirds is the first shot of the couple going to bed.

Sound:
The sound in the opening scene is all diagetic and is not edited at all, however later on some sounds may be amplified to frighten the audience, but in the opening scene the clip is all unedited diagetic sound due to the film trying to appear of home made shots.

Editing: 
Once again due to the nature of the film there is no editing apart from straight cuts which is supposedly to show when one session of filming stops and starts this can mean for some lengthy shots in the opening scene.

Narrative:
During the opening scene the narrative used is specifically just introducing us to the personalities of the two characters showing us that Micah like to tease Katie while Katie is a lot more serious about the situation. Although there is brief mentioning of supernatural activity the tension never rises and just gives a reason for Micah to be filming them at night, however we get no background to this haunting since these are given in the later films.

Representation & Ideology:
We do not see the opening scene deal with any specific social group apart from the social class of Micah and Katie but they do not say anything about this and it is all implied, however a few more minutes in we get to see that Micah is sceptical of the haunting while Katie is persistent of her view, this shows the audience two different views people have on the paranormal; however the target audience would most likely position themselves with Katie here since they most likely enjoy the idea of the paranormal but they would probably laugh along with Micah, this comedy is used to ease the viewer into the film. The film seems to give a patriarchal view of the couple, since  Micah seems to be given most of the control over the couples spendings as a male, this is shown by the fact that Micah buys an expenssive camera without consulting Katie which apparently cost what Micah had earnt that day showing that Micah's job is most likely well payed. This shows that gender is portrayed as a significant factor since the patriarchy explains the films camera style. We are also show  that the couple are quite young reinforcing the idea that young couples often have a lot of disposable income meaning they can afford all the cameras.

Media Audiences:
The target audience for Paranormal activity would most likely be the core audience for horror films which is 15-24 year olds, due to the nature of the film it focused on the younger generation.