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)

Film of choice and reasoning
We 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

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

Semantics

genre/ hybrid.
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

genre/ hybrid.
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

genre/ hybrid.
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- Examples from range of real film
genre/hybrid
tension Final destination
Innocent young female adults clinic
being the victim
hero Insidious
survival The resident
demon Drag me to hell
mystery The wicker man

Convention analysis

Conventions of Examples from the film Comparison to other films
genre/subgenre/hybrid in the same
genre/subgenre/hybrid
tension tension happens at night final destination, similar by
when the clock speeds up waiting who would die next
and stops to normal time unexpectedly, and different
which means the audience because final destination
is expecting something 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 when Katie is being this is similar to clinic
adults being the victim attacked from the villain because the pregnant
and being possessed for woman was attacked by
example: taking her baby away and
-when she kills herself at fighting the villain to get
the end her baby back, whereas in
-when being dragged from clinic the villain is seen and
the stairs. 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 in insidious the hero would
boyfriend) is helping her be the dad helping his son
from suffering and being from being dragged out of
possessed by the demon, he real life and living his
does this by: nightmare where he can
-researching the symptoms see the demon, whereas in
-filming and looking at the paranormal the victim and
video tapes to over come the hero dies at the end,
this. whereas in insidious the
victim lives but the hero
dies from saving his son

Convention analysis
survival Katie and Micah being The resident, is about a
tormented every night by young doctor who bought a
the demon and they to loft in Brooklyn, she feels
survived till the very end of that she is being watched
the movie 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 analysis
Demon Katie being dragged of the The female lead falling in
bed by the demon 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 In the wicker man, a sheriff
since she was of a young went to investigate a
age 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 This shows as the demon has known her
anymore 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 Explain why they would
research 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 they would watch this because
female 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)

Audience
Details of audience Target audience Secondary Explain why they would be
audience attracted (watch) the film

ethnicity People who People from They would watch the film
understand the other because it is shown across the
English language countries who globe.
might have
the movie in
subtitles of
their
language
Social class Middle to working Upper and they work to earn money and
class lower class would want to watch something
to also be entertained.

Social group People who are into Other social they would watch this because
watching thriller groups who they might want to meet new
watches just people that would be
for interested in this film as well as
entertainment they would.

Audience

Details of audience Target audience Secondary Explain why they would
audience be attracted (watch) the
film
Sexual orientation Lesbian, BI, Gay same because its for everyone
and straight not only for straight
people.
Profession/role Working class students they would be attracted as
(teacher) 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.

Assignment 5 completed 2

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