Paranormal Activity- marketing campaign

 Paranormal Activity was founded by Paramount in the 2008 film festival slamdance. The film had a low budget of just $15,000 with marketing. DreamWorks, a production company owned by Speilberg saw the film and wanted to remake the Paranormal and also make it have bigger budget, however this didn't happen. Even though the film was a low budget, the money they received from the box office was a astonishing $193,355,800! The most interesting fact about the whole film was that the original director never intended what he produced to be anything big or spectacular, it was just a calling card showing what he was capable of doing something good on a low budget hand held camera, he never expected it to be such a phenomenon!

The company started of by having 12 screenings at universities and colleges, its been said  the university graduates got so scared many had to exit the auditorium.  Also, to create interest around the movie and to get more people to watch at the end of the trailer you notice 'demand it' using e-media the internet to vote whether you wanted it to be screened in your nearest cinema; also the voting on eventful.com help made them more popular. They certainly met their goal as Paramount earned $1 million.

The institution used social media to help promote the fillm. They created a video game 'the search for Katie' capturing more peoples attention to want to see the film, gathering a wider audience. Twitter being such a large and diverse social network had a hash tag #tweetyourscream where you simply recorded you screaming and upload it onto your twitter page.

With the film being such a big hit, they have released 4 and they are coming up to releasing a 5th. When Paranormal was 1st released, 10 years after the Blair Project it was compared to being like that. Both films send enigma codes to make you think has this really happened, is this real footage/ based on real footage. The realism really gets to you. Blair started off these 'real' footage films, and where Paranormal have took over 10 years after it was something new, even though we saw the same format 10 years ago it hadn't been used since. However, with so many Paranormals' being made, the audience now know what to expect and they are becoming boring. I don't think they are as effective in the current media landscape.

Paranormal Activity Trailer, codes and conventions

Paranormal Activity

The language involved in the trailer summaries a conventional horror genre. The technical codes of the flickering lights, the night vision and overall darkness of the trailer represents the mystery behind the film representing the genre. Perhaps the darkness reveals the supernatural activity happens at night. The use of symbolic codes, the headlines and subheadings anchors the trailer to give it meaning, persuading the viewers to want to watch it. The sound is quick, fast and catchy, diegetic/ non-diegetic. The sound links to the jumpy reactions of the audience. The target audience has the demographic 15. The audience would be to those who appeal to horror and indulge in the frightening shocks of the supernatural torment. Depending on psychographics peoples views and beliefs on the 'supernatural' would vary, some would reinforce whilst others would challenge. The conventional couple appeal to this target audience. Also the screening displays the target audience being young, the 'on demand' at the end would appeal more to younger generation as they are more up to date with technology.

The representations of the people (couple) in the film are clear. The woman in the trailer seems to be the protagonist as the supernatural occurrences are happening to her. Maybe its portraying the ideology that women are the weaker sex. The whole film makes you think it can happen to anyone, even you. The verisimilitude gives you a vivid sense of this. Also, with the supernatural activity happening in the house/ in the couples room is almost like a invasion of your privacy, it sends enigma codes to the audience, like why them? Why at home? Lastly the institutions Paramount a American company 1st screened in Hollywood. Even though Paramount is a large company the budget was very small (hand held cameras etc), perhaps it reveals that even a big company is capable of having a huge hit even with a small budget.