Cinema Retro magazine deconstruction

Insidious 2 teaser trailer deconstruction

Magazine deconstruction- 'Diabolique'

Insidious 2 poster deconstruction

The Woman in Black teaser trailer deconstruction

 

 

 

 

 

This is the official trailer with sound.

 

 

 

 

This is my video deconstruction of the trailer.

The Woman in Black poster deconstruction

Paranormal Activity 2 teaser trailer deconstruction

Shot 1- consists of blurred lines, suggesting that the screen is showing footage from a hand-held video camera rather than a professionally filmed scene, this creates a realistic effect and indicates to the audience that the trailer is, in a way, shot by the actual characters; which is the point of the Paranormal Activity films. The sound effects include thumping, implying that someone is slowly walking up a set of stairs, this creates suspense which produces tension in the audience.
Shot 2- This is a wide shot, establishing the whole of the bedroom. A body is then flung through the door, hitting the camera which tilts for a second upwards to see the ceiling light, then flops back down again to the same view of the room, except with a slight appearance of the body lying on the floor. The use of a wide shot establishes the setting, and leads to the viewer being more surprised when the body is quickly brought forward to the camera lens, as there is more setting for the viewer to focus on which ultimately leads to a surprised reaction when something is suddenly brought to attention. The lighting is extremely low key, and the darkness connotes danger and death; this reflects the body which is placed on the floor.
Shot 3/4/5- These shots show glimpses of audiences in the cinema, they're all medium/long shots as some audience members are closer to the camera than others. The lighting appears to be on 'night vision' and the cinema audience are all looking in the apparent direction of the cinema screen intensely. This all creates a realistic effect and indicates that the audience are quite tense/scared.
Shot 6- A close up on the bedroom door, the lighting is still low key and this indicates a sense of enigma. The viewer will be scared from seeing the body fly through the door, but will also not know what is on the other side that caused it to happen- this creates fear and suspense.
Shot 7- Close-up of a moving face, which lunges at the camera. This shot is extremely short compared to the other shots, this causes a sense of panic and urgency to escape the dark face that is moving towards the camera.
Shot 8/9/10- Again all cinema audience shots, which are close-ups this time however. This is done to capture the facial expressions of the shocked and terrified audience members. The sound of the audience screaming emphasizes the fear produced by the image.
Shot 11- after some blurring, another wide shot of a different bed room takes place, mainly low key with some areas of highlight. There's light seeping through the door onto the guard dog (possibly signifying that the dog is good) and there's a lamp next to the baby, also symbolising its innocence and purity.
Shot 12- An establishing shot to present the outside of the house, everything is very still and this creates an eerie effect.
Shot 13- A wide shot of the kitchen, which is completely bare of people but there are sound effects of pans/plates banging together, indicating that there is a supernatural force at work. Lighting is still low key, connoting evil and ambiguity.
Shot 14- Back to the bedroom with a wide shot, there is some movement by the dog when it seems to hear the sound of thumping- this links with the beginning of the trailer and will therefore cause tension once again in the audience as they will know something bad is about to happen.
Shot 15- 'NOTHING CAN PREPARE YOU' is written on a blank screen, the thumping sound effect continues, creating further tension.
Shot 16- Wide shot of the bedroom, the dog is barking at the door and the baby is stood up in his cot, this creates a sense of panic in the viewer as you're scared due to the dogs alarm at danger and the babies vulnerability.
Shot 17- 'FOR WHAT'S NEXT' on a blank screen, there are also blurred lines to continue the realistic hand-held camera effect.
Shot 18- Wide shot of the living room, all of these wide/establishing shots are displaying to the audience that there's no one in the house but there is still danger, which means that there must be something supernatural.
Shot 19- Wide shot of the bedroom, but there's a dark figure standing in the doorway blocking the light, indicating that this figure is evil and sinister. The baby and the dog appear to be gone, this suggests that the supernatural has overtaken the good/innocent. There's a sound effect of a sudden bang/cling at the start of the shot to make the viewer jump.
Shot 20/21- These last shots are blank screens that display the name of the film and a website. The name of the film flashes, with a sound effect that sounds similar to the sound of the blurred lines; this creates more fear in the viewer as they probably understand by now that the film is supposedly shot by the cameras the characters have placed, and this creates a more realistic effect. The typography is quite plain, reinforcing the realism of the trailer, as an overly gothic font would probably look too melodramatic for the film.

Paranormal Activity 2 poster deconstruction

Mood board- Supernatural Horror Conventions

Conventions of Supernatural Horror


Setting: often the locations consist of secluded areas such as dark forests, an empty road/pathway or a vacant, spooky house. All of these possible locations indicate a sense of vulnerability for the characters in them, due to the vacancy and unfamiliarity of the area.

Costume/props: The costume and props really depend on the time that the film is set in. Many supernatural horror films include ‘flashbacks’ and a way of showing this is through the difference in clothing and props. For example, in Insidious 2 the family dress in your average modern clothing (jeans and t-shirts) and use modern technology such as mobile phones, TV’s and baby monitors; however a flashback to an earlier time period is shown through the fact that the women is wearing a long frilly dress, and is stood in an old fashioned looking child’s room (there’s a dolls house, rocking horse, old fashion wallpaper, etc.)

Characters: In the majority of supernatural horrors the characters tend to try and block out any evidence of the evil around them, as they don’t want to believe in a supernatural force. Many films of this genre focus around the lives of a family, as viewers are often more scared and tense when watching a film if it involves the vulnerability of a child (Examples- Insidious, The Conjuring, Sinister, The Woman in Black, Paranormal Activity 2 and 3, etc.). A lot of the time, however, they focus on couples (Paranormal Activity, The Grudge). The couple tend to be young and have aspects of vulnerability, for example the female protagonist in Paranormal Activity is ‘haunted’, she’s clearly terrified in the film and her boyfriend tries to protect her and make her less defenceless.

Lighting: Low key lighting is used frequently to emphasize the connotation of darkness and evil, and the areas of highlight within the low key lighting often display a figure/shadow. Low contrast tends to be used in the scenes where the characters are human, and this displays a sense of dullness and exhaustion, indicating that the evil force is getting to the characters emotionally. High contrast is sometimes used in scenes where the supernatural force is at work, as the high contrast conveys a sense of power, for example harsh blood reds are used against black in Insidious when the human character is fighting a demon.

Camera: Low angles are often used to display the evil force as dominating, for example in The Grudge the supernatural being is placed at the top of the stairs/on the banister, this indicates that they are more powerful than the human character. In contrast to this, high angles are frequently used on the characters that are being affected by the evil forces, like in Insidious when the mother is listening into the baby monitor- the evil force is clearly upstairs with the baby whom she can hear on the monitor, and the high angle camera angle reinforces her feebleness.

Sound: The dialogue tends to be diegetic, as this creates a realistic effect in the film as all the sound is originating from within the screen world (so supernatural horrors often avoid voiceovers for example). Sound effects are used to create an eerie feeling, sound effects such as wind blowing, floorboards creaking, thumping, etc. However, ironically, one of the best effects to create a feeling of eeriness is silence. Silence creates suspense and tension.

Editing: Supernatural horrors often use temporal editing, as they aren’t bound by normal time, so they frequently use flashbacks and flash-forwards. Parallel editing is also used a lot to create tension, for example in The Conjuring the parents are driving home at the same time that their daughter is being locked in a room by an evil force, this causes the viewer to feel panicked as they want the parents to get home in time to save the child.

What is a British film?

What is a British film? from jocorsh

Paranormal Activity 2 Teaser Trailer recreation

Film genre

The British board of film Classification

Gantt Chart