HG- Institutional Context- Paranormal Activity

Institutional Context- Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity is a 2007 (Later modified in 2009) American Supernatural Horror Film written, co-produced, photographed, edited, and directed by Oren Peli. The film focuses on a Katie and Micah, a young couple whom are troubled by a ghostly existence in their home. It is shown in the style of "Found Footage", from cameras placed by Katie and Micah whom try to document what it is that is distressing them.

A parallel sequel, Paranormal Activity 2, was released on October 22, 2010. The popularity of the first two films intrinsically sparked more films in the Paranormal Activity series: the prequel Paranormal Activity 3, released on October 21, 2011, and sequel to 2, Paranormal Activity 4 released on October 19, 2012, a spin-off titled Paranormal Activity:The Marked Ones released on January 3, 2014 and Paranormal Activity:The Ghost Dimension where the scheduled release is on March 13, 2015.

Important Fact about Paranormal Activity 

Paranormal Activity was originally set out as an independent film yet was acquired by Paramount Pictures and was modified most noticeably with a new ending on the first movie. This occurred after the first release and all the other spawning films in the series were distributed solely by Paramount. The film was given a limited U.S. release on September 25, 2009, and then a nationwide release on October 16, 2009.

Exhibition&Distribution

One of the most effective promotional techniques that Paranormal Activity utilized was the innovative idea of letting consumers be the distribution chief. To explain this in further detail, fans nationwide were able to literally demand by hitting a "Demand" button on its website -- that the movie screen in their area. Consequently, Paramount would select for a series of midnight screenings -- all achieved by using a bare minimum of select TV spots featuring reaction shots from Hollywood screenings and a smattering of online and radio ads.This initial campaign is an effective use of Web 2.0 creating a mass buzz for the demographic to be part of. 

Furthermore, there were midnight screenings pre-release in Los Angeles and select college towns, this generated unprecedented amounts of demand at the studio and at local theaters. Discussing the exhibition of Paranormal Activity in more detail, the film earned over $500,000 the weekend of Oct. 2, after being exclusively presented at midnight in 12 markets, including five sellout screenings at Los Angeles' ArcLight theater, encouraging Paramount to increase "Paranormal" to a fixed showtime routine in 46 markets in 170 theaters on the opening weekend.

By the end of the weekend, Paramount was predicted to surpass another goal, having announced on Oct. 5 that the film would receive a wide release once it hits 1 million demands on its Eventful page. The "Demand" ticker had surpassed 860,000 by mid-afternoon on the Friday, nearly triple the amount of demands logged 72 hours before, with "Paranormal Activity" becoming a constant trending topic on Twitter during the midnight hour for many consecutive weeknights. A sponsored Twitter account, @TweetYourScream, already had over 4,700 followers after the opening weekend and a Facebook page that had 47,000 fans who had been uploading their video reactions to the film also just after release.

Production

Orin Peli decided to focus on believability rather than action and gore, the producer chose to shoot the film with a very ordinary home video camera. In deciding on a more raw and stationary format (the camera was almost always sitting on a tripod or something else) and eliminating the need for a camera crew (to save money), a "higher degree of plausibility" was created for the audience as Peli thought they were to be "more invested in the story and the characters". Peli says that the dialogue was "natural" because the actors improvised, they knew the rough outlines of the plot yet there was no real script, this is known as retroscripting. 

Peli interviewed around 200-300 people, yet he decided on Katie and Micah due to their exceptional chemistry and bond. The film was shot out of sequence as a consequence of Peli's self-imposed seven day shooting schedule, though Peli would have preferred the story to unfold for the actors as he had previously envisioned it. Sloat, the figure who controlled and instigated the camerawork for the majority of the film, was a former cameraman at his university's TV station. "It was a very intense week", Peli said, stating that the film would be shot day and night, edited at the same time, and would have the visual effects added to it as the acting footage was being finalized.