Indication of narrative in a trailer

As you can see from my previous blog entries, I have been deconstructing scary movies - in particular Paranormal Activity. I have been doing this to get an idea of what existing products, movie wise, are already out in the public. Looking at these will give me and my group ideas for our own movie trailer we will be making in the near future.

I have been looking at the trailer for paranormal activity again to see what features it uses to give an indication of its narrative and what it uses to make us know that it is a film about the paranormal.

The most obvious thing about the film is the title. It is

named 'Paranormal Activity' which is pretty much telling us straight away it's a film about the paranormal and things such as ghosts and spirits. If it had a different title, I think it would be harder to identify what the film was about.

Towards the beginning of the clip, Micah says how he is setting up the camera because his girlfriend thinks there is something in the house.

This is a screen grab of Micah preparing his camera ready for filming. This clip of him saying how Katie thinks there is something in the house gives a strong idea for the narrative as well because we know that the film is going to be about the paranormal but now we know the two characters and how the paranormal activity is taking place in

side their house.

This screen grab shows footprints and marks in the talcum powder which give us an idea of the narrative because it shows that something does actually happen in the house while they are sleeping and they didn't even know it.