PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 TRAILER ANALYSIS – SHAUN LIDDLE

The movie trailer begins with a fuzzy television affect, which

then leads into a handheld camera shot showing two young

children jumping on a trampoline, as the audience see this

they do not know what to expect from the trailer, however

as it is the third film the audience have an idea of what the

trailer is based on.

The trailer looks as if it is a regular home video by the

camera angles used. After 13 seconds of the trailer we then see a close-up shot which is used of the demon girl,

which connotes the real horror genre. As the shots are being screened the audience see cuts from the young girls

from children the adult women, this connotes a passage of time and lets the audience know who plays which

characters, as they would have only seen the older characters in the previous films.

The backing track does not necessarily run throughout the trailer however a crescendo appears every time

something paranormal happens, which is used to build up tension within the audience. As the trailer continues we

carry on seeing the children playing in the garden, however we now know the trailer is a horror by the crescendo

and the clips off the previous films. Slow motion effects are used as the girls are hula-hooping to connote the

paranormal activities in which are happening, dialogue is also used of the possessed girls’ laughter which adds a

weird effect to the trailer. After the slow motion effects and dialogue are used the film trailer begins to get faster.

The camera then cuts to a scene from the second film showing a woman being dragged out of the bedroom by a

demon using a high angle shot, this highlights the vulnerability of the woman. The trailer shows clips of the previous

films to remind the audience of the first two films. We then go to a text clip where we see ‘THIS OCTOBER’ which

has a serine effect of the audience as slow non-diegetic music is used in the background, the main aspect of the

trailer is to advertise the film therefore the date is included before anything else. Dialogue is then used after a black

fade which says ‘whatever happened to us when we are little. I don’t remember anything!’ this gives some of the

story away as the audience want to know what this third film includes.

At the beginning of the trailer we seen that the scenes were longer because it was introducing the audience to the

film, as the trailer progresses the pace gets faster as we

have more and more cuts to text. The text used includes

some parts saying ‘DISCOVER’ then it cuts back to the young

girls, and then after about 2 seconds we see ‘THE SECRET’

then the audience see some more clips showing what is

happening to the woman who is included in the previous

films. There is then an over the shoulder shot of a burnt photograph showing when the woman was little, as the

camera is positioned at a high angle this connotes the vulnerability of the woman within the trailer. After that we

then see a cut leading back to text saying ‘BEHIND THE ACTIVITY’ the way the trailer has been produced is in a way of

the text linking together, without the text clips continuously following each other. This keeps the audience attached

to the trailer therefore makes them interested in seeing the film.

We then hear the two children speaking some common lyrics of the ‘Bloody Mary’ tune. As the screen goes dark the

audience think that some kind of demon is going to pop up therefore this has the audience hiding their heads, or

hanging off their seats. As the lights go back on one of the young girls screams for a joke to scare the other not

knowing there is actually a silhouette lurking behind them. As the audience are the only people who know that the

demon is in the room with them it makes them want to tell the girls that there is someone there with them,

therefore gets the audience involved with the trailer.

The camera then fades to the title of them film using the fuzzy television effect giving the impression that the trailer

is ending, we then see the release date of ‘OCTOBER 2011’.

Overall the trailer uses certain clips from the film to try to attract the audience; however it avoids using some of the

scariest parts because they don’t want to spoil the film for the target audience.