BWB:institutional context - Paronormal activity (Pelli, 2007)

Production

Attempting to focus on believability rather than action and gore, Peli chose to shoot the picture with a home video camera. In deciding on a more raw and stationary format. and eliminating the need for a camera crew, more focus was on the characters. Peli says that the dialogue was "natural" because there was no real script. Instead, the actors were given outlines of the story and situations to improvise, a technique known as "retro scripting" also used in the making of The Blair Witch Project. In casting the movie, Peli auditioned "a few hundred people" before finally meeting Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat. He originally auditioned them individually and later called them back to audition together. Peli was impressed with the chemistry between the actors, saying, "If you saw the footage, you would've thought they had known each other for years. During a guest appearance on The Jay Leno Show on November 3, 2009, Sloat and Featherstone explained they each saw the casting call on LA Casting. Featherstone noted they were originally paid $500 for their work.

The film was produced with a budget of $15,00. The films first screening was in 2007 at an independent film festival, the film was then acquired by paramount pictures and adjusted. Paranormal activity was released in US cinemas on the 25th of September 2009, then later released nationwide on October 16th 2009. The film earned a worldwide total of $193 million,

Distribution

The trailer is a low budget triumph which was released only on YouTube and garnered nearly 1.5 million views. Paranormal Activity opened in the U.S. as the end of September with midnight screenings in just 13 small college towns. From there, it has become a Web sensation, with excited chatter about the movie bouncing from Twitter to Facebook, spurring an upcoming nationwide release. On Friday, it was screened in 155 US cinemas. Despite the limited nature of its distribution - most Hollywood films debut in around 3,000 cinemas. Its website allowed people to demand it be screened In a cinema near them.