Paranormal Activity is a low-budget film made on around $15,000, which has seen returns of over $61,000,000! It is a film of a young couple who move into a home, only to find it has paranormal activity at night. The 'hand-held' camera technique is something that we were introduced to by 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. They set up a video-recorder in the bedroom and the story goes from there. It is the 1st film we have ever seen by director Oren Peli. I have to admit, he's not doing too badly for his 1st film!
The new evolvement of online media has a huge part to play in the success of this film. There is an official website for the film, where trailers can be viewed. There is also a tool where viewers can 'vote' for the movie to open in their city (known as 'Demand It!') This, of course, was before the huge success of the film, when the movie was going around the United States of America.
The trailer on the website is available to be shared with friends on Facebook, Twitter and can even be sent by e-mail, to obviously create a buzz. Facebook itself has over 300 million active users, with more than 65 million active users currently accessing the social networking site through their mobile phones.
Oren Peli's tactics were those of a PR genious! By setting up a website and spreading the word, he did something different. He sold out of 12 of his 13 shows which he shown in 13 college towns. And soon the word was spread! People were demanding the movie in their cinema! Not long after, it was released nationwide and as they say, the rest is history!
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