The opening scene of the film introduces the family of Christie and her husband as they arrive home with their newborn baby. Several shots show the parents unpacking items for the baby and cooing over the sleeping infant. The lighting is bright to portray a realistic family home environment, though the film title hints that something sinister will eventually happen. By mentioning the police department in the opening credits, the film reinforces the idea that the found footage is part of a real investigation into the family. However, the opening does not emphasize any paranormal activity directly, instead focusing on the birth of Christie's first son.

1. My 1st Film Opening Analysis.

2. What happens in the opening?
• In the beginning the film opens onto a black screen which reads: "Paramount
Pictures would like to thank the families of the deceased and the Carlsbad police
department." This shot then fades into a long shot of a car making it's way down
the street towards a drive. The camera turns to show a close up of a house then
turns again to show the Car pulling up beside the camera. Meanwhile the person
behind the camera is speaking as if to someone they intend to show the footage
to. The camera zooms in as a woman climbs out of the car (Christie) and cuts to a
close up of a baby being taken out of the car by a man. The scene cuts again to a
two shot of Christie and her husband moving towards the camera, talking to
whoever's behind it. Another cut and we see a close up/tracking shot of Christie
entering the house. Christie moves out of shot and we see another woman coming
down the stairs (mid-shot) and the camera tracks her to the baby. The shot cuts to
a close up of her cooing and such over the baby. Another cut and we see a two
shot of Christie and her husband unpacking baby items. Again the camera cuts to
a close up of the baby sleeping and the person behind the camera gushing over it.
All this happens in the opening minute of the film. I would've done another
minute but there is so many shots that I got confused.

3. Why I think they did a mentioning to
the Police Department in the opening
shot.
• If you've watched all three Paranormal Activity
films you'll know that this is something they
do at the beginning of each film to suggest
that the footage used is actually real. They
reinforce this idea by not showing any credits
at the end making the audience believe (or
trying to get them to believe) that no one was
hired to make it seem as though the footage
was taken from an actual police investigation.

4. The emphasis.
• There isn't much emphasis on the actual
paranormal activity involved in this film in the
opening. The emphasis or main object is the
birth of Christie's first son Hunter. Though it
doesn't seem like it has much relevance to the
film from the opening the birth of her first son
is very involved in the plot later on.

5. The lighting.
• I mention this because lighting had a huge impact in our opening
sequence as it had to fit in with our themes of Death and Satanism...:(
• It was a very different story for this opening however as the lighting hinted
nothing. During the opening the lighting is very bright and homely...not
dim or dark as I expected it to be. This was probably due to the fact that
the director wanted to make the footage look as realistic as possible and
therefore not give away that anything bad was going to happen to them
even though from watching the first film and just by knowing the film title
you know that something bad is going to happen. It's the same with the
setting as well as it doesn't have anything sinister looking about the house
that they filmed in...it looked like a regular family home which was what
the director was looking for (I assume).

6. THE END.