AS: We’d been fans of the first two “Paranormal’s" but never thought in a million years we’d be asked to direct the third one. We didn’t even consider ourselves horror directors. But the Paranormal team at Paramount really liked Catfish, and based on the one really scary scene in that movie, thought we’d be a good fit.
SG: The trailers (especially with Paranormal Activity 3), includes a lot of footage not included in the films, was this deliberate?
AS: That was not deliberate. The film’s production timeline is so fast that the marketing team is cutting a trailer while were shooting. They don’t know exactly what scenes were keeping the final edit by the time they need to release a trailer, and neither do we. We end up cutting scenes at the last minute. The positive side-effect to that is that the audience thinks they know what they’re going to see but is in fact surprised, which is the point of horror and suspense. Most trailers give everything away.
SG: How did the idea of using a Kinect in Paranormal Activity 4 come about?
AS: The objective of the found footage genre is to motivate the camera with a camera the characters would have. We settled on laptops this year, because it seemed so natural for a modern house with two kids. We considered using the camera in the Kinect as well, but then we found this YouTube video showing what else the Kinect could do…project thousands of infrared tracking dots. So we thought that was cool.
SG: What is the hardest part about filming in the found footage style and did you come across any major problems?
AS: The hardest part is motivating the camera in an expositional scene. You have to figure out how to have a character say important stuff naturally, and have a camera believably rolling.
SG: How do you feel when fans say that the films are very repetitive and predictable, do you feel like you have to push the boundaries more?
AS: That’s part of the charm of the films. They have to be repetitive and slow to lure you into their suspense. But predictable isn’t good, we should always push the boundaries.
SG: There is a Latino spin-off in the works, which is going to be directed by a writer in the Paranormal Activity series, but how closely will this tie in with the original series?
AS: We can’t really say. That project is under double secret confidence within the studio.
SG: Have you guys thought about how you would like the series to end and how many more sequels would that produce?
AS: We’d like it to beat the Saw franchise, and end with angels and unicorns.
SG: On a few social networking sites, there is a man called Jacob Degloshi. He most recently posted a photo on twitter of his daughter with her friend ‘Alex’ from PA4; also he is posting videos of ‘Katie’ and ‘Kristi’ as children from old VHS tapes he found in his daughters suitcase. Can you tell us anymore information about this?
AS: That sounds like a crazy tie-in to the movie. Paramount gets pretty funky with marketing…I’ll check it out.
Thank you very much, Mr. Schulman – I can’t wait to see what you do next!
AS: That was not deliberate. The film’s production timeline is so fast that the marketing team is cutting a trailer while were shooting. They don’t know exactly what scenes were keeping the final edit by the time they need to release a trailer, and neither do we. We end up cutting scenes at the last minute. The positive side-effect to that is that the audience thinks they know what they’re going to see but is in fact surprised, which is the point of horror and suspense. Most trailers give everything away.
SG: How did the idea of using a Kinect in Paranormal Activity 4 come about?
AS: The objective of the found footage genre is to motivate the camera with a camera the characters would have. We settled on laptops this year, because it seemed so natural for a modern house with two kids. We considered using the camera in the Kinect as well, but then we found this YouTube video showing what else the Kinect could do…project thousands of infrared tracking dots. So we thought that was cool.
SG: What is the hardest part about filming in the found footage style and did you come across any major problems?
AS: The hardest part is motivating the camera in an expositional scene. You have to figure out how to have a character say important stuff naturally, and have a camera believably rolling.
SG: How do you feel when fans say that the films are very repetitive and predictable, do you feel like you have to push the boundaries more?
AS: That’s part of the charm of the films. They have to be repetitive and slow to lure you into their suspense. But predictable isn’t good, we should always push the boundaries.
SG: There is a Latino spin-off in the works, which is going to be directed by a writer in the Paranormal Activity series, but how closely will this tie in with the original series?
AS: We can’t really say. That project is under double secret confidence within the studio.
SG: Have you guys thought about how you would like the series to end and how many more sequels would that produce?
AS: We’d like it to beat the Saw franchise, and end with angels and unicorns.
SG: On a few social networking sites, there is a man called Jacob Degloshi. He most recently posted a photo on twitter of his daughter with her friend ‘Alex’ from PA4; also he is posting videos of ‘Katie’ and ‘Kristi’ as children from old VHS tapes he found in his daughters suitcase. Can you tell us anymore information about this?
AS: That sounds like a crazy tie-in to the movie. Paramount gets pretty funky with marketing…I’ll check it out.
Thank you very much, Mr. Schulman – I can’t wait to see what you do next!
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