Website Deconstruction

THE RING

http://thering.asmik-ace.co.jp/

• Montage introducing the website makes it more eerie and fits the genre of horror as the images are distorted and subvert to its stereotype of being technological and keeps related to that theme. The images also reflect what the movie is about.
• The sound clips used when you hover the cursor over the icons for navigation are really effective in making the website different to others as the sound clips all differ from each other and subvert to the stereotype of horror with the sounds of distortion playing and may come to surprise, adding to the fear and tension it hopes the producers hoped to create.
• The colours used are typical for a horror genre: black, white and red. This conforms to the traditional side of horror even though the concept of the film is very modern, so it could show how even though it IS a different concept, it holds onto the roots of horror still.
• The syringe labelled “the tape” defines it as a definite article enforcing the idea that there is a possibility that it could be real.

• The website is quite easy to navigate with clear buttons and links to go to but personally I found that at times the site could be quite confusing especially when watching the trailer as there is a list of settings that the viewer may not know about.
• The thing I found most intriguing with this website for the fans were the abstract images leading to gags such as the piece of rope used as an icon labelled in Japanese. The whole point of this was to make the viewer answer and be interested as to what would eventually pop up once completing answering a set of questions. This to me heightened the fear but also kept me intrigued hence wanting to see more of what other gags the website had to offer.
• At the bottom of the introductory page the site has made sure to include that the film was made by Dream Works and this could encourage the audience that haven’t already seen the film that it is of good quality and has been produced by one of the major film companies.

POSTED BY SHAHNAZ

THE RING: Scene Deconstruction

THE RING- SCENE DECONSTRUCTION.

CAMERA ANGLES

The scene is first introduced with a close up of the television zooming out into a long shot so the television is in full view. This creates suspense and the TV being on its own gives the clip an ominous feeling as though it is something dangerous that lures people it; this additionally creates fear.
As the man watches the tape, the TV is filmed as though we are watching it from his eye which makes it a point of view shot which makes it even more frightening because the audience is placed in the protagonist’s shoes. As the tape progresses one can see the young girl crawling out of the well and the long shot enables us to see her fully in her dirtied nightdress and the hair covering her face. This creates more fear and this could create an enigma also as the audience won’t know what kind of a face the girl has.

At 0:55 one could say there is almost an over the shoulder shot of the TV towards the man. This could suggest that the TV has a mind of its own, well the video at least and this conforms to the stereotype of horror: making something inanimate seem as though it has a life of its own.

The tracking shot starting from 1:06 again follows the girl from the television that has exited the TV screen and become a living thing. It then continues as a close up shot of her grubby, deathly looking hands and the same is done with her feet at 1:30. This will enforce the idea of reality and for the audience that will be truly affected by this film, they might think that this could happen to them which again adds to the tension and fear of the whole scene, conforming to the stereotype of horror.

The close up shot of the girl at the end of the clip is built up by a quick zoom about 4 seconds before. The face revealed is horrific and sinister which adds to the fear of the whole scene the most because this is the moment the audience were anticipating the most.

MISE EN SCENE

The most obvious mise en scene in this whole film is the fact that they chose the girl as the main actress, as the object of fear. This conforms to the stereotype of horror by using a little girl and by doing this they have made something innocent turn into a disturbing character, almost like a villain which causes uneasiness and shock to us as humans seeing that drastic change.

The use of make up is also very effective. The deathly blue colour of the girl’s skin looks believable and adds to the fright as she looks like an actual corpse. Her make up on her face looks like there are slight scratches and the bags under her eyes look raw; this makes up her look the most personally speaking
The dirty nightdress she wears in covered in blackish stains against the white and this is binary opposition: good against evil. The white could connote the innocence of the child, but as she has been turned into a sort of villain the black could suggest evil tainting that innocence.

EDITING

The special effects used in this scene in particular are really impressive in making it seem more realistic and more interesting to watch for the audience such as when Samara comes out of the TV screen

At 1:16-1:18 that ~teleportation” effect helped to make the scene more scary as she moved from one place to another so quickly, it showed the audience that she really was something of the supernatural- conforming to the stereotypes of the supernatural being a popular resort in horrors.

A tracking shot used when Samara comes out of the TV screen which shows the audience how fast  Samara is moving and that she really is animate now as she is having to be followed because of her movements. This adds to the shock and horror that has already been building up.

SOUND

The phone ringing in the silence creates fear as one can really hear the robotic and resounding trill of the phone ringing. It makes as though all of the inanimate objects are against the man who is alone watching the screen which can make the audience feel as though the same can happen to them, so the fear could even come in later.

The quick violin sounds create suspense and build up the tension until the end of the scene where Samara’s face is revealed. This is typical of a horror movie and conforms to its traditional stereotype well.

POSTED BY SHAHNAZ

THE RING: Poster Deconstruction

• Firstly, the thing that mostly stands out in this film poster for me is the close up of the girl and the facial expression made by the child actress: the scorn. This makes the film poster even more striking and harrowing and it looks almost abnormal that a child would pull such a sinister looking face, heightening the fear and achieving its goal of being chilling within its horror genre.
• The poster also conforms to a certain trend found in horror films of using a child as the main focus and as the protagonist such as The Exorcist or Insidious. This is seen as a scare factor as it looks as though something as innocent and oblivious as a child is tainted by the supernatural: it makes just about everything known to us look vulnerable.
• In this close up we can clearly see that the girl has cuts and deathly bluish white skin on her face and this again makes the whole poster seem even more evil looking. Also by having the hair over her eye like that, jet black in colour, it really stands out against the blue colour format of the poster and the one eye looks as though it is staring directly at the audience making it more personal and intimidating.
• The blue colour format of the poster subverts the stereotype for horror when the usual colours used are gothic colours such as red, black and white. The blue colour gives a cold feeling, emotionless and it could represent the surreality of television and how superficial and cold it is but it provokes all sorts of emotions and makes all kinds of impacts.  To add to the fact that it is going for the cold televised look, at the top of the poster there are faint lines and they just about smudge on the title just like a static television would d, connoting that television will be part of the main basis of the film.
• The block capitals used to make up the title make it simplistic whilst still making an impact, again making it look “perfect” as though things seem like that on television but almost too “perfect” which could make it look more harrowing.
• The trees in the background seem as though there is a black gaping hole in them and again this could suggest tainting something innocent and natural.
• The light cutting through the ‘g’ of ‘The Ring’ looks as though a television is being turned on, again conforming to the main topic of the film which is television.
• The poster abides by the golden rule as the main focus of the poster itself, the close up of the girl is within the triangle and looks the most effective.

POSTED BY SHAHNAZ