The Ring Opening Sequence

The Ring is a psychological horror film that focuses more on atmosphere and building up suspense rather than contently scaring the audience. It perfectly makes the audience become extremely tense until the climax which is quick and ends within a few seconds.

 

 

 

The sequence starts with a shot of a teenage girl about to walk out of her kitchen when she hears a static sound. The screen then goes into a close-up shot of the girl to show her shock and confused expression. This lets the audience know that something is obviously wrong. The TV is then shown to be the source of the sound and has been turned on however the room is empty and the remote lays on the sofa untouched. This creates a sense of enigma, the audience know that something is happening but nobody, neither the audience or character, know what is causing the problem but the audience wants to find out more. The girl turns off the TV and places the remote down however the TV turns back on causing the girl to stop in her tracks. The character blames another person in the house however the audience will know that something else is causing these problems. There is then a noise causing the girl to turn to face where it came from, only to see nothing suspicious. The fridge then flies open and after closing it the girl travels upstairs to find the only other person in the house. However the is a liquid all over the floor by the door and dripping of the door handle. There is a shot of her hand slowly opening the door before a flash of events. She bursts open the door, sees the TV on the death tape, the camera zooms into on her face, it is difficult to see what happens but it looks like her face melts or (as it is psychological) has been possessed. There is then several image flashed onto the screen followed by the TV static.

The audience is left to only guessed what the images are as they flash up for less than a second and what happened to the girl. A large sense of enigma is left behind as there are many unanswered questions that the audience will want answers to.

Using sounds to create a sense of atmosphere is key for a psychological horror and this opening used it perfectly. There is music on very quietly in the background and makes the scene even more sinister. Static is also a key sound and is heard 3 times during the sequence and hints that it will be a important feature that the audience will have to look out for later on in the film.

The camera shots are also different instead of all being medium shots such as high angle from the top of the stairs to make the character seem smaller and a close up of her hand on the door handle. This makes the sequence more interesting to watch as although the continuity edits are very smooth it is still a creative way to show the basic activities that the girl is doing.

Distribution

Distribution

After the production stages the film goes through the final stages, distribution. Films are sent out to the cinema's for first viewing. The films advertising becomes larger with posters and official trailers rather than teasers. Interviews from the production team or actors are sometimes used to comment on the film. After the film has been in the cinema's for a while the distributer will turn the film into DVD's, Blue-Rays and downloads so the audience can watch the film from home.

 

Some famous distribution companies are:

 

• Warner Bros
• Sony Film
• 20th Century Fox
• Entertainment Film Distributors
• Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Disney Pixar

 

 

All of these companies will send out a film made by a production company to cinemas and prepare for it to be released on other platforms such as DVD's and Blu Rays, downloads, accessible on programs such as NetFlix and Lovefilm and can be brought on a gaming console to watch. They will control most of the advertising and as distribution companies are usually well-known respected companies films will usually get more attention if being distributed by a famous distribution company.

Group Progress - Re-Filming

Today my group and I looked over the footage we filmed and agreed to re-film certain scenes and add some new shots. This time we want to show the location more and try out some new camera shots to make our sequence more interesting to watch when our character is doing everyday activities such as running. We are also going to film the media room scene in the session as it has yet to be filmed. We had the idea of putting a static video on every computer in the room which will make the setting unsettling as it is a unpleasant sound.

Our Filming Location - We Want to Show
of the More of the Location in Our Next Shoot

Static will be Played on Every Computer in the Media Room

 

 





Group Progress - Exporting Footage

We exported the footage today after our first shoot. I think the footage is quite good for our first shoot and it will create the outline for our first draft. We got some interesting angles for our sequence to make it different so not all of the shots are the same. We will start the editing after all of the footage has been uploaded next lesson.

 

Exporting the Footage

Group Progress - Filming Complete

All of our footage has been taken for our first draft and editing will begin in the next media lesson. Overall shooting our footage went well despite a few minor problems such as doors that automatically locked, teachers getting in shots and that is was not as dark outside as we had hoped it would be and having to leave before we wanted as the cleaners needed to clean the media room but other than those issues I think our footage was good for our first time shooting. As we were told to leave before we had a chance to film the media room we will have to schedule more time to shoot that scene. Next lesson we will begin editing and planning the media room scene as well as discussing music. We can also see if there are any shots we missed during the first shoot or any shots we will have to  re-film.

 

To edit we are using premier pro and our progress will also be updated on our group blog:

Shotgun Productions
 

A Picture of the Group Filming the Grabbing Scene

Group Progress - Locations

In our story our character is locked inside her school which meant that we would use our sixth form to film, however to make the scene more realistic we have decided to wait until all of the other students had gone home before shooting. This means that the school would be empty and therefore match our scene of a abandoned school. The places we are going to shoot are:

• A science classroom and corridor - This particular department looks old and has bulletin boards with work on it which shows the audience that the setting is a school.
• Outside Gates - These gates are always locked so our character can pull at them as hard as she can without them opening.
• Corridor below the stairs - This space is directly next to the gate and by the stairs allowing our character to run in different directions, it is also a place where we can do a high angle shot.
• Media Stairs - These stairs will be  used  for a quick running sequence and they also that lead straight to the next location.
• Media Room - This room is where our character will hide. It is a big room that we can easily film in as we will have a lot of space.

As we are filming in school we wanted to make our setting unique as it is easy to film in a location where media lessons take place so we will until the school is empty and will make the setting match the genre by making the corridors dark.

Opening Credits - Zombieland

Opening credits show who had a main part in making the film such as the producer, actors and designers, some are words over a background and others are included in the films footage. One of the most interesting opening credits belongs to the film Zombieland.

Zombieland Official Poster

Before the credits begin the film gives a bit of background to the film as a narrator sets some rules to follow during the film. It is also to set the tone of a horror survival situation but the narration gives it an element of humour. The credits start at 2:40 in the video and are cleverly placed into the scenes. The scenes that are playing are all in slow motion so that they are barely moving, this lets the audience look at the scene and the credits. Each scene shows a different horror that the characters will be facing through the film, the main threat being the zombies.

The credits themselves are placed into the scenes in a bold red text so that they are noticeable  and stand out in each scene however the most interesting point about the credits is that if a character crosses the text instead of going through it the text gets knocked out of the way. This represents the tone of the film as the world is falling apart and fading away much like the text.

Target Audience Questionnaire

Questionnaire - Target Audience for Psychological Horror

Name:

Age:


1) What is your favourite movie genre?

2) How do you watch films? (DVD? Netflix? Downloads?)

3) What is your favourite film?

4) What do you like most about your favourite film? (Story? Characters?)

5) What do you think psychological horror films should include?

6) How would you feel and what would you do if you were the main character in our film plot?



Group Progress - Storyboard

 

After writing our plot we decided to start our storyboard to help us get an idea of what to film when we started filming. Following the plot we had written out beforehand we drew out brief shots and the  camera angles we wanted to use and discussed possible other ideas that we could try out when filming. We also added whether there would be sound or  dialogue in each shot.

Group Progress - Ideas

When discussing ideas for our opening sequence we decided straight away that we wanted to do a horror film. Although horror is a popular choice and is seen as the easy genre I disagree, I think that a good horror film is difficult to make as it has to contain scares but also trying to avoid using too many clichés and having something about it that sets it apart from the others. When discussing what kind of horror film we wanted to do we decided on a psychological horror. This allowed us to be more creative and focus more on the atmosphere than jump scares. We wrote down two different stories to chose from on the group blog but after discussing which one would be interesting to watch we settled on the second on we had written as we had put more thought into it. The plot for our opening sequence is:

As the first draft of our plot it will likely be changed by adding and taking away parts of it. An actor will also need to be chosen for the main character and a storyboard will need to be made to help us have a clearer idea of the shots when we begin to film.