Horror Deconstruction - Film Theory - The ring

 

Horror Deconstruction: The Ring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQty9shk_A8

How the Genre is being communicated?

Here I have looked at the different codes and conventions used to make ‘the ring’. This includes lighting, characters, props, music and location and many more.

Characters

The characters have that stereotypical dumb blonde character who is the non-believer in which case doesn’t know anything about the video tape. Then you get the clever brunette character who knows what’s going on and believes only everything. Their short skirts and blouse portrays there personality’s to being quite erotic, fun, bubbly and friendly.

Props

The clock is shown to tell not only the viewers but the characters that it’s time for phone call. The phone is used to keep the viewer’s holding on for a little longer and keeps them guessing on who’s the mysterious caller is.

Music/sound 

The sound builds tension at the beginning of the opening scene when the television starts to crackling very loudly out of the blue. Through-out the opening scene, supernatural occurs when the television decides to turn itself on. 

Setting

The opening scene of the ring is set in a big house. This is more realistic to something like a physiological thriller to happen in a big house. Mise en scene is used especially for the setting. Making the setting of the scene is very important to make it look normal. It is almost fooling the viewers into thinking the house is fine but really its where the worst things happen.

Action

The action builds suspense after the phone call when the female character notices that her friend is missing and when the television decides to turn itself on after turning it off and when the fridge door decides to open. This is almost supernatural and physiological.

 Lighting

The lighting is very dark but you find the light is brighter on specific objects or on the action taken place. 

Shot types:

This first part of the film is showing you where the location is set. The camera lighting is dark to show that it is night time and the director has done a long shot of the big house from an angel to show how it looks almost haunted which gives the horror effect. There’s a storm in the background to make the horror intense. This shot gives you the impression that something bad is going to happen in this house.

 

This shot shows two young girls looking vulnerable in short skirts laying on the bed and sitting on the floor. It shows that they are students from what they are wearing and dressed is in erotic way, it gives the impression that they are fun and friendly people who are very innocent. There camera lighting is still dark but they have used the lamp and television to give the bedroom a warm cosy feeling.

 

This is a medium shot of one of the girls telling about the 7 day story. You can see from the facial expression that she’s serious about it and believes it. It creates tension and how the character has her dark hair over her face.

 

 

 

 

 Here is a close up of the girls face to show her facial expression towards the story. This shot tells the viewer that she had watched the video. There is no sound in the bedroom just her voice to give an intense atmosphere. The lighting is still very dark to keep the location the same as normal. 

 

 

This shot is mid shot of the girl pretending to choke on the bed almost as if she doesn’t believe the story. On the other hand, the girl on the right who looks terrified. This dramatic shot almost makes the viewers believe as though she is actually dying.

 

 

 

This shot shows the character smirking and laughing as she was pretending to die. The lighting, location stays the same through - out first 5 minutes.

 

 

 

The camera zooms in on the alarm clock which says 10.00am. This tells viewer that it’s almost times up for the girls and death is about to occur.

 

 

Here is a close up the phone ringing waiting for the girls to pick up but at this point nobody knows who is on the other end of the phone call. The lighting seems to be a little brighter on the phone whereas the background is much darker to create a dramatic effect whilst the phone is ringing.

 

 

In this shot is a close up of the girl holding the phone to her ear. The colour of the phone is white so it stands out more in dark lighting. The camera angel is straight forward and directed straight at the two girls in the movie.

 

 

This shot is a medium shot of the girl passing the phone over to the other girl. The sound of the shot is silent with the scary killer voice in the background to make the viewers scared and feel uncomfortable.

This shot is a long shot of the television screen going static. This shot gives the impression that something scary is in the house because the television switches on by its self which creates the horror effect and makes the viewers get goose jumps and its engaging.

 

 

 

This shot is a mid shot of the remote on the sofa. The camera angel and the lighting worked well as the remote and sofa is brighter than the edges of the screen as its very darker. This is to emphasize the fact that something is in the house or something is going to happen.

 

This is a good close up showing the facial expression of the girls face looking terrified. Camera angle is at the side of the face to give more impact and to make it more effective. On the other hand, the light used from the television and the sound of the TV going static gives you goose-bumps and as the viewer you know that something is defiantly going to happen and tensions get higher and higher. So this shot is effective.

 

This shot is a long shot.  The camera angel is over powering the character by having a high angel looking down towards the girl. You can see the character is stood at the bottom of the stairs looking very petrified by how her hands are put together and playing with her thumbs.

 

 

This shot is mid shot. The camera angle is very low to show there water on the floor coming from the bedroom they were recently in. As the viewer it makes you think not to go back into the room.  They do this on purpose to make you fear for what’s going to happen.

 

This is a clear close up of the girls hand about to open her bedroom door. The sound in the background you can hear the dripping noise from the water which makes you think ‘oh that’s bazar’ but this shot is meant to make your heart beat quicker as its getting towards the dilemma.

 

This shot is a mid-shot focused onto the television showing the bricked well.The image on the television screen gives you the main reason on the background story of the film.

This is a close up zoomed in on the girls face. The effects worked well and made it look as though the girl got attacked and murder then murdered.  This shot mainly relates back to the opening scene of the film when they were discussing the video and then ever since her eyes glanced at the television screen, she then died.  The shot happened so quickly with screaming in the background.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feminism Deconstruction

Final destination 3 – Sun Bed Clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaz73KCiKaM

Films use a variety of techniques stereotype a women or challenge these stereotypes. Females are stereotyped as being the victim in horror films.

Feminism is used in Final destination 3 when two young females are getting into sun beds in bikinis. High camera angels are used through-out this particular part of the film when the two girls are lying down in the sun beds. The director has used mid-shots and close-ups of their bodies sweating to give a saucy vibe. Scophillia is used for the men from the pleasure taken from looking at it.

The two females play queen bee characters which means they are popular ones who tend to care about their appearance and care for themselves all the time. The camera angel lows on their whole body when the two girls are getting burned alive almost showing their body parts. The heavy breathing before they get burned when they start to realise the sun beds are getting hotter and hotter. This is engaging the males by what they are wearing and the two girls come across very flirtaous by how they are singing the song which makes it more enjoyable to watch for the men.

It has the stereotypical dumb blonde character that leaves her cold drink on top of the heater and the clever brunette character who is the first one to notice something is wrong. This part of the film you learn that both characters like to listen to old school music which shows what they are interested in. 

There isn’t much lighting, there is light from the sun beds shinning and glowing onto the girls to make the shot more effective by showing how much heat they are getting.

Semiotics - Scream

Semiotics – Scream

Genre

Scream has made the horror genre more engaging to watch by the codes and conventions used. The character is very vulnerable which means open to attack in the first part of the film as she’s alone in her big house. The music and sound had very loud and clear drums banging as tensions were getting more higher as the victim was about to get killed. Simple lighting used to give a cosy and homely atmosphere to show that everything’s seems ok and to give the impression nothing’s going to go wrong as most horrors have dark lighting. The narrative worked well, it’s a game through the phone leading up to the dramatic death. This keeps the viewers interested to see where the phone call was going to lead to as on the phone it seemed a normal conversation asking each-other questions on their favourite scary movie. 

Images

The images at the begging of the film you can see the ‘scream’ font in white as normal but then all of a sudden it turns to red font. This could represent blood and danger. The title itself says a lot about the film the words scream makes you aware of that there will be screaming in the film.

Actions

Mise en scene is used to keep the audience guessing on whom the murderers are. Every-time Drew Barrymore’s character picks up the phone, the mysterious caller threatens to kill her and her boyfriend. Little did she know, her boyfriend was already dead so this is telling the viewers that the killer knows a lot more about her than she imagined. The actions have been thought about very cleverly. You can see how the victim slowly gradually starts to walk slowly around the house to lock each door. As a viewer, it makes you think that you want to rush and quickly lock the doors for her because she’s that slow. Doing what you are supposed to do in horrors is not much of a horror film so they intentionally do it on purpose.

Objects

The phone was used not only through-out the opening scene but through-out the film. This is almost the killer’s game of getting the victim to talk about what their favourite scary movie before they die. The cooker was used to create tension whilst the victims on the phone to the killer. It shows she’s quite ditsy forgetting to turn off the cooker and so the time she got murdered, the house went up in smoke.

Sounds

With sounds, everybody expects knifes slicing into something, hearts beating fast, creaking doors and screams followed by more screams. What you see is what you get. In this particular opening scene when Drew Barrymore’s character is outside getting chased, you can hear frogs, crickets and outside creatures. You can hear sounds of heavy breathing, sobs and gasps; this is showing how hard she is trying to get away and fighting for her life.

Queer Theory

Cinema - Queer theory.

http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-que1.htm

Queer theory is about different identities such as gay and lesbian that gets portrayed stereotypically in films. Directors such as Todd Haynes, Tom Kalin, Jennie Livingston and Gregg Araki are the type of people to make these kinds of films.  For example queer theory is used in film such as ‘show me love, kinky boots and Priscilla.’  Queer theory started to grow in the 1970’s. It was more famous in Hollywood to have gays and lesbians being stereotypically portrayed. Here are a few examples of queer theory that I have learned…

 

QUEEN- A very flamboyant, effeminate gay man who can be considered a drama queen at times.

DRAG QUEEN- Someone who dresses up  as a women but is still a man.

 ISSIE- A camp person who is not very masculine and is easily scared.

 BUTCH- A women who is the masculine character within a lesbian relationship. She is very tom boy like.

FEMME – The more female character within a lesbian relationship. 

LIPSTICK LESBIAN- Slang term used to describe a lesbian women who exhibits extreme feminine gender attitudes.

SOFT BUTCH- A women who exhibits some stereotypical butch lesbian traits without fitting into the masculine stereotypes associated with butch lesbians.

I focused on one particular horror film which shows queer theory and this film is called ‘Vampire Boys’. I looked at the trailer and it shows a gay scene of two blokes kissing during the trailer. Watching the trailer makes me think that the movie is about a group of vampire boys who are hunting for more blood then they come across two other blokes. The trailer shows chemistry between one of the normal blokes and one of the blokes from the vampire group.                  

Here is a picture of the group of vampires. Although they don’t look like vampires here but they look very mysterious with their black shades on and you know that there up to know good by the way they walk with their hands by the side of them.

 

 

 

They dress every normal unlike some other queer theory films.  You know that the film is recent and not so old because if the film was a lot older then they would wear make- up and right clothes and act gayer.

 

 The way they make eye contact and make physically contact with eachother by shaking eachother’s hands show that they like eachother and you almost know that they are going to see eachother again.

 

 Here they are together showing eachother how much they love eachother. By knowing the blonde one is a vampire and brunette one isn’t shows that there must be some sort of catch towards the end of the film.