The Ring analysis

When watching Luke's presentation of 'The Ring' opening, we noticed there was a wide range of camera shots/angles, mise-en-scene, editing and sound. At the beginning they show an establishing shot, we see clouds moving really quickly in the sky, this could imply that they are running out of time in the film and the time is passing by quickly. This could make the audience feel nervous and anxious for the characters in the film as we get a feeling they only have little time left before something bad happens. As the camera gets deeper and deeper into the forest more and more trees appear which makes us feel chlaustrophobic, and implies that the characters are becomming trapped and that there is no way out. The tracking shot follows her through the forest to the house, when she arrives at the house she looks through the window. The lighting on her face as she looks through the window is red which could imply she is about to come across danger and the colour red signifies danger. Also the red lighting could symbolise death, the colour relates to blood which relates to death. Therefore, this could be telling the audience she will be in a lot of danger throughout the film and possibly die.

The phone is very significant throughout the film as it is what tells the characters they are going to die. In many scenes throughout the film we see the phone in the background a lot, which could imply that it is always on their minds and they are always awaiting the dreaded phonecall, showing that they are constantly on edge and very anxious about the phone ringing. The phone symbolises death - therefore death is always on their mind. As the camera gets closer and closer to the womans face (from a close up to an extreme close up), more and more of her emotions are revealed. We see and almost feel ourselves, the fear that she is feeling because we are so close up in her face. The woman is basically always shown in a faint red light, whereas the man isnt. This could be saying how she is the one that is in danger and who will be affected, and he wont be. As the man begins to destroy the house and smash the plates, we as an audience feel for him as it shows how he has been affected by the ring. It has made him lose control and lose his mind. He no longer knows what to do or how to handle himself.

In the background there is very soft and subtle non-diegetic music played, which is very ironic seeing as the scene is building up to something bad thats going to happen - you would expect there to be quite dramatic music that is building up. The soft music does sound quite haunting and even the though the audience can hear this innocent music they know in the back of thei minds that the scene is building up to something terrifying. The music could be trying to make the audience feel relaxed about the situation so that when the bad thing happens, it makes them jump and has more of a scary effect on them. The music builds up great suspence and tension for the audience, and puts us on edge for whats about to happen.

The camera shows a shot of the womans face in full focus and the man standing in the background is out of focus. This could be implying that she is more of a main part as we can see more detail on her and can see her emotions whereas the man is blurred which could show he isn't of such an important character and we dont need to know as much about him. Also the fact we cant see the detailing of his emotions could be implying that we shouldnt necessarily care for his feelings, we should care more about the woman as she is more of a main character. Also this shot could also be symbolising the fact that the ring is only after the woman, it isn't after the man, it isn't interested in him.

Theres a big contrast between the light and dark areas which could symbolise the good and bad areas, which could also be showing the contrast between life and death. Down below the surface of the floor it is very dark conpared to above the floorboards. This could be implying that down below is the place of death (as the darkness could symbolise hell, compared to heaven above the floorboards where it is much lighter). The low angled show from below the floorboards shows the man and the woman looking down into the hole, this could be be implying that death is staring right at them in the face, it is basically right in front of them and there is no escape from it now. This shot shows the vulnerability on their faces and their nervous expression, this puts the audience on edge making us fear for what will happen. The shot angles always show a low angle looking up at the man and the woman, and a high angled shot looking down into the hole (looking up at the good, down at the bad), this is ironic as in real life people always look down on bad people and things, and always look up and aspire to be like the good people. As she falls down the hole and eventually reaches the bottom at which she is now dead, the television screen is no longer blurry it has completely blanked out. Which could show how the tele represented her life, and now that she is dead so is the tele.