POSTER ANALYSIS by ADORENA

post annotation kiran

Overall the poster is simple and does not reveal allot of information, however it does use allot of persuasive techniques to attract the audience. The poster uses Critical acclaim, the USP , images the, right colours which link to the film and uses the actors names.

Mya - The Ring Review - Variety.com - Todd Mccarthy

The Ring

By TODD MCCARTHY

A DreamWorks Pictures release of a MacDonald/Parkes-Bender-Spink production. Produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald. Executive producers, Mike Macari, Roy Lee, Michele Weisler. Co-producer, Christine Iso. Co-executive producers, Neal Edelstein, J.C. Spink. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Screenplay, Ehren Kruger, based on the novel by Koji Suzuki and the motion picture by the Ring/Spiral Production Group.

Rachel Keller - Naomi Watts
Noah - Martin Henderson
Aidan - David Dorfman
Richard Morgan - Brian Cox
Dr. Grasnik - Jane Alexander
Ruth - Lindsay Frost
Beth - Pauley Perrette
Katie - Amber Tamblyn
Becca - Rachael Bella
Babysitter - Sara Rue
Anna Morgan - Shannon Cochran
Samara - Daveigh Chase
 

"The Ring" is a stylish Hollywood remake of the Japanese horror sensation that unfortunately has little personality of its own. Insinuating creepiness of this tale of a bizarre videotape that brings death to those who watch it comes across in muted fashion, with uninvolving characters and lack of genuine excitement or fright creating a second-rate, second-hand feel. DreamWorks release could fill a need as a Halloween season scare item in the absence of anything similar in the marketplace but looks unlikely to spawn two follow-ups as the Japanese original did. A rather ordinary picture artistically apart from its arresting premise, the Nipponese "The Ring," directed by Hideo Nakata and based on a novel by Koji Suzuki (the so-called Stephen King of Japan), became one of the biggest domestic grossers of all time after its release in January 1998. Huge in other Asian markets as well, such as Hong Kong, it was followed by "The Ring 2," another smash also helmed by Nakata, and finally by "Ring 0: The Birthday," a prequel directed by Norio Tsuruta in 2001.
Unnerving quality of the original surely had something to do with the universal consciousness of the invasiveness of television and the telephone in everyday lives, as well as with the irresistibility of both inventions; if a TV is on, it's almost impossible not to look at it, and if the phone rings, it's hard not to answer it.
Both impulses are central to the way "The Ring," old and new, grab viewer attention at the very outset. Hanging out alone one night, teenage best friends Katie and Becca share what they know about a weird video that's been making the rounds of high school circles. Turns out Katie and her b.f. saw it during an illicit visit to a mountain cabin a week earlier, then got a phone call informing them that they will die in seven days.
Separately, Katie, Josh and two other teens meet untimely ends that night, spurring Katie's aunt, newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), to investigate the case. Single mom Rachel has an odd little son, Aidan (David Dorfman), who has recently taken to drawing pictures featuring buried bodies, which momentarily introduces a "Sixth Sense" element that ultimately amounts to a red herring.
Making her way to the remote cabin, Rachel finds the video and watches it with appropriate trepidation. The black-and-white tape is like an intense but maddeningly obscure surrealist short, featuring a collection of stark and seemingly unrelated images, including those of a stern-looking middle-aged woman, a centipede, an old house and the woman dumping the body of a girl into a well. Then comes the dreaded "seven days" call.
Director Gore Verbinski handles the setup in quiet, understated fashion, the ominous mood strengthened by the wet, overcast Seattle-area weather. Feeling of an inexorable oppressive force closing in is furthered by the ticking clock that now hangs over Rachel's life, in that she is now convinced that she has but a week to learn enough about the tape, its source and its lethal power to prevent her death.
But as the film slips more into procedural mode, with Rachel enlisting the aid of Aidan's dad Noah (Martin Henderson), a skeptical video expert, the knitting holding the yarn together begins to fray and show its weakness; the leads that enable Rachel to pursue the case are often implausibly discovered and connected, timelines and logistics don't convince, and the principal characters reveal themselves as conventional, one-dimensional types of no distinction, quirks or special interest.
While scenarist Ehren Kruger has added a few dramatic wrinkles of his own to the Japanese version, he's crucially neglected to give the characters anything to play other than to react as average people would to adverse circumstances. When first seen in her newspaper office, Rachel appears to be on the brink of being fired until she informs her editor of the teen deaths story she's working on. Why was she about to be canned? Is she an unreliable reporter? Is she too stressed by being a single working mom to handle the demands of her job? Is she sleeping with her boss' son? We never learn why, which doesn't matter in and of itself though it does reflect the fact that we know absolutely nothing about this woman and therefore have no way to engage with her as a character except as a standard-issue woman-in-peril. This goes double for the character of Noah.
Therefore, in her much-anticipated first starring role since her startling and fabulous performance in "Mulholland Drive," Watts has been straightjacketed into a role that gives her nothing to play other than attempted resourcefulness under duress. To make matters worse, Verbinski and lenser Bojan Bazelli, neither of them slouches when it comes to visual style, don't find a way to photograph her to maximum advantage until about an hour in, when, having discovered some of the video's secrets, Rachel visits an island farm and has a dodgy encounter with a difficult older man (Brian Cox).
Latter-going, which clarifies many aspects of the contents of the video but still doesn't begin to explain everything that's happened in the film, is more elaborated than in the Japanese original. Thesping is unexceptional across the board, while craft elements are fine, with special kudos to the Method Studios for creating the compellingly mysterious Ring video as well as visual effects, of which Charles Gibson was supervisor. Rick Baker delivers some convincingly bruised, battered and decomposed makeup effects.
Pic emerges in the end as a low-impact suspenser that sustains a certain mood but doesn't approach the full potential of its premise.

Camera (Technicolor), Bojan Bazelli; editor, Craig Wood; music, Hans Zimmer; production designer, Tom Duffield; art director, Patrick M. Sullivan Jr.; set designer, Maya Shimoguchi; set decorator, Rosemary Brandenburg; costume designer, Julie Weiss; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Lee Orloff; supervising sound editor, Tim Holland; sound designer, Peter Miller; visual effects supervisor, Charles Gibson; special visual effects and Ring videotape, Method Studios; special makeup effects, Rick Baker; associate producer-assistant director, Benita Allen-Honess; second unit director, Gibson; second unit camera, Patrick Loungway; casting, Denise Chamian. Reviewed at USA screening room, West Hollywood, Sept. 30, 2002. (In Hollywood Film Festival -- opening night.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 109 MIN. (without end credits)

Annotation of the Review

The film has been written in a pretty formal context with a lot of depth detail, talking about many different aspects to do with the film. It has been written formally, however it used language which is very detailed such as "Pic emerges in the end as a low-impact suspenser that sustains a certain mood but doesn't approach the full potential of its premise." this has been written formally with great detail, however with just a few words it tells the reader a lot about the film. The review has been written to the target market of 19 - 40. this is because the language that has been used may be too complex for the actual age group of 15+.
Within the review, the reviewer has included talking about several different things. He first starts of by mentiong the distribution company "DreamWorks", and all the directors and producers.  He then states the actors and the character they are playing. This is good, because if a viewer likes a specific actor i.e. "Naomi Watts", they will see that she is the main actor, and will be drawn in to go and watch the film. He then goes onto talking abit about the films history, which is a remake of the Japanese film "Ringu". He then tells the synopsis "The black-and-white tape is like an intense but maddeningly obscure surrealist short". After telling the synopsis, at the end, the reviewer states  the main prodfuction crew, running time etc.

Mya - The Ring - Review 1 - BY Chicago Sun Times Roger Ebert

The Ring

BY ROGER EBERT / October 18, 2002

Cast & Credits Rachel Keller: Naomi Watts Noah: Martin Henderson Richard Morgan: Brian Cox Aidan: David Dorfman Ruth: Lindsay Frost Katie: Amber Tamblyn Dreamworks Presents A Film Directed By Gore Verbinski. Written By Ehren Kruger. Based On The Novel By Koji Suzuki. Running Time: 115 Minutes. Rated PG-13 (For Thematic Elements, Disturbing Images, Language And Some Drug References). Printer-friendly » E-mail this to a friend »

Rarely has a more serious effort produced a less serious result than in "The Ring," the kind of dread dark horror film where you better hope nobody in the audience snickers, because the film teeters right on the edge of the ridiculous.

Enormous craft has been put into the movie, which looks just great, but the story goes beyond contrivance into the dizzy realms of the absurd. And although there is no way for everything to be explained (and many events lack any possible explanation), the movie's ending explains and explains and explains , until finally you'd rather just give it a pass than sit through one more tedious flashback.

The story involves a video that brings certain death. You look at it, the phone rings, and you find out you have seven days to live. A prologue shows some teenage victims of the dread curse, and then newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) gets on the case, helped by eerie drawings by her young son, Aidan (David Dorfman).

The story has been recycled from a popular Japanese thriller by Hideo Nakata, which was held off the market in this country to clear the field for this remake. Alas, the same idea was ripped off in August by "feardotcom," also a bad movie, but more plain fun than "The Ring," and with a climax that used brilliant visual effects while this one drags on endlessly.


I dare not reveal too much of the story but will say that the video does indeed bring death in a week, something we are reminded of as Rachel tries to solve the case while titles tick off the days. A single mom, she enlists Aidan's father, a video geek named Noah (Martin Henderson) to analyze the deadly tape. He tags along for the adventure, which inevitably leads to their learning to care for one another, I guess, although the movie is not big on relationships. Her investigation leads her to a remote cottage on an island and to the weird, hostile man (Brian Cox) who lives there. And then the explanations start to pile up.

This is Naomi Watts' first move since "Mulholland Drive" and I was going to complain that we essentially learn nothing about her character except that she's a newspaper reporter--but then I remembered that in "Mulholland Drive" we essentially learned nothing except that she was a small-town girl in Hollywood, and by the end of the movie we weren't even sure we had learned that. "Mulholland Drive," however, evoked juicy emotions and dimensions that "The Ring" is lacking, and involved us in a puzzle that was intriguing instead of simply tedious.

There are a couple of moments when we think "The Ring" is going to end, and it doesn't. One is that old reliable where the heroine, soaking wet and saved from death, says "I want to go home," and the hero cushions her head on his shoulder. But no, there's more. Another is when Aidan says, "You didn't let her out, did you?" That would have been a nice ironic closer, but the movie spells out the entire backstory in merciless detail, until when we're finally walking out of the theater, we're almost ashamed to find ourselves wondering, hey, who was that on the phone?

Annotation of the Review.

This review has been written in a formal format, however the language engages with the target audience of 15-40. The context within the review, makes the reader want to read on further because the use of written language engages the reader in. "I dare not reveal too much of the story but will say that the video does indeed bring death in a week" This makes the reader think that the reviewer want to read on because he may think that the reviewer ay tell abit more. However it does make the reader want to watch the film.

The reviewer talks about genre "dread dark horror film"  the visuals in the film "Enormous craft has been put into the movie, which looks just great" a bit of the synopsis "The story involves a video that brings certain death." The reviewer also talks a little about the characters "This is Naomi Watts' first move since "Mulholland Drive"." 

Production Schedule

Production Schedule

First Cut of film due: Friday 5th November

Plan

Thursday 14th October 2010 - Friday 22nd October 2010

Start shooting on the 14th October

Time: From 9am to 12pm

Location: Adorena's House & College & Street & Bus Stop

Camera operator: Adorena, Kiran,

Actor: Mya & Kiran

Finish Filming by: Thursday 21st October 2010

Start Editing

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 - Thursday 5th November

Editors: Adorena, Mya, Kiran

Finish Editing by: Thursday 4th November 2010

Film Poster (draft) Deadline Friday 19th November 2010

Monday 8th November 2010: Start creating the poster

Finish Creating the Poster by;  the 16th November 2010

2nd Cut of Film & Draft Magazine page Due: Friday 19th November 2010

Tuesday 9th November 2010: Start shooting the corrections

Finish Shooting Improvements and corrections By: 11th November 2010

Start Creating the Magazine Page: Wednesday 10h November - 12th November 2010

Editing 2nd Draft

Tuesday 16th November: Start Editing the second draft

Thursday 18th November 2010: Finish Editing Second Draft

Film Poster 2nd Deadline ; Friday 26th November 2010

Start Improvements on Poster; Tuesday 23rd November 2010

Finish Creating the Final Draft of Poster: Friday 26th November

Magazine Page Due: Friday 3rd December 2010

Start working on Magazine page: Monday 29th November 2010

Finish Magazine Page by: Friday 3rd December 2010

Final Cut Of Film: Friday 10th December 2010

Shoot Imrpovements: Monday 6th December 2010

Editing: Tuesday 7th December - Friday 10th December 2010.

By: Adorena & Kiran

Mya's Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis: The Ring

The film I am going to analyse is The Ring. The release date for the film was the 18^th of October 2002. The director is Gore Verbinski. The genre of the film is a Super natural horror. Super natural horror is anything above or beyond what one holds to be natural, which adheres with a sense of horror.

PART ONE

The Ring’s Equilibrium

Tzevan Todrov argued that all stories share a common structure. The stories begin with a state of normality a balance which is the equilibrium. There is then disequilibrium: a disruption something that happens that sets off a chain of other reactions. After there is a resolution to the problem then a new equilibrium is then established, that is different to the first.

Equilibrium

There is a state of normality at the start when two school girls named Becca and Katie are watching T.V. and start to talk about a tape that kills you if you watch it.

Disruption

Katie is gets a phone call which tells the audience that she is going to die. Katie is then killed. Her auntie Rachel who is the main protagonist in the film starts to research about the tape. Rachel gets the tape and watches it too and has seven days to live. Therefore she has seven days to complete her mission to save her son and husband from death because they have watched it too. Rachel does her research and finds the clues into how death can be stopped. Rachel reaches day seven and is stuck in a well. She manages to save herself along with her son and husband from death. The next day Noah (her husband) is killed.

New Equilibrium

Rachel and her son Aidan do not die. She has saved them from death.

Binary Oppositions

Claude Levi – Strauss was an anthropologist who suggested that the production of meaning depended of the concept of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are opposites within a film. I.e. in the horror film scream, the police are doing the right thing by obeying the law and the killer is doing the opposite. In The Ring the opposites are the parents of Samara abusing their daughter in other words being evil, when most parents love and care for their children therefore are good. Another binary opposition in my film is

Omniscent is when the audience are aware of everything that can be known i.e. characters feelings, thoughts etd. The Ring is omniscent, and the film is in chronological order, which helps the film to be omniscent. Open narrrative is when there is no clear sencse of ending. In The Ring, there is an open narrative, because it keeps the audience wondering what happens at the end. The film ends with the boy saying “what happens to them?” It is a "cliff hanger"

PART TWO

When there is a state of balance in the film, it starts off with two sixteen year old girls in there school uniform. White shirts and pleated black skirts. Their hair is out and looks natural, that it has not been straightened. This is how the ‘typical average’ school girl would go to school. They are not wearing any make up. There are many mid shots and close ups. The close ups show the facial expressions of the girls when they are talking about the scary tape. The mid length/long shots show the body language i.e. when the girls are walking slowly to the phone and are trembling shows there fear.

Rachel is a mother, who works in an editor’s office who is a journalist. So most of the time she is dressed in smart loose fit trousers, and blouses. His hair is short and blonde, with very subtle make up. This shows that she is not dressed up on a normal day. At the funeral, Rachel wears black dress, black shoes, black cardigan. This represents darkness and death which links to the disruption.

Aidan is wearing his school uniform when he goes to school, and a black suit when he goes to the funeral which represents darkness and death, which related to the disruption. His hair is mousy brown, short and straight. Aidan is always drawing pictures of death; he does not talk much, and talks in a very deep steady voice. This is a bit creepy for the audience because most ten year olds do not talk like that. They are usually happy and loud, whereas Aidan is sad and in his own world all the time.

Noah wears casual denim dark jeans, and T-Shirts, which represents him being an ‘average’ man on a usual day. Noah has a stubble and messy hair.

The spooky character who is in the tape is a little girl called Samara. She has long black dirty hair. It is messy and wet. She wears a white dress which is very dirty and also wet, because she lives in a well. Her body is bruised black and blue. She has scars on her body and face. This is typical of a Horror film, because there is always a creepy masked man or a creepy character i.e. Scream has a white man.

Throughout the film, it is usually raining. The weather is always dull and depressing. If there was sunlight it would brighten up the audience’s attitudes. By having dull depressing weather, it puts the audience in a gloomy mood.  There is very dull lighting inside the house, or it is either very dark. There is mainly darkness throughout the film, which is typical convention of the Horror genre. This is because the whole image is not so clear, which makes the audience concentrate more.

There is a lot of sudden sounds throughout the film which is a screeching noise, and a lot of drum beats. In the beginning of the film where the girls are talking about the tape, there is non-diegetic sound which is a low quick steady drum beat building up the suspense. There are diegetic sounds such as the phone ringing and the rain. Throughout the film there are many shot angles such as mid lengths when two people are talking, with an over the shoulder shot. There are close ups which show the facial expressions of characters, such as Aidan’s face when he tells Rachel about Samara. Long shots show body language, i.e. when the horse is running towards Rachel, she is walking backwards and jumps to the ground, which shows her fear. There is quick seconds shots that show the dead characters in the film i.e. Katie in a cupboard dead. This makes the audience jump. This is the typical convention of a horror film.   

There are a few props used throughout the film. The first main prop is the tape. This tape is talked about from the start, and is consistently used throughout the film. The other main prop is the telephone. The telephone rings every time the tape has been watched. Another prop is the television with the tape player. Without this no one would be able to watch the tape, and no one would die.

Mya's Poster Analysis