Inspirations

The Ring - Opening Scene , posted by Alice

The Ring is a horror sequence that begins in a house, exactly like our idea. For this reason, i decided to look at the shot types, the lighting, the mise en scene and general camera work that is used in this scene in order for us to be inspired and use interesting effective shots when we storyboard.

A clear connection between The Ring and our idea, is the use of stairs, so i thought i'd look at how this was shot first. (this sequence starts at 1.47) It's a high angle shot, looking down the stairs, and this allows the girl to creep round the corner, increasing suspense. The shot is long, it takes her a while to turn the corner and look up the stairs before the cut. This is effective because it really helps to build up the suspence, because we know that she is scared about going up the stairs. Perhaps she can see something up there that has frightend her? But from the position of the camera, we don't know this yet. She goes up the stairs quickly, and i really like the shot through the banisters of her feet quickly ascending upwards. This type of shot would be practical in our location because the stairs in my house also have banisters, and i like the next match on action of her coming up the stairs through the hallway. Although for our opening scene we wanted to have the girl descend the stairs, the principles of the shots remain the same. For our idea, we were also thinking of having high angle shots from above, which would also be effective. An important thing to note in her going up the stairs, is that the camera work is still. They do not try to follow her up the stairs or be creative with any tilts etc - and this fits in with the idea of controlled camera work, which we are trying to achieve.

At 2.16 it shows her feet walking down the corridor, and this is very intersting because we wanted to do a shot exactly like this in our sequence because we do not want to show the main females face until right at the end, for a shock factor. I really like the LA shot here, which draws attention to the seeping blood on the floor. This is a shot that we would be able to achieve quite sucessfully.

Another shot which i thought was quite inspiring was the shot at 0.06 seconds. The CU of the girl turning her head ever so slowly. It could be an idea if the girl does this at the end when holding the knife. Slowly turning around smiling menacingly towards the reflection of the guy standing innocently at the front door.

Lighting: it's obviously night, as the house has been artifically lit and there are no curtains on the windows so we can see the darkness outside. The rooms are not well lit at all, and this fits the genre as it creates shadows upon her face and in the environment. It really adds to the horror portrayed. This is an idea we could use, but we have decided to film the outside sequence at dusk/beginning of darkness to make lighting issues outside easier, therefore having a pitch black house would not fit as it would break the rules of continuity.

General Mise on Scene: the house is quite bare. There is not a lot of clutter at all. In the living room when the Tv is first shown, the room is practically empty except for a few things on the table. This is quite generic (horror), and is an idea we should use when filming the bedroom shots etc. Having a bare room would make the environement a lot more spooky and a lot less 'homey' and 'safe.' Would be definately be a good idea to try and achieve this in our sequence.