Friday, February 06, 2004
This week in class, we reviewed The Ring, starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, and David Dorfman. The film is about various deaths caused by watching a video tape. Rachel Keller (Watts) is investigating the tape in relationship to her niece's death, but after watching it, becomes involved to save her own life.
One of the key visual motifs of the film is it's dark and dreary coloring and lighting scheme throughout the entire film. Very few bright colors are used, adding to the frightful theme of the movie. The cinematography makes great use of the rain and gloom of the state of Washington's (the main locale of filming) weather. The film utilizes variations of gray color scale to cause the film to appear very morbid and almost decayed. Many of the focal points of the movie, whether obvious or subtle, revolved around a dark color scheme. For instance, the portrayal of Samara is very dark, even though this is contrasted with the white gown she wears. Even when looking at the picture of the horse show with Anna Morgan, all of the other women are featured in white dresses, except for Anna who is shown in a black dress. Even Rachel's clothing, while usually somewhat professional, also focused on a gray or darker color range. The main issue of the film, the video tape, is viewed entirely in black, white, and grayscale, adding to the creepy effect that it gives. The reason for doing this is to add to the theme of the film, yet also allow it to appear more lifelike. The entire effect is very subtle, yet is incredibly important to the film. The entire film revolves around these camera and lighting effects, and they are essential to the overall aura of the film.
Seven days...
One of the key visual motifs of the film is it's dark and dreary coloring and lighting scheme throughout the entire film. Very few bright colors are used, adding to the frightful theme of the movie. The cinematography makes great use of the rain and gloom of the state of Washington's (the main locale of filming) weather. The film utilizes variations of gray color scale to cause the film to appear very morbid and almost decayed. Many of the focal points of the movie, whether obvious or subtle, revolved around a dark color scheme. For instance, the portrayal of Samara is very dark, even though this is contrasted with the white gown she wears. Even when looking at the picture of the horse show with Anna Morgan, all of the other women are featured in white dresses, except for Anna who is shown in a black dress. Even Rachel's clothing, while usually somewhat professional, also focused on a gray or darker color range. The main issue of the film, the video tape, is viewed entirely in black, white, and grayscale, adding to the creepy effect that it gives. The reason for doing this is to add to the theme of the film, yet also allow it to appear more lifelike. The entire effect is very subtle, yet is incredibly important to the film. The entire film revolves around these camera and lighting effects, and they are essential to the overall aura of the film.
Seven days...
