The Grudge 2 Webpage Deconstruction

       The first section of the web page uses a large image of DVD cover as background. This is a pale white face with wide red-tinged eyes, looking directly out at audience, directly involving them in the image and creating curiousity. This could also increase the fear from audiences. The face is covered in strands of black that look like hair, playing into a key theme of the movie narrative while also suggesting some kind of paranoia or imprisonment due to the placement on the face. This could suggest, along with the wide open eyes, that the black is some form evil force and the face is a victim, increasing curiousity for the narrative.
       The black hair blends into the silhouettes of tree branches at the bottom of the image, suggesting a mystery or supernatural element to the film while also implying some kind of isolation from civilisation. This isolation is also shown by the house in the bottom corner of the image, with nothing but the tree and face surrounding it. This isolation could suggest a lack of safety or again emphasise imprisonment. The inclusion of the house shows its importance to the narrative, although the face is the largest image of the page showing it to be the most crucial factor of the narrative. The side of the page has options to buy two different versions of the movie, broadening audiences depending on people's preferences.
There is information about the rating of the film at the bottom of the image, as well as production information. The title of the movie is the largest text, at the top of the page. It uses capital letters and a blunt font to perhaps show the harsh nature of the movie and make it clear what the page is for.

       There are options along the toolbar to buy the DVD, read about the movie, see special features, see clips, download content and go to the home page of the webpage. This is easily navigated and caters to the different interests of possible audiences, giving extra information in order to pull in more people. The colour scheme of the page is grey and red, with most of the image grey except the red eyes. This supports the supernatural element of the movie and also makes them more shocking. All of the important text is red, bringing connotations of blood and anger and supporting the genre of the film.

        There is a red button to Enter The Site, which leads to a background of a close up of a book, covered in Japanese symbols, relating to the original language of the movie franchise. As the page loads, an illustration of black hair slowly descends over the book, again linking to an important part of the narrative. As it loads, slow unsettling music plays which supports the supernatural subgenre of the horror.

 Once the page has loaded, a series of grainy shots from the film are shown in quick succession, building tension and creating interest in order to broaden audiences. The shots reveal some of the main characters of the movie and the heavy supernatural tone. The final shot from the film shows a house, probably the same house that was shown on the earlier page, and this becomes a sharper focused background.

       The shot of the house is dark with lots of shadows, creating an ominous tone, which is aided by the apparent decay of the building. It doesn't look welcoming, as the gate is chained shut and the building appears to be made of stone, suggesting that it could be a prison or confining space. There are more Japanese symbols along the image, which change to english sections when hovered over by the mouse. These are the same sections as on the original page. The title of the movie with an option to buy the DVD are in the same space that they were in on the previous page, keeping the constant suggestion of purchase in the audience's mind. The production and rating information is at the bottom of the page again.




-Emily

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Test Shots of Actors

 

 

 

- Rhiannon

Mirror Test Shots

For one of our trailer scenes:

We were thinking of having a scene where one of the characters looks into a mirror. She then looks down and breathes heavily, to then look up and either see a demon standing behind, which has been done by many other possessive horror films, or to see her face covered in decaying letters from the ouija board. Here we are just trying to see where the camera can be positioned so that you get the whole mirror and the character without actually getting the camera or one of us in the shot.

- Rhiannon

Trailers

Here are some trailers we're using for inspiration:


Mirrors 2:

The Ring: 

Sorority Row:

We felt that these trailers were inspirational to us because of the type of genre they show, as ours will also be a supernatural horror film. There were a few main visual effects that we noted from these trailers:

• Flickering shots
• White gradient effect - Images go from normal to white
• Lots of fading to black
• Use of greyscale colouring - contrast not right
• Trailers start slow, and then as it goes on the shots get quicker, with no dialogue just sound effects.

- Rhiannon

Introduction

We have decided to focus on the sub-genre of supernatural/possession horror films.
The basic narrative we would like to work with is the idea of ouija boards and the hauntings that can follow the misuse of them. These are inspired by multiple case studies of ouija board experiences.
We will use teenage girls as the main characters in our narrative, as they are commonly used in horror films such as 'The Unborn'  and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'.
We have decided to make our characters unpleasant by showing them committing immoral acts, so that their punishment seems deserved. We are basing their characters on the idea of  boarding school girls, and will reflect this by showing them at a boarding school at some point.


-Emily