The Shropshire Star is a regional newspaper, which mainly covers the whole of Shropshire, but it also covers parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, the Llangollen area and northern Powys in the UK. The paper is published 6 days a week, and is usually available from midday. The paper had been 40p for a while, and it has now gone up to 42p. The paper is sold in newsagents, off licenses, high end supermarkets and garages. There used to be 8 editions of the paper, these being County, South, North, West and East. Where as now I have only found a County one. The paper is very good value for money, as you get around 44-70 pages (depending on if there is a special article inside) and there are usually 9 stories on the front page. With around 17 stories per page inside. There is varied content so the paper appeals to its target audience. The paper also delivers to your home for around £10 per month, giving you 6 papers a week. The paper tends to have supplements inside, with different sections for housing, advertising, weddings and cars. The most frequent supplement within in the paper is the classified job section that comes out every Thursday.
The Star is owned by the Midland News Association, an independent media business with offices in Wolverhampton and Telford. MNA publishes 22 newspapers, including local papers such as the Market Drayton Advertiser, the Shrewsbury Chronicle and the Express + Star. The Midland News Association also owns 2 radio stations, The Severn and The Wyre, these were then sold in 2011. It is the 9th leading publisher in the country, and has sub-sections of Express + Star Ltd. and Shropshire Newspapers Ltd. The Midland News Association owns these papers, but they are published by higher end publishers. This means that they own the same house style and all the images used in the papers, this is why we see the same image in different newspapers. The Midland News Association has a circulation of over 1.5million
The Shropshire Star was the first post war evening newspaper, with its first edition being released on the 5th October 1964. The Shropshire Star was at the forefront of new technology, as it had better picture and printing quality. Newspapers used to use hot metal typesetting, which consisted of each letter being placed into a mould and then printed out, old Fleet Street newspapers still used this method. This way of printing was very slow and expensive. And because the Star was the first newspaper after the war, it had the chance to start off printing differently. It used a method called photo composition and web offset (and this is something that newspapers still use now). Offset printing is where the inked image and text would be printed onto a roller, and then this would be transferred onto the paper. This is what all newspapers use now, as it is a lot quicker than the old method.
The total circulation for the Shropshire Star for January 2012, was 55491. The total readership was 139927 adults, 82% of these readers have their papers home delivered. With 71370 being Men and 68558 being Women. The majority of readers that buy the papers are aged between 45 and 54. Also C2DE readers, buy the paper more than ABC1, showing that working class people read it more than the upper class. The paper saw more of a surge in circulation after the old Shropshire edition of the Express + Star, which was originally sold before the Shropshire Star came along. The Shropshire Express + Star only got around a 19,000 nightly circulation whereas by the mid 1980s, the Shropshire Star was hitting of 100,000 readers a night. From this, the paper went from its original 3 editions to a further 6 more. In Shropshire, 39% of the adult population read the Shropshire Star, which is remarkable as The Sun only has 14%, coming in second. Out of 98,458 readers, 57% of them do not buy another paper to read. and 35% of these read it 6 nights a week. According to TNSmedia 2008, it takes an average of 33 minutes to read the Shropshire Star.
The paper also has a website, where 182413 people visit it every month. In this case, AB readers are the most popular, with 64975 AB readers going onto the website. The largest age group for the paper is again 45-54 year olds. The Shropshire Star, was one of the first local newspapers to go online, with 'shropshire-online.com' in 1998. In 1999 the paper gained its first internet editor. Since 1988 the layout of the website has changed many times, and this is the most up to date layout (Feb 2012). The website itself pulls in nearly 1 million page views a month. The content on the website is very similar to the paper, although no all the stories are on there they are very difficult to find. The site could do with having better search engines, or a bigger capacity so it could hold a lot more articles on it, as you have to search for ages to try and find what your looking for. 71% of the adult population (Apr '10 - Mar '11) read regional newspapers, which has dropped by 13% in the last 5 years, suggesting that the digital newspapers and their websites have become a lot more popular.
Along with the website, the Shropshire Star now has a new app on iTunes, which allows you to read digital versions of the paper instead of having it delivered to you. At the moment they are also offering a buy the app, get a week free policy, so you can get access to the paper free for a week. The Shropshire Star also has it's own Twitter account, which means if you have Twitter on your phone, you can access the latest, breaking news on the go. This is also what other newspapers seem to have been doing, and it's a way of moving on with the digital age. Blogging, apps, video streaming and e-editions are the perfect way to attract a younger audience as they never would usually buy a newspaper.
The paper is in a Tabloid format, which it what newspapers are typically presented as. The print quality is generally very good, the clarity of images though could be a little bit better, but on a small budget, compared to the top newspapers, it's very good. The paper was also the first to used colour printing, 4 months after its first release. In March 1967, it was the first paper in the country to take a colour photograph, and print it the same day. This was the occasion when the Queen came to visit Shropshire. The front page of this edition saw the image of the Queen taking up around 2/3 of the page, and the masthead was also in full colour. The red masthead also went along with a small column of text which had a background of yellow. In the mid 1980s, the paper was also one of the first to computerise its articles, meaning that they would could out the middle man who would type set, and send it straight to the editor and then the printers, this is known as Single Keying.
The majority of the local news on the front page, is news that would be relevant to the whole County, rather than seperate news stories, this gives a high level of meaningfulness to the stories. They are from around all of the county, and with the paper I am analysing (Tuesday 21st February) there is 1 story that is nationwide news. The rest of the news are local stories, and things that would concern the county. Throughout the paper, the stories decrease in importance. A lot of the local news is about achievements within the county, especially to do with schools, and charity. In the back pages of the paper, there is a section for sport, which shows the achievements of schools, and sports teams in the county, and the back page shows main sports news from major events, or major sports matches between different teams. Photographs are used throughout the paper in some articles to promote certain stories, this could be a promotion for a theatre performance or a charity event. They are also used to identify people who have committed crimes or have been killed. They are mainly used to inform people of a story. There is enough national and international news to keep a high solus readership, as recently we have seen stories about the Oscars, and the Grammys.
Editionising was brought in to keep a more local focus on the news. There were 8 editions including, a North Shropshire, South Shropshire, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Welsh Border, Bridgnorth and Last edition. Whereas in the past few months they have gone back down to a County edition which has a daily circulation of 7,628 readers, a Border edition which has a daily circulation of 7,685 readers and a South edition which has a daily circulation of 4,939 readers.
The lexis in this paper is formal, and easy to understand. They do use sophisticated words at times, but the majority of the paper is easy to read and informative. The mode of address within the paper is very friendly and direct. This suggests that the paper is aware of its target audience, who is a varied mixture of ABC1 and C2DE readers, this reflects on the paper well as it shows that it has a high standard for its readers.
Social groups are represented equally, and there is no differentiation between different social classes. The paper is written as if it were talking to young and old people, and all races. There are stories included in the paper that have more of an interest to elderly people, for example when they promote coffee mornings. It reflects the audience well because there is no divide in race, or social class. The Shropshire Star is known for sponsoring local events and getting involved with charities and schools. This reflects on the paper well it it gives them a strong bond with the community. It is very pro-community rather than being pro-political like many of the high end tabloid papers. It represents the community positively, which gives a good self image and encourages sales. The positive values represented are that they so caring (pro-environment, pro-people) they are very child centred, as they spend a lot of time trying to find out what is happening in local schools. They also cater to the elderly by having a 'Pictures from the Past,' section where anyone who has an image of a Shropshire town can send in what it used to look like. The paper also provides a service to the community by having a classifieds page, and supplements every week on jobs, cars, chemist opening times and competition offers. It also shows the voice of the reader by publishing letters and announcements from the public. 70.4% of ABC1 read local papers, and 71.1% of C2DE read local papers. Local papers have to fight harder for market share against the nationals, even though only 47% of people read national papers, (Jan '12) meaning that local and regional papers have a high solus readership. 26.7% of adults that read a Regional paper do not read a National daily. Local and Regional newspapers are considered the most trusted medium, as they don't end to make stories up, as they are mainly given by the local people. 60% of people will talk to their local newspaper rather than ringing up a national paper.
In my edition of the Shropshire Star (21st February 2012) there are pages of classifieds, properties, competitions and puzzles, as well as a small section of stocks + shares and also adverts for you to hire agricultural items. The property and classified sections were the biggest of them all. The property section has many houses from different estate agents, which gives a great variety of location.
The Shropshire Star doesn't have a massive competitor, as it is the biggest newspaper in Shropshire. After the Star the next newspaper people read is national The Sun. The Star could be in competition with local papers such as the Shrewsbury Chronicle and the Telford Journal, as these are in areas where the Star is popular, but the Chronicle and Journal are both at the front of the pack in those areas.
- Local (e.g. Whitchurch Herald, Market Drayton Advertiser)
- Broadsheet (e.g. The Guardian, The Times)
- Tabloid (e.g. The Sun, Daily Star)
- Berliner (e.g. The Economic Times)
- Compact (e.g. The I)
- Digital
Now Newspaper companies such as News International have decided to create digital formats of their newspapers every day. The Independent for example have used Facebook to create an app where people can read it. Reading newspapers online is usually a lot more expensive than buying a newspaper, as you usually have to buy a subscription to the paper, whereas you can buy the paper whenever you want from the shop.
Newspapers can be biased, they mainly do this by being politically biased. For example, The Mirror is left wing Labour and The Mail is Conservative and The Guardian is Liberal Democrat. Newspapers are allowed to be biased but they must be accurate. Whereas broadcast news on the TV has to be unbiased and accurate. People tend to believe broadcast news a lot more, as there is moving image to back up stories.
Newspapers are regulated by the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) they have a Code of Practice which is where anyone is allowed to make a complaint against an article under these categories:
Accuracy
Opportunity to reply
Privacy
Harassment
Intrusion into grief or shock
Children
Children in sex cases
Hospitals
Reporting of crime
Misrepresentation
Victims of sexual assault
Discrimination
Financial journalism
Confidential sources
Witness payments in criminal trials
Payment to criminals
In 2011, one of the main complaints made was over the Phone Hacking scandal that involved the News of the World. The News of the World hacked into the voice mails and phones of Politicians, Celebrities, and also the voice mail account of Milly Dowler. A child who at the time was missing but was later found murdered. The hacking of phones had started in 2006, but the public was unaware until 2011. The News of the World broke many category rule from the PCC's Code of Practice.
Newspapers are also regulated by the Contempt of Court Act, the Official Secrets Act and Defamation.
The Ring is a 2002 psychological horror film directed by Gore Verbinski. The film is a remake of the Japanese horror 'Ring,' which was made in 1998. The film based on a Japanese folk tale called Banchō Sarayashiki. This is a ghost story of love separated by social class, broken trust, promises, leading to a dismal fate. The film was also adapted from the novel 'Ring,' by Kōji Suzuki.
The film beginnings with an establishing shot of a house at night, it is stormy outside and raining. We see two girls, Katie and Becca, both of which are teenage schoolgirls. Becca tells Katie of a story that she heard of that when you watch a video tape, it kills people. As Becca tells Katie this the camera slowly zooms into Becca building up tension. Katie panics as she watched the film at the weekend with her boyfriend Josh. Becca explains that after they watch the tape the phone rings and you then have 7 days to live. Katie messes about with Becca and pretends to choke and die on her lap. The phone then rings and the camera quickly zooms onto the clock in the room which shows that it is 10pm. There is a mass amount of tension when Becca and Katie go to answer the phone, Becca messes about acting all scared and hands the phone over to Katie as it's her Mum. These types of films always give you some suspense and then leave you hanging with something that isn't scary. As Katie is on the phone Becca seems to disappear. Katie goes round looking for Becca through the dark house, and we hear distortion noises and the TV turns on. There is then a slow pan around a wall to show the TV. It turns itself on and off, Katie walk back into the kitchen to see the fridge opening. At this point there is no background music apart from a few chimes, setting you up for a thrill. Katie then hears loud footsteps running up the stairs, so she runs up after thinking it's Becca. There is then a low angle shot of the bedroom door with water pouring through the gap at the bottom, she opens the door and there is no water in the room. As she looks up she looks at the TV and he camera the zooms into her screaming with a disturbing face. (Featured below) This then goes into a video montage showing different parts of what seems to be part of the video. (Featured below). In the video we see many enigma's that we assume will be explained during the film.
We then cut to a teachers evening, where the teacher show his mother images of what Aidan (her son) has been drawing. The images are quite disturbing for a little child as they are very dark and mysterious. We find out that Aidan was very good friends with Katie, and his Mum Rachel assumes that he has been drawing them after her death, when it really was done the week before. When they get back home, Aidan insists that he knows the time of death of Katie, and we find out that is was 10pm.
At Katie's wake, we hear Rachel and Katie's mum Ruth discussing how the cause of Katie's death is unknown. Ruth doesn't believe that her heart just stopped and believes that something more disturbing happened. This then cuts to a quick shot of Katie sitting in a wardrobe looking all decayed.
Rachel then goes outside for a cigarette and see's some of Katie's friends, who bring up the videotape story and that Josh's boyfriend also died on the same night. We then cut to Aidan who starts to walk up the stairs to where Katie died. He walks into the room towards the TV, when suddenly the TV ripples and Rachel is behind him. She tells Aidan to go downstairs as she stays up there. Rachel has a look around the room and sees photos of model's with their faces all scribbled out. Underneath these images there is a phone number and address for a local photo development shop. Rachel goes and collects the photos to see that Katie had been away with friends and Josh at the weekend, and that all the photos were normal until the last one, where they're faces were all distorted, and looked as if they had been smudged.There is then another shot of the clock which emphasises the time as it is 10pm, the same time Katie died.
The next shot is an aerial shot taken from a helicopter, of a car driving, again the mise en scene shows us that she is going to a dark place as it is raining and gloomy, giving a creepy and unsteady atmosphere. The helicopter camera pans with the car until it reaches Shelter Mountain, where the cabin Katie and her friends were staying at. This type of shot was never used in Frankenstein or The Devil Rides Out, as hiring a helicopter would've been too expensive. This shows the development in the genre. Rachel goes into the main office of the cabin's and asks about the teenagers. She finds that they were staying in Cabin 12, and that they rented a video. She looks over at the video stand and see's that they are all packaged correctly apart from one which has no case and is tilted onto it's side. This small bit of detail has made a great impact on the video and already given it a suspicious look. Rachel goes to Cabin 12, which is situated in the woodlands where it s very dark and secluded. The cabin itself looks very old and looks unstable.
Rachel gets into the cabin and puts the video on, she sits and watches it .This is the same video that we have seen small snippets of previously when Katie was killed. The film is all in black and white and uses very high pitched squeals that are painful to hear. At this point the main emphasis on the video is the ring, a chair that spins around, a woman in a mirror, and sounds of drowning, and also a tree which was shown before Rachel went into the cabin. The video also features a lot of water telling the audience that the main theme of this video is water . After the video finishes the phone rings, and '7 Days,' is said by a child.
The film then cuts to a shot with writing which has been edited on top saying Thursday - Day 1, and again it is raining. Rachel takes a photo of herself, and finds that her face is also distorted on all of her photos. At this point a man called Noah is introduced, and he gets shown the video. We do not know what relation Noah is to Rachel. After Noah watches the video the phone rings again, afraid to answer it she leaves it and a close up shot is shown of there being no voice mail. After Noah leaves, Rachel goes back to the phone where there is one message, she reluctantly presses the button and we see a close up of Rachel's face looking worried, and the film cuts to the next scene. Rachel then goes to copy the film and whilst doing so, the numbers on the copier keep misreading. She also discovers that something is being thrown from the tree.
Not a lot happens on Friday - Day 2, only that she thinks she see's the ladder that's been used in the video, only to find that it's a man painting.
Saturday - Day 3. Rachel visits Becca in a mental clinic, there are many pans of the wards that house mainly elderly patients and Becca seems to be the youngest there. Rachel and Becca then talk to each other and Becca says nothing, until Rachel reaches out and holds her hand. Becca says that Katie will show you how she died. Becca also knows that Rachel has only 4 days. Rachel leaved the clinic to look at the video again. She alters with the tape to the part where she saw something coming from the trees. There are numerous cuts back and forth from Rachel to the screen as she alters the video. There is a close up on the screen and there is a fly with it's wings twitching. She takes it off the screen, and it disappears from the video, Rachel turns around and finds that she has a nosebleed.
Sunday - Day 4. On the Sunday, Rachel find the lighthouse that's featured in the video on Moesko Island, and in the article it also shows the name of the woman in the video, she's called Anna Morgan. Rachel searches er online, and finds articles about horses, and that many of them died, but leaving an enigma of how they died. Moments later we then see that the horses drowned, and Anna as related in some way to all of them. We then see that Anna jumped of a cliff and killed herself, just is what we saw in the video where a woman in black jumped. As Rachel is writing notes down she realises that she is tarting to scribble out faces like Katie. The majority of this scene is done through close ups, which represents the importance of the scene.
Monday - Day 5 see's Noah at a store, looking into a CCTV camera. He notices that he has a distorted face just like Rachel and the photos of Katie and her friends. Rachel then comes home to the babysitter and the camera goes over the actress, for this they probably used a jig, and to the TV, which has started to distort. The baby sitter leaves, an water starts to come out of the bottom of the TV. There is a close up on the water , and Rachel starts to choke. A close up from a low angle is then used to show Rachel choking and she then pulls out a chord that is used to monitor patients in hospitals. She pulls it out goes to the phone, only to see that the phone is leaking water. Rachel then goes to see Aidan and there is a girl sitting in the middle of the floor in a puddle. There is then a bright flash and Rachel wakes up in bed, knowing that it was all a dream, by she wakes up covered in hand shaped bruises. Suggesting that something has happened to her in her sleep. She walks into the lounge to see Aidan sitting watching the tape, angry and upset she turns the video off but the phone rings.Rachel then rings Noah and we find out that Aidan is Noah's son.
Tuesday - Day 6. There is a video montage of the information Rachel found of Anna and it's slightly faded so we can see an aerial shot of a car driving. This shot also includes a voice over of Rachel and Noah, telling us that they are both in the car. Before Rachel reaches the ferry for Moesko Island, she figures out that you see 'the ring,' before you die. At this moment in time we still don't know what the ring is. As Rachel gets on the ferry, the sea is very rough , it's windy and it's also raining. Again this builds up the mise en scene, giving the island an unwelcoming look.As Rachel is on the ferry, there is a mention of Anna Morgan having a daughter, and that she died. Rachel goes to pet a horse which becomes very agitated. There are a rage of shots showing the horses agitation. Many of them are close ups of the hoofs and face taken at a low angle to make the horse look more powerful. CGI is used when the horse escapes, and for a modern day film the CGI isn't very good. You can easily tell that the horse has been inputted into the film rather than filmed on location.
The horse then runs off the ferry into the sea, and it is then killed by the propellers underneath the boat. Blood comes out from the boat, and this shows a part of the video. At this point we cut back to Noah, who is at the mental hospital looking for Anna Morgan's old room and files. As he gets to the room there is a fly on the door, and inside the room is full of records and files. Leaving us with an enigma, we cut back to an aerial shot of Rachel's car. Before that though the shot takes us over the lighthouse and to the road giving us an establishing shot of where she is. This is then followed by a series of panned shots showing us Rachel's direction. Rachel arrives at an old house, looks in the window, and there is a reflection. This leaves room for a sudden fright, but the tension stays on as nothing happens. There is then a very high pitched piano note as Rachel looks around the house, again building up even more tension. She turns around to see Anna Morgan's husband standing there. He talks to her about how many of the horses drowned, and as she's dong this, she see's the mirror used in the video. The house is very dark which again like most of the locations used in this film, gives an eerie feeling. Morgan's husband then tells Rachel that he does not breed horses anymore because of what happened. Rachel gets the video out and asks Morgan's husband about it. You can see in his eyes that he knows all about the video but is just choosing not to say anything. He also says that he doesn't have a daughter. This give you the enigma that he may have had something to do with his wife and his daughters deaths. Rachel walks out of the house not having any answers, and see's a rope swing tied to a tree. Something the husband wouldn't have unless he had a child. Rachel looks to some of the pictures that Aidan had drawn, and there is a rope swing on the picture, telling her that this house definitely has something to do with their deaths and the video. Back then cut back to Noah in the storage room, and he finds Anna Morgan's file. In these notes we see that Anna had suffered many miscarriages and also gave birth to a daughter named Samara. As Noah finds this out he starts to get a nosebleed, just as Rachel did, showing that the 7 day process has started.
We then cut back to Aidan who is at home and he has started to draw very disturbing images of black holes, just like a ring. He says that the little girl show's him things. Rachel then goes to talk to a woman on the island about the Morgan's, and there is a boy sitting on an old rusty roundabout. Because of it's age, the roundabout makes a screechy high pitch noise that sends shivers down your spine and is uncomfortable to hear, making the story of the Morgan's sound worse and menacing.
The transitions in the film are usually parts of the video that are either connected to the next scene, or part of something that will happen later on in the film. Noah looks in the Morgan's file and see's that the video has gone, and the last person to see it was the husband, Richard Morgan. At night, Rachel goes back to the house, and background music comes in. She goes back to the room with the mirror in, and also goes to the TV. As she's looking she finds a box full of hospital chords, like the one she choked up before. As she is looking through the chords and the papers in there, a centipede crawls out (something else which was in the video). Rachel finds another tape and watches it. The tape shows footage of Samara in her hospital room, and in an interview at the hospital. She also draws pictures just like Aidan is doing. There is then a slow zoom into Rachel's faces as she watches the tape, to build tension. Everything at this point seems calm, until Samara says that her Daddy will leave her and he wants to get away. At this point we see a shot of Rachel, but with the silhouette of Richard in the background. Richard then hits Rachel and gets lead upstairs by Richard who is covered in cables. They walk into the bathroom which has water overflowing, and machines attached everywhere. Richard then electrocutes himself, and as this happens we see sparks flying everywhere, created by SFX. Blood also gets splashed about, and there seems to be some handheld camera work in the bath to really give detail.
Noah then arrives at the house, an grabs hold of Rachel. They open up the stable at the Morgan household, and see the ladder from the video. There is a long pan upwards to the room at the top of the ladder. In the room, there is a rocking horses, dolls everything that would be in a child's bedroom, there is also baby music playing from one of Samara's ornaments. The only 'luxury, item she has in there is a TV. In the reflection of the TV you see the chair used in the video. As Noah is looking round he see's a gap in the wall with flaked wallpaper. They pull back the wallpaper to see a carving of a tree. The same tree that was outside Cabin 12 on Shelter Mountain.
Wednesday - Day 7. Noah and Rachel arrive back at Cabin 12 at Shelter Mountain, they fight and knock off some marbles onto the floor, which magnatise at a point on the floor. Underneath they discover the well from the video. Rachel and Noah jump down, and there is then a pan down into the bottom of the well, showing how deep it is. Whilst Rachel and Noah are looking at the well, the TV above them starts to flicker, and water comes out from the bottom of it. The nails holding the floorboards in place also come up, and there is a bug on one of the nails. SFX and CGI is then used when the floorboards cave in, creating a lot of SFX work and also CGI when the TV falls and knocks Rachel into the bottom of the well.
As she falls, flies come out of the bottom of the well, looking like the flies you see when there's a dead body somewhere. As this happens the TV turns off again. Noah, still being at the side of the well shouts down to Rachel, who sees nail scratches on the well, and also a whole nail in the brick, suggesting that Samara was still alive when she died. The stone that covered the well starts to close over again and we then have a shot above the well and Noah has disappeared, and the TV starts up again. There is then a few odd noises and then silence, and there is then a bright light.
The is then a flashback back to the video, and it shows the remainder of the video, which is how Samara died. We see that her mother smothered her and pushed her down the well. Samara then opens her eyes at the bottom of the well and we see 'the ring,' which is the stone covering back up the well. Proving that she was still alive when she was pushed down, hence the scratch marks. It then cuts back to Rachel who starts to look around and dive down to look for Samara's body.
Rachel holds Samara in her hands, and after she says a few words about how sorry she was, Samara decays in her arms. This is all we see at this point and we think the stories over. Noah then appears again and rings the Police. When the Police arrive and get Rachel out, there is a romantic scene between Rachel and Noah, who we know have a previous history.
There is then a fade out into a shot of Aidan sleeping, and Rachel gets into the shower. As we previously thought that the end of the film was between Rachel and Noah, we are again set up for something scary to happen. As Rachel's in the shower the use of water comes up again which is a daunting thought. Rachel gets into bed with Aidan and wake up later. Rachel says to Aidan that Samara is no longer in a dark place. Adian then says, 'You weren't supposed to help her, she never sleeps.' As he says this Rachel checks his arms, he is covered in bruises, and he also starts to have a nosebleed. As this is happening, we change location to Noah's appartment where the TV turns on. Noah walks up to it and it turns off. Walking away from it, it starts up again. The tape then shows up towards the end where we see a shot of the well, from the outside. The phone then rings and at first we think that this is just like before and Noah's going to get a creepy phonecall. Instead it is actually Rachel trying to tell him about the girl. Samara then starts to get out of the well and towards the screen.
Rachel then drives to Noah, and this is an in-car shot of Rachel who is speeding through to get to Noah. The TV then starts to pour out water again, and Samara crawls out of the TV.
The SFX team brought Samara out the TV, in the same colour she was seen as in the TV, show she was a dingy grey colour rather than making her in colour. Samara then kills Noah and he see's the ring before he dies. We then cut to Rachel who walks into the room. Samara has gone, the TV is flickering and she turns a chair around and there is a close up of Rachel screaming. We don't see Noah's face. Rachel then burns the tape, she then turns around and there is some tension as we think Samrara's come for her. The camera then pans down under the TV, and there is a copy of the tape on the floor. As Rachel is walking out, Noah's girlfriend walks into the appartment and we see Noah's face, and it's just like Katie's.
Rachel then makes Aidan create a copy of the film, as she figured that if you make a copy of the tape you won't die. The film then fades out, and we are left to guess about Samara. This also hints about a sequel being made.
The Ring was branded a PG-13 in America, and a 15 in the UK. Both of which for its high violence and gore count, and also the talk of drugs. The BBFC stated that it was put as a 15, because of it's strong menace and moderate horror.
The Ring was produced by Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. DreamWorks Pictures is an American film studio which develops, produces and distributes films. As well as video games and TV programmes. DreamWorks is best known for, 'Saving Private Ryan,' 'Chicken Run,' and also co-producing Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe nominee 'War Horse.' The Ring is copyrighted to DreamWorks.
'Slasher,' is a sub-genre from horror. Typically the films involve graphically violent murders by a mentally disturbed killer, that usually use various weapons such as knives and axes. Slasher films have been around since the 1930s and you could say that 'Thirteen Women,' (1932) was the first slasher movie.
Directors that have made well known Slasher films are:
- Wes Craven (The Last House On The Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream [1-4])
- John Carpenter (Halloween, The Ward, The Thing)
- Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, Toolbox Murders) - Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13th, Case of the Full Moon Murders, A Stranger is Watching)
Halloween was directed by John Carpenter in 1978. The film revived horror, despite it being a small budget film that was only meant to be shown for a few weeks, it is the most successful independent horror film of all time. With no advertising campaign the film had great success and many sequels have been made. Halloween was inspired by Hitchcock's 'Psycho,' where a human could look normal but be a monster and deeply disturbed inside. Carpenter wanted the film to be more supernatural, and therefore decided to keep the killer's face anonymous, we only knew him by his name. This sparked a lot of interest with director's and writers as they could keep the killer's identity separate, much like Ghostface in Scream.
Friday the 13th directed by Sean Cunningham in 1980, is about classic idiotic teenager, a plot that many horror films have adopted. Nobody expected the great outcome that Friday the 13th has had, although it was rather mainstream compared to 'Last House on the Left.' After the original, there have been a further 11 sequels, making it one of the biggest franchise's of all time. Friday the 13th was known for its overt violence that was rather over the top. Tom Savini, a special effects and makeup artist, worked on Friday the 13th and without his innovative creations, we would not know Jason to be who he is today. Savini was always trying to further himself create better effects every time. This showed the development of the genre as Savini was pushing the boundaries of his work. Friday the 13th is also known for the 'Suckerpunch,' ending when everything seems fine then Jason comes out of the water and kills the woman. The Friday the 13th franchise has been such a success, but with this, the films have become less scary as Jason has become a more familiar concept, whereas if the film were created over a longer time span, he might have been more terrifying.
Scream is an American Slasher made in 1996, directed by Wes Craven. The film features the typical conventions of modern slasher films, whilst also playing on them. For example in most slasher films if you say you'll be back, 10 minutes later you die. And the most important rule is that if you have sex you most definitely will be killed. The virgin girl is always the survivor. Scream is well known for it's killer, Ghostface. Now a popular Halloween character, Ghostface was one of the scariest killers of the time. Using a phonecall to tell you that you are going to die soon, and letting you hear your final words before he pops up and kills you. He also made the victims state their favourite horror films and answer questions on them. This terrified teenagers across the world, as the killing seemed so realistic. After the success of the 1st Scream, 3 other sequels have been made, the most recent in 2011. In the mid 90s slashers became more of a parody rather than a thrill, this is shown in Scream as it is a parody of Halloween. You were scared as well as mocking the film, which gave a great balance between horror and laughs. Since this, parody films have become a lot more popular. One of the most common being Scary Movie. Scary Movie parodies many slasher films, mainly Scream, The Sixth Sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Blair Witch Project.
Directors would mix fact and fiction into their horrors. This is seen in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' Ed Gein, a real life murderer, was the inspiration for Leatherface in this film. Ed Gein was a serial killer who admitted to killing 2 women, but then stole body's from graveyards. With these bodies, he would create furniture, and decorations with their bodies. For example a woman's lips were used as a pull string for a light, and he made a belt out of human nipples. Gein was the all in one killer, a murderer, butcher and a psychopath, something which is now the prototype for all serial killers in slasher films, especially as he looked like a normal human being. One of Gein's 'creations,' were masks made of human skin, the key piece that Tobe Hooper used in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as Leatherface wore a mask of human skin. Director Tobe Hooper describe the film as being a nightmare story, saying that the true monster is a human. Death is what we fear, we cause death and we are part of death. He also said that because people could relate to the film because they all knew about the Gein case, which helped to establish the franchise.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) directed by Wes Craven, and is known as a 'Stalker Slasher,' as the victims would be followed to see if they were 'suitable.' The film was originally written by Craven from real life, when he saw a man staring at him outside his window when he was a child, who stayed there for ages. This gave Craven the inspiration for Freddie Krueger to be a child molester but after many production crews turned Craven down, he decided to make Krueger a child killer instead. This film made people scared to sleep, as the victims died in their sleep, and therefore viewers would have nightmares of the film.In nightmare 3, Krueger became more loveable and predictable, as he had been shown too much and was becoming familiar. The films therefore struggled to keep up with the high quality of storyline and film that they had previously had.
