Website Influences

For my second ancillary task I chose to create a website. To find out how I could make my website suite the horror genre i chose to look at four film websites and look at what elements of there websites would be best for me to use to make my website appeal to my target audience. These films are The Ring, The Grudge, The Blair Witch Project and The Orphanage.


The Ring Website


http://www.thering.jp/



This is the website for the film The Ring, when you first click onto the link for the site you are met a video which gives an introduction to the site. Like The Ring poster this is also dark with black being the dominant colour used, also the main image is positioned right in the middle of the page, this to make it the focus. The site is not set out to what would typically be seen as a website with the different buttons or links to pages being scattered all over the page. These buttons are also quite random with the words used but these all have reference to the film, examples being patient, child, mother. As well as these though there are buttons which would be present on most film sites like behind the scenes for example. The site shows some disturbing images like a syringe, this shows the disturbing nature of the film to the audience. The website also looks quite confusing, this representing the unexpected nature of horror films and a way to show the audience what genre the film is. The website is also animated which again makes it different from typical sites.

The Grudge Website

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thegrudge/site/flash/

When you first click onto the official website you are presented with a page that shows different features of the film as the buttons. Examples being order the DVD, DVD features these show that the main aspect of the site is the selling of the DVD and the page is similar to that of a typical website homepage. One thing which is different though is the final button on the list, this is 'enter the site'. When you click this button you come to this flash site which allows you to click on various areas of the page and explore the setting of the film. This provides the audience with an interesting introduction to the film and again similar to The Ring website the main image of the site is in the middle of the page. the imagery within this site is also dark and animated again similar to The Ring site.

The Blair Witch Project Website

http://www.blairwitch.com/

This is a very simple site which simply gives the title and four links being:

• mythology
• the film makers
• the aftermath
• the legacy

Each of these carries a certain mystery to it which will leave the audience wanting to see more and wanting to click on these links. This is something which The Ring website also uses with words to attract the audience to want to stay and explore the site. Again like the other two websites the main colour used is black, this similar to the posters and a form and convention of horror film websites. This website similarly to The Grudge and The Ring also offers the DVD for purchasing which is a common occurrence on any film site.

The Orphanage Website

http://www.newline.com/properties/orphanagethe.html

This site is for the film The Orphanage and this is completely different to the other 3 websites. This site sticks to the forms and conventions of typical websites with the links bar being at the top of the page for example. This site seems to be more about selling the DVD than attracting an audience to watch the film. But like the other 3 posters the image is dark and theres also the recgonisable link with the posible where the same image is used.

What from my influences do I plan to use in my website?

The main influence for me for my 2nd ancillary task, the website, is The Ring. I like the way that the makers have positioned the website in the centre of the page and made the whole site look dark with the lighting of the image and the black sides of the page. I also like the use of buttons scattered randomly around the page, this is something which I plan to use on my site. I also want to make my site animated to suit the forms and conventions of films which are most similar to myn like The Ring. in terms of what the buttons will say I like the use of words within The Blair Witch Project website which are quite mysterious and will entice an audience to want to stay to explore the site. I also would like to try and add a sound effect, one which i used within my trailer for the background sound of my website, this effect was also used within The Ring website. unlike all of the sites though i wont offer a place for the film to be bought. this is because my film is one which i soon to be released in cinemas and not on DVD. There is one aspect of The Orphanage website i like and thats the link it has with the poster as they've used the same image in both, this is something which I may do with my ancillary tasks.