Lord Of The Rings analysis

The scene starts off with a long shot showing the Hobbits squashed into a tiny space, they are being made to appear small which gives the impression the characters are in a vulnerable state. There is lots of empty space behind them suggesting they may not be alone, the shot also has dark lighting creating a dark mood which suggests something bad is about to happen. The Hobbits are surrounded and basically trapped so there is no way for them to escape, this makes us as an audience feel sympathy towards them and it also creates suspense to why they are trapped.

In the second shot the directors used a low angle shot to present the Ring Wraith in a dominant position as we are looking up at him, he is made to look bigger and he dominates the frame. The shot is angled so as an audience we are closer to the Hobbits and distanced from the Ring Wraith this tells us that the Hobbits are the ones we should feel sympathy for and relate to but the Ring Wraith is the one we should fear.

The low angle close up of Frodo is meant to show that he is the main character with a lot of significance as this is when we establish Frodo is the ring bearer. The camera shows Frodo to be isolated from the rest of the Hobbits as though he is alone. However he is also shown to look heroic in this particular shot which makes us as an audience feel a little bit more at ease as we get the sense he knows what he is doing.

Frodo is then shown in an extreme close up of his eyes and nose the director has done this so we can see the fear in Frodo’s eyes as he can hear the distant thuds. He is in a tiny space and there is no way he can move this has been done to ensure we know that Frodo is trapped.

There are three cut ins in the next shot all three feature a part of the ring wraith, this creates the suspense as we do not get a true sense of scale so it is a build up for us to see him in full. It is a mystery for us as an audience as we can decide before we see him what we think he is going to look like, the cut ins were designed to create fear for both the audience and characters. When the Ring Wraiths metallic foot thuds down into the ground it is in slow motion this tells us that he is unnatural and the noise of the metal and the amount of it he is wearing tells us that he is a dangerous character.

The next shot is a mid shot this has been used to enable we can see both the Ring wraith and the Hobbits but on different scales, the Ring Wraith appears to be a lot bigger than the Hobbits this is to show that he has all the power over them. He is huge and fills the majority of the frame and the Hobbits are all squashed in the corner in a confined space, this again shows the Ring Wraith is a lot more dominant. There is nowhere for the Hobbits to go as they are trapped but the Ring Wraith has a whole open forest behind him and he has all the space he needs.