2. In the first shot of ‘The hours’, we see a shot of a
lake and then text fades in and the text tells the
audience when this movie is set in and where.
There is diegetic sound of the water. The camera
then tilts up and turns into an establishing shot
of the country side where we see lots of trees.
3. The second, extreme close up shot shows a person buttoning
up their coat and then putting their hands in their pockets.
This shot shows that one of the main characters is a woman
because on the coat, the buttons are the way they are on a
woman’s coat and the hands look quite feminine. Her hands
suggest she’s quite young because her hands are not wrinkly.
The woman then puts her hands in her pockets and she starts
to walk, this tells us she is going somewhere which creates
enigma as the audience are going to be wondering where she
is going and why. This will pull the audience into the movie as
they will want to find out.
4. The next shot is a long shot of the woman walking out of
her door. The mise-en-scene shows that she must be
well-off because the house looks very expensive. The
woman puts her hands in her pockets again which could
suggest that she has something important in them and
she is holding it to keep it safe. You hear the sound of her
footsteps because she is wearing heals. This shows that
the character is very lady-like and her clothing also
suggests so. Very subtle sound of birds singing.
5. The woman walks across her garden, looking
down. This is an establishing shot. The sound of
birds singing is heard again which supports the
idea that this is shot in the country side.
6. In this long shot, you see the woman walk a lot quicker
now as if she is hurrying to do something. The audience
are going to keep watching the movie as they will want to
find out where she is going and why she is walking so
quickly. In the past seven shots, we still haven’t seen the
woman’s face which makes the opening sequence quite
mysterious and the viewer is going to want to keep
watching to find out who this woman is.
7. In this mid shot, we finally see the woman’s face as
she walks towards a gate and opens it. She has a
very angry look on her face and she seems lost in
her thoughts. This is going to grab the audience into
the film and her face expression is telling the
audience how to feel. There has been no music so
far, just the sound of birds and the woman’s
footsteps.
8. In this extreme close up of the woman’s hand, we see a
feather quill pen and an ink holder. This fits in with the 1940’s
(the date when the movie is set) and it makes it more realistic
as that’s what people those days would be writing with. We
hear the first dialogue when the woman says, “Dearest, I feel
certain that I’m going mad again,” this voice over continues to
the next shot. The fact that she says “again” tells the audience
that she has already gone mad before. The audience will keep
watching to hopefully find out why she went mad before and
what caused her to go mad again.
9. In this long mid shot we see the woman walking really quickly
and she is holding something in her hand. The voice over then
continues and the woman says, “I feel we can’t go through
another of these terrible times,”. This is going to attract the
audience as they are going to want to find out what is going to
happen. The dialogue suggests that this woman is going to
commit suicide and the audience are going to want to know if
she does, so they will keep watching. Because she says “we”, it
tells the audience she is writing this letter to someone else,
probably someone she is in a relationship with or married to.
It suggests that they have a problem in their relationship.
10. “-and I shan’t recover, this time” the voice over continues
and tells us that the woman recovered last time she went
mad but this time she can’t do it, this again suggests that
she is going to commit suicide. She is wearing the same
coat as she is in the shots of her walking somewhere. This
suggests that she wrote this letter on the same day and
that the destination she is hurrying to is the place she is
going to kill herself. All these shots have realistic or lowkey lightning which makes the movie look real and also
creates a depressing mood.
