Textual Analysis of the film- The Woman In Black

1. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF WOMAN IN BLACK
Done by Shaun Hardwick

2. PLOT SUMMARY
In London, lawyer Arthur Kipps still grieves the death of his beloved wife Stella on the delivery of their son Joseph four years ago. His employer gives him a last chance to keep his job, and he is assigned to travel to the remote village of Cryphin Gifford to examine the documentation of the Eel Marsh House that belonged to the recently deceased Mrs. Drablow. Arthur befriends Daily on the train and the man offers a ride to him to the Gifford Arms inn. Arthur has a cold reception and the owner of the inn tells that he did not receive the request of reservation and there is no available room. The next morning, Arthur meets solicitor Jerome who advises him to return to London. However, Arthur goes to the isolated manor and soon he finds that Eel Marsh House is haunted by the vengeful ghost of a woman dressed in black. He also learns that the woman lost her son drowned in the marsh and she seeks revenge, taking the children of the scared locals.
INFORMATION TAKEN FROM IMDb.

3. Mise-en-scene
In the beginning of the opening to “ The Woman in Black”, the three eight years old girls are dressed in white, Victorian clothing. This illustrates that these eight year-old girls are innocent in the film, as they are being forced to jump out of the window in their bedroom and fall to their death. As these girls represents how young girls were treated like and was like to be control by men and elderly generations in what they should doand told to do what has been said to them.
From the film “The Woman in Black”, you can tell that the film is set in Victorian Times as the characters in the film are dressed up in Victorian clothing. The Victorian clothing on the actors/actress shows how these times was like and how the Victorians Times and Modern Day Times has changed. Another way of telling that the story to the film is set in Victorian Times, as like towards (1:00), a close-up of Kettle being poured into some cups. This implies that in Victorian Times, Victorians had time for tea parties with their friends and family, whereas in Modern Day times, people don’t have the time to sit down with friends and family as today’s people have more responsibility to do as Victorian Times and Modern Day Times are not the same. As in the titling sequence at the opening of the film, a close-up of a wedding ring and a pair of female’s eyes are presented. This implies that someone in the film (preferring the main character in the film) has once married but lost his wife due to a terrible tragedy. Furthermore towards (3:00) the main male character shows the famine side of the male were they have the responsibility to look after their children if the female isn’t presented or the mother has died; leaving the responsibility to look after the child(s) in the male’s care. Then at towards (4:56) the main male character in the film shows that he is the dominant male at this moment as he’s asking the nanny as she got the train tickets. This represents that in Victorian Times, the males were seen as powerful beings who females look to for guidance as they were seen to be below males in the Victorian hierarchy.

4. Sound
The diegetic sounding in the film “The Woman in Black”, that is heard during the film is the Victorian Times formal language. This also illustrates the setting of the film, as it telling the audience of how Victorians talk to each other in a formal way. There isn’t no a lot of diegetic sounding that is heard during the opening of the film, as there are only sounds such as pouring of the kettle into the cup and the sound from objects in the scene of the shot.
In the opening of the film, most of the sounding is non-diegetic, as you hear from the start of the film towards (2:00) minutes in the opening there is children music that is heard during the shooting of the three eight year-old girls in their bedroom playing with tea sets and dolls. The background music to this part of the opening shows the peaceful, child-like atmosphere where everything is going okay until a sudden atmospheric change in the tension in the scene. This example of background music is a type of music that is used particular in horror thrillers.
An example of another non-diegetic sound that’s added to the opening of the film is the screaming of the lady outside the window, who has find the girls dead on the floor. This is extremely loud as it old thriller technique that a lady is screaming as it creates a spookiness and tension on the set.

5. Camera
In the opening of the film “The Woman in Black”, there is a variety of camera shots that’s used in the first five minutes of the film. Such as extreme close-ups, close-ups, mid-shots, long shots, low angle and high angle shots and even a crab shot is used to show the facial expression on the main male character. The extreme close-up of the kettle being poured into the cup shows a film technique that is used a lot for the opening of most thriller films. Also creates the peaceful atmosphere at the start of the horror thriller before something horrible occurs. There are many close-ups of the people in the opening of the horror thriller such as close-ups of the three girls showing how happy they are playing with dolls. And a close-up of the doll itself before the girls jumped out of the window and afterwards, this symbolises how these girls are treated like in these minutes on the film, that they are being used and in procession of someone else. Representing that young girls in Victorian Times and today’s times as dolls, as someone else is always planning their next move as this is done by gender issues or hierarchy issues. Also the close-up of the notebook showing the young male child pointing at a female in the skies of his drawing; implies that females playa big part in the plot of the film. The low angle shot of the young girls’ feet moving shows the momenta of the film as its leading the audience to the next shot (this low angle shot is acting as a audience guideline) and creating tension in the audience, as they will be wonder where are the girls walking to and why. The crab shot that is used at (3:00) showing the facial expressions and his body language of him packing his case to go to work and leave his child for some days.

6. Editing
Editing is used frequently during the opening of the horror thriller film “The Woman in Black”. As a lot of cutaways are used in the opening; take for example the mid-shot of the window when the young girls have jumped out of, then the next shot is a close-up of the doll in their bedroom. This cutaway is used to show the audience of what has just happened in the film that the young girls has just commit suicide, then jumps back to the doll, that symbolises of how the girls was just treated like in this minutes; that they were being used just like their doll in their bedroom.
The titling sequence at the opening of the horror thriller film is created by specific information like the name of the film and who’s starring in the film by presenting in a misty, ghost-like background with thriller-like images and music. This implies that the plot is based on a ghost story, as if a misty background is used somewhere in the film, then it suggests that there will be a ghost in it as well.
Furthermore the name of the film is written like “THE WOMAN IN BLACK” as the words “woman” and black” is written more bolder and important than the other words; indicating that the ghost is a female who is dressed in black as like she’s attending a funeral.

7. How will I applied this to my own thriller?
I will applied the horror thriller features into my own thriller, as it given me some inspiration of how the set is set out from a horror thriller film. Such as when my team is editing and putting the film together, we could apply a misty, ghost-like background to the titling sequence in the opening to my film. As the plot for my own thriller-“In Thus Life” is going to mysterious as its going to be a horror thriller with characters going to solve the problem in the film. Also the film character’s clothing have given me some inspiration such as suitable clothing for a horror thriller.