Film Opening Evaluation

1. Woman In Black – Mise-En-Scene
Film Opening Analysis
- The clip that we see is a china tea set. The tea is pretending to be poured
into a tiny tea pot. After this we see a child’s hand pretending to pour the
tea into a dolls mouth. This shows innocents and indicates that there are
children playing. Three young girls are shown playing with their tea set and
they’re dolls in a wooden beamed bedroom. It seems peaceful and calm.
The bedroom is lit indicating that It is day time. All the children are smiling
and seem to be happy.
There is a range of cinematography in the opening. There are close shots of
what the children are doing and of them playing with their dolls. Medium
close shots of the 3 girls faces. They all are happy and smiling. They them
all look to the left as though they’re all looking at something all at once. It
seems that someone is inside the bedroom with them as they then all look
to the right and the camera then changes to an establishing shot of the
windows. They all seem to be possessed as they stop playing and step over
the dolls then walk to the window and jump out. The close-up shots of
what they are doing add emphasis’s that they’re three innocent children
playing.
The last shot that we see are the three young girls jumping out of the
window and then it the camera moves backwards to show an establishing
shot of the child’s bedroom. This then begins to fade and in the right-hand
corner there is a black shadow of a women wearing a vale hence the name
‘women in black’. This is very atmospheric as it tells the audience that
there is something strange happening and then adds a gloomy feel to the
film.
The music is mysterious and sets a scene that something bad is about to
happen. It is almost ‘jack in the box’ like, scary. It is mostly non-diegetic but
it’s not an over powering volume it is more quiet to make it send shivers
down the spine and therefore adds effect. There are a few diegetic sounds
like the smashing of the china as they children walk over it which adds
tension and affect then the opening of the window to signify what is about
to happen. The last diegetic sound is the sound of a loud scream and the
music stops before the words ‘My babies are shouted’ followedby another
scream this shows that they did it by themselves and it sets the horror tone
of the film.