1/3 Thriller Film Opening Analysis: The Women in Black (Horror Thriller)
15:05
Mise-en-scene
At the beginning of the trailer it starts with a fade in edit of the children playing with their dolls and teacups and teapots which are made out of glass, therefore this could be showing that the children belong to an aristocratic family as glass and china dolls were expensive in the olden days. The children are also wearing very fancy, detailed dresses which shows not only do they look after themselves but they are from a rich background. The clip itself is not very colorful, the girls look very pale and ghostly which signifies there is an odd atmosphere in the room and this shows this is a thriller. We cut to the next edit of the children looking up to the camera at a high angle. There is silence and the girls have no facial expressions and they seem to be looking up to something however the audience are oblivious to who or what they are looking at, this is because the camera fails to introduce the character at the beginning and this has created the tension. Now the children look out to the window and are starting to now walk over to the windows. In the next edit there are 3 windows for each of the children and this shows that the 3 windows for the 3 children all would in a short amount of time lead to their deaths. After the girls jump to their deaths we hear screaming of a lady (which could be their mother) pleading for help and in the last edit we see a person, with a lady-like figure, looking out to the children's death, and leads to give a feeling she has made them kill themselves, she is dressed in black, which creates the idea of danger and haunting.
At the beginning of the trailer it starts with a fade in edit of the children playing with their dolls and teacups and teapots which are made out of glass, therefore this could be showing that the children belong to an aristocratic family as glass and china dolls were expensive in the olden days. The children are also wearing very fancy, detailed dresses which shows not only do they look after themselves but they are from a rich background. The clip itself is not very colorful, the girls look very pale and ghostly which signifies there is an odd atmosphere in the room and this shows this is a thriller. We cut to the next edit of the children looking up to the camera at a high angle. There is silence and the girls have no facial expressions and they seem to be looking up to something however the audience are oblivious to who or what they are looking at, this is because the camera fails to introduce the character at the beginning and this has created the tension. Now the children look out to the window and are starting to now walk over to the windows. In the next edit there are 3 windows for each of the children and this shows that the 3 windows for the 3 children all would in a short amount of time lead to their deaths. After the girls jump to their deaths we hear screaming of a lady (which could be their mother) pleading for help and in the last edit we see a person, with a lady-like figure, looking out to the children's death, and leads to give a feeling she has made them kill themselves, she is dressed in black, which creates the idea of danger and haunting.
At the beginning of the opening scene close-up shots are mostly used. A close-up of tea being poured is shown followed by a closeup of a doll being given a tea by a child character. Following on from this is a close-up of another doll. Then we see a medium three shot of the three young girls sitting together. Then we see a close-up of one of the girls brushing her doll, and another close-up of a doll being tucked in by one of the child characters. After this the camera shows a two shot of one of the girls smiling and then another one shot of another of the young girls smiling back. She then looks down, revealing a closeup of her tea cup as she puts it down on the floor. Following this is a high tilted, wide, establishing three shot of the room from a corner angle to show where the entire scene is taking place. The girls seem to look directly at the camera - also making it a point of view shot of perhaps the audience. Then we see a low angled three shot as the girls turn their heads from left to right to look at something which isn't shown to the audience. This reveals a medium shot of a window which then zooms in. After this, we see a medium three shot of the girls as they stand up and start slowly walking towards it - still staring at the window. We then see a closeup of a girl's dresses lifting to reveal their small black boots. There is then another closeup of one the girl's black shoes at the same time the cup that she previously dropped, smashes onto the floor. Then there is a closeup side shot of one of them stepping onto the cup with her foot which smashes, this is then followed by another closeup. This time shot from behind the foot of a dolls head which again is being smashed. We then see a medium three shot from the front of the girls walking toward the window, while the camera zooms out. Following this is a long shot of the girls stepping up to the windowsill from behind, they then in unison reach out towards the window. One of the girls then opens the window which is shot with a closeup of a latch being unhooked. The camera then goes back to the long shot from behind as we see them all step up together onto the window pane. From here we see them jump together at the same time. After they jump, the camera zooms out. We then see a wide shot of the empty room. This then slowly zooms out to reveal the back of a women in a black veil stood in the corner of the room. We see many closeups in this scene as it started as quite an intimate scene of three girls playing with each other, which appeared to be very innocent and sweet, but the empty shots following from the jump scene created a sense of vacancy and haunting.
This opening scene doesn't have very complex editing, of which most is continuity editing. This creates a sense of realism as the scene itself is quite innocent in the beginning, so the more real it seems - the more the audience is surprised. We do see a reverse shot as two of the girls smile at the other who smiles back at them; this is to show intimacy, love and innocence of the girls. We see an eye line match of a girl looking down as she sets down their cup. Lastly we see another eye line match of the girls looking to their left revealing the window to which they jump out of.
In this scene, I believe that the music plays a big part in creating the haunting atmosphere.
In the beginning a soft eerie music begins. We can hear a clink sound as the teapot hits the rim of the teacup - this sound is also emphasized and is made to be louder than the music to add to the atmosphere.Then after this, twinkling sounds and chimes are also added into the music - which makes it sounds almost like a childish nursery rhyme. Before the girls look directly into the camera, there is a slight pause before deeper sounds are added into the music. This music becomes less nursery rhyme like, and more haunting. We then hear the smashing of the teacups, and the sound of the toys being broken alongside the sound of the music. As they approach the window the music becomes darker and more suspenseful. When they reach the window the music gets louder and faster, this climax of sound builds up to the moment they jump. We hear the sound of the latch being opened. When they stand on the window pane, the music stops and we hear an eerie sound of wind but as they jump there is a dramatic suspense sound for a few seconds to indicate something bad has just happened. After this there is no sound, just the sound of wind and we hear the agonized scream of a women. As she is screaming we are also shown a doll from this it all goes quiet as the camera zooms out into a wide shot of the room. The sound in this scene starts off soft and innocent but is eventually manipulated to become dark and sinister, building suspense to the moment that the girls jump.
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