MEDIA TRAILER ANALYSIS: THE WOMAN IN BLACKBy

David Ballantyne

• 00:00 – 00:04

• When the film starts there is a sound of a train horn and we see the titles. They are surrounded round smoke to create a mysterious atmosphere around them and inform the audience the style of film they are about to watch.

• 00:05 – 00:06

• We see a long shot of a train, this tells the audience that someone has gone on a long journey away from home. A mysterious soundtrack starts, to get the audience thinking straight away.

• 00:07 – 00:09

• We are then introduced to the protagonist with a close up, you can see he is tired linking this with the train journey. By also having his reflection in the window this could symbolise he is in to places in his mind.

• 00:10 – 00:14

• We see a long shot of a mysterious run down manor, this linked with the two mid shots of the protagonist talking to another character about wanting to sell the manor and how he wont get a local buyer. This tells the audience that there is a reason to be scared of the house and creates enigmas around it.

• 00:15 – 00:17

• There are two extreme long shots of the protagonist in a car travelling to another destination. This could be the manor. This tells the audience that the manor is secluded from any major society meaning that there is no way to get any immediate help, the weather helps to create a pathetic fallacy.

• 00:18 – 00:20

• There is a mid shot of a wooden cross stuck in the ground this can symbolise death, demon, god, religion and a last ditch for hope.

• 00:21 – 00:22

• This long shot of the manor shows how unloved it is and how uncared for it is, the plants have overgrown and have bent the gate out of shape. This shows that no one has visited the manor in a long time. There is a slight layer of fog in the air to help create a mysterious and creepy atmosphere around the manor.

• 00:23 – 00:28

• These shots show us the first glimpses of inside the manor, the first shot is a long shot of him coming through the door this could be seen as a point of view shot which tells the audience that he is being watched. Tense music starts to build tension and get the audience ready for a visceral effect.

• 00:33 – 00:39

• As the protagonist spins the zoetrope the tense music stops and we follow his face allowing us to see his facial expressions in a close up, then we see a point of view shot looking into the zoetrope. We see an eye appear simultaneously with a non diegetic sound of a bang.

• 00:41 – 00:42

• We see a two shot of one of the locals warning the protagonist “please don’t go back to the house”, this tells the audience that there is something to fear within the house and they will now associate the house with the feeling of fear and terror. By having the light from the windows between the characters connotes goodness between them.

• 00:43 – 00:45

• There is then a close up of the protagonist with a woman in black in the background being shown as the antagonist this shows the protagonist to be in danger, voyeurism is created within the shot by having the antagonist stood in the background.

• 00:46 – 00:47

• We hear a voice over say “she's there” when we see the close up of the figurines. We then see a crow which is symbolic of death and fear.

• Shortly after the shot of the crow is shown there is a fast paced montage of death and fire throughout the village. All the while tense music is played in the background creating tension and slowly building to climax.

00:51 – 00:52

This piece of text is very simple but also very effective, having the white on the black makes it very easy to read but it also links to the themes of the film, such as white connotes to ghost which link into the storyline.

• 00:52 – 00:54

• We see close ups of children to show how vulnerable and weak the victims of the antagonist are. The three girls are represented as being haunted and depressed this is shown by one of the girls breaking her toys meaning that she doesn’t care for any of her personal belongings anymore.

• We see a wide shot of the three girls outside at night this makes the audience uncomfortable because children are not normally allowed out at night this suggest that everything isn't right with the world. The weather is used for sympathetic fallacy, creating a conventional mood within a forest.

• These two close ups help to show the emotions that are going through the characters at this point in the film. The way that the shots have been positioned helps add to the verisimilitude of the situation.

• This piece of text informs the audience of the main character “DANILE RADCLIFFE”. This is done because he is well known for his role in harry potter, this will then help to bring in a wider audience. This will also allow the audience to see their well known actor in a different character, which is a contrast to his last role.

• We are shown a mid shot of the protagonist standing bin a nursery looking at a wall with writing on it in blood saying “ you could have saved him”. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable because a nursery is an innocent and playful area and should never hold anything evil. Throughout this shot there is fast paced music building up to to a climax, this prepares the audience for a visceral response.

• This close up shot of the dead boy lets the music climax and finishes the visceral effect. From seeing another image of a child, it is becoming a theme for the film.

• The close up of the door handles has many meaning one could be that it is a supernatural presence from this side trying to get through or that someone is on the other side trying to escape. This helps to set the audience up for another visceral repsonse.

• This shot uses a high/dutch angle to help show the audience that the protagonist has unearthed something disturbing and twisted.

• These three pieces of text are sequenced with a random film shot between, to make the audience interact with the trailer and put the pieces of text together. This creates fear within the audience by becoming part of the trailer.

• We see a wide shot of the protagonist standing in an open area surrounded by mist, mist is a weather convention within horrors because it makes it harder to see your escape route. Having him in the open area show how isolated and defenceless he is.

• The long shot of the rocking chair in the corner rocking by itself is iconic to supernatural activity, this link to the main theme throughout the film.

• We then see a close up shot of the protagonist walking down a corridor within the manor armed with an axe. This shows that he is fearful and wants to end the curse.

• While we see the over the shoulder shot of the protagonist, there is a deep rumbling in the background filled with non diegetic sounds to help build tension. There is a handprint on the window which tells the audience that someone has been there before. The expression of the protagonists face tells us that he might have started to put it all together and knows who's handprint this is.

• They continue with the over the shoulder shot, while a woman's face appears in the window screaming this simultaneously creates a visceral response from the audience.

• We see the films name in the same type of text as the previous pieces, the words “WOMAN” and “BLACK” are in a bigger font to the other words to draw the audiences attention to them. They have used a black background behind the text to play on the universal fear of the unknown.