The Woman In Black analysis

Mise-en-SceneThe opening scene of The Woman in Black sets the mood for the entire film, gruesome and disturbing. The scene starts with a close up of a tea set which has happy looking birds printed on them in front of a white background, which completely contrasts from the miserable, dull, dark lighting of the room we can see behind. This is followed by images of scary looking dolls, the dolls have no facial expression and look rather unhappy, which is everything a doll shouldn’t be as it should make children happy, therefore foreshadowing that the this is potentially the mood of the film. The following image is a shot of three young girls playing with a tea set, controlling their dolls, forcing what they do, which I also deem as foreshadowing because maybe at some point these three characters will get controlled by someone/something else, just like they are doing to these dolls. The mood of the room is still disturbing just from the lighting, it has remained dull and dark, setting a abnormal mood and keeping us on edge. The room is decorated very plainly, there is no ‘children’ décor, thus referring that the children we are looking at don’t have childish minds, and in fact have deep thoughts, how typically adults a known to have, especially in thrillers. However the costumes on the three characters completely fit with the stereotype of a young girl in this time. So maybe they are normal young girls, that like to dress pretty, but in fact are surrounded by bad thoughts and actions, the smile on their faces also back this point up. Suddenly the three children look at the camera with blank faces, showing how quickly their mood can change, and it makes the viewer think, what is it that changes a child's thought process so quickly? At this point, all of the happiness within the girls wipes away, the teacups shatter, the dolls are dropped and kicked, the girls at this point jump out of the window which clearly is something no young girl is known to do, especially three at the same time. Which then goes back to the point that the girls are being controlled by something. After they had jumped, the final shot we see is of the whole room, which becomes even more grey and dull, maybe the lighting represents the thing that controls the girls because deeper into the scene the more dull it gets, it controls the scene, making the viewer feel venerable that they have been left with the dull lighting all alone now the girls are gone.

Mise-en-scene images

EditingThe woman in Black opening provides us with elements of editing that manipulates the audience and gives of a sense of fear when watching, but it makes you want to watch more and more, the invisible art comes to our attention. The fade at the very beginning introduces the scene, giving a sense of calm instead of rapidly entering the film sharply setting the mood within seconds, I believe the producers done this effect in order to set the calm before the storm and slowly introduce the fear that is about to come. At this point, as the scene dwells deeper we come to realise that the entire scene is put in slow motion, in order to set a kind of unrealistic, abnormal scene to manipulate the viewer. Shot reverse shot is also used within the scene between the three girl characters and the dolls that they are playing with. The dolls get as much time on the camera as the girls, therefore coming to our attention that the dolls will play a significant part within the film and are as important as the human characters. During these shot reverse shots, there is no dialect, meaning that it is left to the viewer to imagine what is going on in their head, this is the power of shot reverse shot.

cinematographyThe cinematography involved in this scene manipulates the viewer, almost making them feel as though they are in the scene seeing it for themselves rather than behind a screen. The key piece of cinematography for me is a shot of the girls looking up to the camera with a scared look on their face, and because they were staring straight at the camera it felt as though they were looking at us, they also looked up to the camera, making the viewer feel in control of the girls actions and above them. However in contrast to this there are a number of shots that make us feel like we are one of the girls as the camera comes down to their same level making us feel like we are playing with them, it makes the viewer question what side they should be on, which is good and which is bad? The close ups of the dolls make the viewer almost want to shut their eyes, purely because of the fact the dolls are scary looking, not the typical young girls doll. The extreme close up of the dolls has been put in place in purpose because you almost feel as though the dolls are alive and are going to move or frighten the viewer. The zoom of the window at the end of the clip also manipulates the audience, it scares the viewer and the zoom on this particular window makes us think that this is going to be a significant part of the film, because the camera slowly makes its way towards the window, making the viewer feel controlled by it and we cant do anything about it.

soundThe sound within the opening scene of The Woman in Black stay frequent throughout most of the first two minutes, the sound puts you on edge, a tense soundtrack that builds up with the scene, manipulating the viewer, making them feel as though they are on the edge of their seat but makes you want to watch more. The soundtrack in fact has a childish element to it, but has an added sound of tension and fear, this is done to show that the core of the movie is around children, the scenes and storyline will be caused because of young children, in fact it could be these three we are given in the first scene. As the scene develops further, and the tension has raised much more, the girls start to give us the diegetic sound, all of the sound we can hear up to this point has been no-diegetic, meaning that the girls are now coming into their roles by providing us with sound. As they stand and make their way to the window, they cause sound such as smashing the teacups, and the shatter of the cups acts as the music sting, up to this point the sound has flowed and remained the same. Now the noise of the shatter has come to our attention and we now know it is the beginning of the build up to the climax which will then set the rest of the film. Once the girls have reached the window and make their way to jump out, the sound is now at its highest point, leaving the viewers feeling very tense and questioning what is about to happen. At this point the girls have jumped out of the window and the music comes to a dramatic pause, it is silent which grabs the viewers attention to look at what is happening because they cannot hear anything. The final element of sound we hear is the scream of what is presumably the mother of the children, she covers up the silence, this is the first element of dialect we hear. She screams “No, my babies”, letting the viewer know that it was a close family and was out of the girls character to do the deed that have just completed.