Deconstruction of The Woman in Black - Mehrabi Ward

Deconstruction of The Woman in Black:

Camera Angles:

This is a close up shot of one of the china dolls that the little girls are playing with. This shot is really effective as it focuses mainly on the doll itself – the background is fully blurred and also the hand in the shot is slightly blurred as well, which draws the main attention to the dolls’ expressionless face which also seems like its looking at something; making it more chilling for the viewer. The other thing that stands out to the viewer in this shot we are clearly able to see the doll is being controlled by the girl; pouring the teacup towards the dolls mouth, which becomes more significant slightly later on in the opening.

This shot I also thought was very effective as it is a high angle long shot making the girls look vulnerable and from the way they now have expressionless faces they have been made to almost look like the china dolls.    

I thought that this shot was effective because the angle has changed from high angle (like shown in the previous image), now to low angle, which makes the girls now look superior, even though they are sat on the floor. This could be now that they’ve seen the woman in black that they have some sort of power, or it could be that they’re being controlled. 

This is a close up shot of the girl crushing the head of the doll. In the shot the boot and part of the dolls body has been put into focus, we can see the dolls head flying off which is slightly blurred but still possible to see and the rest of the background has been fully blurred. Usually we associate little girls to be innocent which is what they were like before when they were playing together but now they are being shown as destructive, which makes it more thrilling to the viewer.

Sound:

In ‘The Woman in Black’ film opening throughout there was non-diegetic music playing the whole way through. The music that plays is really quiet at the very beginning but then starts to get louder and slightly faster as the scene goes on and as the tension builds. The music sounds like it comes from a children’s music box, which again links with all of the props used and the ide of it being more scary as it is child-like.  When the girls look up, to see the woman in black (which at the time isn’t clear to the viewer), the music changes and there is an element to it, which becomes deeper and again as the tension builds more instruments are added.

There is also diegetic sound that is used when the teacups are being dropped or trodden on and when the dolls head is stepped on, however these sounds seem to have been edited to make more of en echoed noise, which again added effect because it makes the action seem more vivid and last longer.

Mise-en-scene:

This is an idea of what sorts of props are used in a horror, in this film opening I found that mainly child related props were used as the actors were children.  Things like china teacups and teapots were used, as well as china dolls.  These sorts of things are used because we associate them to be really innocent and lovely, but the fact that they are in a horror makes the audience see them as scary. Below are a few screenshots of the props used in ‘The Woman in Black’ opening. 

Editing:
in 'The Woman in Black' film opening, match-on-action editing was used nearer the end of the opening, to show the three girls jumping out the window. 

This is the first shot of the sequence to the match-on-action editing, this is a medium shot of the girls walking towards the windows.

This is the second shot, which is a long shot of the three girls and by now it this starts to make the audience worry about what the girls are going to do.

This close up shot shows one of the little girls' hand, opening the window, and now tension is building as the scene goes on because the audience are starting to realise what the girls are going to do.

Before this final shot there was a pause in which the tension was at its highest, and as it shows the little girls jumping out, it makes the audience feel fear, as they question why the girls are all jumping out the window and purposely trying to kill themselves when at the beginning of the film opening they were all playing so happily. I found that this type of editing was very effective as it made the audience see what the girls were going to do and as it was edited into slow motion which built the tension even further.