GP: Opening Scene Analysis - The Woman In Black (2012, James Watkins)

Opening Scene Analysis - The Woman In Black

 

Genre

 

The Woman In Black belongs to the genre speculative fiction, supernatural horror and gothic horror. The audiences expectations would definitely be met with this opening sequence as many aspects of it are conventional of these two genres.

Form and style of opening

The style of opening to this is surrealist cinema as different realms of existence come into contact. The use of foreboding implies that something bad will happen, an example of this would be the abnormality of the girls' behaviour as they would not carelessly crush dolls under their feet or drop cups out their hands voluntarily (1:02). The sense of the lack of control of the young girls implies something bad is bound to happen. The sound also aids the lack of normality of the girls' actions as the volume is increased (1:20) which intensifies the scenario by putting the audience further or edge. Character exposition occurs when the shot expands to show the woman who is wearing black and looking directly in the girls' direction, watching them; this character is portrayed to be evil as watching children is socially unacceptable (1:40) and abnormal. The clue to the nature of this film lies in the title also. The title 'The Woman In Black' connotes the idea of the centre of the story line being around a 'woman in black'. Black is a dark colour which is not often associated with a pure, kind person, but a rather evil character. The idea that this 'woman' has no name establishes her to be mysterious and possibly in-explainable.  

Film language

The film language is mostly conventional to the film's genres:

• Firstly, 'The Woman In Black's' non-verbal language in reacting to the girls jumping out the window shows her as standing still, watching them (1:40) and not helping; this implies she is evil and has no emotion, plus the screaming of the lady enhances how evil the act was. 
• The costumes in this clip (0:32) are contrast each other which establishes the innocent victims and the evil character as black is associated with death and sadness whilst white dresses are associated with kindness and innocence. 
• The chiming of the music is conventional of horror as children's music can be seen as creepy. This sound confirms the innocence of the girls, whilst increasing the scare factor for the audience. The volume also increases as the build-up to something bad happening intensifies. The creepy idea of children's iconography in horror is supported by the close-up shots of the china dolls (1:38) and the "uncanny effect" coming into play.
• The camera slowly zooms out to a wider shot of the window (1:30) after the girls have jumped and they are walking in slow motion (1:05) towards the window (this makes the audience feel incredibly uneasy as they cannot stop the girls and as it is taking long for the action to occur, it increases the unease). This emphasises the surreal and shocking situation that just took place with the impact of the woman screaming.
• The sound is also amplified when the toys are crushed (1:07) and the tea cup is dropped in a close-up shot which is purposefully placed in there to emphasise the abnormality of the actions and the lack of control the little girls have over their own minds. The idea of destruction is also seen which causes the audience to be uneasy.
• The Victorian era is represented in the classic clean-cut dresses the girls wear and the setting of the room with the old china dolls and interior design. This Victorian era is conventional of horror and gothic horror as the Victorian era is shown to be creepy. 

Narrative

• We are put in the perspective of the 'woman in black' which is discovered when the girls look up towards the camera (0:50), jump out of the window (1:25) and then the camera pans out to find the woman in black standing where they were looking (1:40). The audiences knows this because of the 180 degrees rule and the non-verbal language of the children.
• The tension is maintained by the consistent tone of the music and the slow motion which creates anticipation.

Representation and ideology

• The social groups represented in this are young girls and a middle-aged lady. The little girls are established to be innocent (with the use of costume, props and smiling) and the victims (jumping out the window).
• The idea of the girls being the victims, young and female conveys a residual ideology that young people are the helpless victims and also a residual ideology of women.
• The ideology of the youth and females being innocent is also conveyed; this supports a residual ideology for the females being innocent, but a dominant one for the youth.
• The woman in black is an older lady or a middle-aged lady and is established through various techniques to be evil (black clothing) and controlling (camera perspective and shots suggests she is the source to the surreal actions of the young girls, and the cuts are motivated by her 'actions'). The idea of older people being evil in contrast to young people is residual and the idea of them having more power than younger people is residual as that is robbing the control of the youth. Yet, she is challenging the residual ideology of men being the evil characters with all the power.
• There is a clear contrast in how the social groups are represented through many mediums.

Media Audiences

• The concept of the movie is not too hard to grasp and it is not too graphic; the target audience would appear to be males and females 12-25 which represents the core audience.
• A preferred reading will most likely take place for this clip

What We Can Take From This

• Amplified noise for certain actions which emphasise mood or uneasiness.
• Slow camera movement to intensify the anticipation of the scene.
• There doesn't need to be dialogue for an effective opening
• Iconography emphasises the theme 
• Can position camera as if from perspective of a person
• A certain tone of the music can create a certain mood

By Georgia P