Woman In Black Opening Scene Analysis

        In the opening scene, we see three little girls, presumably sisters playing with their dolls in their bedroom. The bedroom is very spacious and wooden and it looks very old and by what the girls are wearing old fashioned dresses which shows there a rich, Victorian family. There are close ups on the dolls as they pretend to give them tea and are just playing like normal children do. Then theres a high angle shot of the three of them and one by one they all turn round and face the camera, giving the impression the audience is getting the point of view perspective of whoever their looking at. The music goes really creepy and mysterious like somethings going to happen and theres a shot of all the girls looking towards the window, then the camera zooms in on it to show their being pointed to go over there. There's a close up of one of the girls dropping a mug and it smashing showing the audience something is not right, then we see another girl step on a teacup then another one step on a dolls head. There's then a shot of the girls all walking up to the window in sync and opening the windows, with a match on action of one of the girls pulling the door handle. By this point the audience knows whats going to happen and they all jump out and it goes silent, until we hear the screams of the mother screaming 'my babies!' which is a moment that gives the audience shivers and goosebumps. The camera zooms out and just before the end of the scene we see a black veil which is obviously the woman in black.

We don't actually get to see the woman we presume to be the 'woman in black's face which surrounds her with a lot of mystery as we don't know anything about her identity. The audience understands clearly that she is the antagonist and the evil character of the film. The music in the opening sequence is very tense and creates a lot of suspense even when the girls are just playing normally, there is a piano playing very high notes gently but when the girls look up at the valed woman a church bell like noise begins to play. More notes start to get played and the tempo slowly picks up a bit as they begin to walk towards the window, and as soon as they open it the piano stops and an orchestra sound goes really loud as they jump out then it all stops. The last thing we hear is the mother screaming and then it fades out.

                                                             

Just Like Heaven Analysis

        It starts with the Dreamworks logo in the clouds which resembles heaven and it goes through the clouds into a garden that looks like the garden of eden with Elizabeth the protagonist sitting there. It links to the title with the imagery of heaven and what it might look like. The film links to a woman being the main character with the music being changed, such as The Cure's 'Just like heaven' being sung by a woman in a slower tempo and Iggy Pop's 'Lust for life' also being sung by a woman which gives them softer feels and relates to the feelings of a woman.
        We quickly discover Elizabeth is a doctor who is also a workaholic and she is trying to get the attendant position in the hospital, therefore is working extra long hours and tiring herself out. There is happy non-digetic music playing as she walks round the hospital and makes her life seem really good but then in the bathroom scene we discover she isnt happy as she's lonely. On her way home from work its really rainy and dark so sets the scene so it seems like something bad is going to happen. We see a point of view persepctive from Elizabeth as an oncoming truck is heading towards her, then a close up of her with the trucks headlights shining onto her face then it transitions into the clouds where we assume heaven is.
        She always seems happy when she's working despite doing 26 straight hours. She dosent have time for men because she works so much, but when her friends at the hospital mention their kids and husbands she looks sad and the audience can tell thats whats missing in her life.

Introduce Metz Theory

In his book language and cinema (1974) Christian Metz explored the development of genre film and suggested that genre films pass through four photos of existence.

1) The Experimental - The Cabinet of dr. Cagliari (1919) and Nosferatu (1922
They helped formualise the narrative conventions of the horror film. They were the first type of horror films and set the basis for what was going to come in the future.



2) The Classic - Dracula and Frankenstein (1931) were the classical horrors that are still known about today and are stereotypical characters for events like halloween. Universal studios became the biggest makers for these types of films, their first successful film was 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923) and set them of to make many more. The classic horrors tended to be very gothic and dark.
                                                                                                                                                                             3) The Parody - Abott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Carry On Screaming (1968), Scary Movie (1999). When horrors are merged with comedies so they are based on a horror scenario but with jokes and humorous things happen so its a lot lighter than a horror.

4) The Deconstruction - Se7en (1995), Sixth Sense (1999), Blair Witch Project (1998), Scream (1996).
                                                        

Horrors mixed with another genre such as a thriller, 'Se7en' was one of the first films to do it and alot have followed since and they are currently very popular.

Se7en and Red Dragon title sequence analysis

                       In 'se7en' the videos and images in the background show the theme of the film and give the audience hints what the films about by showing things that he does. This is similar to Red Dragon as the opening sequence shows the newspapers telling a story of how Hannibal Lecter got sent to court and found guilty as a cannibal and the agent was mentally ill. It gives clues as to whats going to happen during the film. the black and white colour schemes were also used as they link to darkness and scariness, relating to the horror thriller genre. The zooming is soft from the cameras so gives the opening sequence a smooth flow. The increase of tempo in the music makes it more dramatic and gives it a spookier feel,such as the violin in 'Red Dragon'. 
                      The differrences were the differrent instruments though they both fitted in with the spooky horror thriller genre. The words dissolving in 'Red Dragon' could show people missing and link to the ones he has eat or will kill and eat in the future. The music is 'Red Dragon' is more traditional and classical and fits with Hannibal being an old fashioned man though in 'Se7en' it is more modern and electric which shows its more likely to be in modern day and set in the present. The music picks up as the opening scene commences and the drums start to get faster picking up the tempo making it seem more dramatic. There is a clip towards the end of a nail going through someones thumb which brings in the horror genre of the film and prepares the audience for some scenes which could be quite gruesome. The electric synthersizers pick up as well and creates a dramatic peace of music which has a high tempo instead of 'Red Dragons' which is much slower and is accompanied by string instruments such as violins which create a very tense feel. 

1)      The 180 degree rule is when the camera has to stay on one side of two people having a conversation, so the audience dosent get confused and they stay in the same place so their always on the same side.

A match on action is when the camera focuses on something that is happening such as handing in a letter over to someone and the camera zooming into it.

An eye line match is when two people are having a conversation together and their look right into each others  eyes so their in line.

A shot reverse shot is when a shot goes from one person to another then back again quickly.

We incorporated match on action as the most important shot when I got handed the card of who to kill. We kept the 180 degree rule when me and Jordan were speaking so Rhys kept the camera on the same side as us.

2)      We mainly improvised on the spot as it felt easier than using the storyboard and we found that an easier way was to act it first then film it. We know the college well so found it easy to know where to film.

3)      We learned a lot about video editing as we had never used the programme before so it showed us how to put music on the film and how to put a short clip together so next time we will be able to do more.

A diagram of the 180 degree rule.


An example of the 180 degree rule from the horror film The Shining.

Preliminary Task