Woman in Black opening analysis

The Woman in Black

Director: James Watkins

Studio: CBS films

Budget: N/A

Total gross: $127,730,736

The opening of The Woman in Black creates a lot of narrative enigma and instantly sends chills down our spines as 3 innocent girls become almost possessed and jump out their bedroom windows subsequently killing themselves. We are also first introduced to our ghost of the film however no protagonist is shown throughout the whole opening sequence.

The first shot in the opening sequence consists of a close-up shot on a teacup being poured. The teacups and tea party depict child innocence in the scene as the children are only hosting a tea party. The colours are very cold giving a chilling theme and feel to the scene, very contrary to the typical warm and playful typical tea party. This instantly creates tension and a feel that all isn't right and in context hints at the supernatural.

The soundtrack is the only foliage throughout the opening sequence and becomes louder as the scene progresses, increasing tension. Its also a very typical "scary" soundtrack containing mainly violin and chimes of some sort to create a crooked melody. The next shot is also a close- up as we are becoming more aware of the setting. The shot shows a very vintage doll being fed in the tea party. The vintage doll suggest the film is not set in current times and is most likely set around the 1940s.

The vintage setting to this film is reinforced by the characters costumes revealed in the next shot to be very typical child outfits of the time (big puffy dresses and bows in their hair). The shot is an establishing shot as we are made aware of the setting which seems to be a bedroom. The colours are very de-saturated and cold linking to the genre. The children are controlling the dolls which could foreshadow how the woman controls them later in the scene. The use of slow motion in the scene creates a sinister effect as although the girls are laughing and seem to be having a good time the very scary soundtrack is still prominent in the scene preventing us from feeling relaxed with the characters.

The slow motion still continues through the rest of the scene close ups of the girls to reveal their true emotion and child innocence, this provokes us to form a connection with the character and through viewing behind the scenes of this film the director quoted "to feel attached and take liking to a character allows the viewer to be more impacted by the horror in the film".

The next shot is a point of view shot from the woman who is seemingly positioned in the corner. The 3 girls break the 4th wall and the smiles on heir faces vanish in unison this creates direct connections with us as a viewer making us feel uncomfortable and creates narrative enigma as we wonder whos viewpoint we are looking from the shot is also subtly looking down on the girls suggesting them as powerless and weak in this scene.

The girls look towards us (the woman) then the next shot reveals them looking toward the window, foreshadowing their fate. The soundtrack at this point becomes louder increasing further tension levels as the children begin to get  up and walk towards the door.

The next shot is a push in shot on the window, further foreshadowing the path of the children but also bringing us unwillingly closer to the fate the children will undergo, making us feel more uncomfortable the shot is from the perspective of the children as its lower than the norm.

Maintaining the slow motion theme as the girls walk towards the window we see a close up of the dolls and tea cups being smashed by their footsteps. Illustrating the lack of control they have and disregard of reality as they loose their innocence and meet a very tragic death. We then get a tracking shot of the girls walking in unison towards the window, this makes us as a viewer feel very uncomfortable. The very pale faces of the girls creates almost a sense of death even before they meet their fate. The shot is very smooth also showing no sign of resistance from the girl illustrating the power of the woman.

The next shot shows the girls jumping out the window and is also in slow motion in order to enhance the drama of the action the soundtrack at this point is broken as the girls leave the window by an unpredicted scream which is shocking to us as a viewer and very unpleasant, it gives us a feel of raw emotion for the tragedy that has just taken paced and brings us back to reality. The window frame eventually becomes foreground in the shot which gives us direct connection for what is about the happen (jump out the window).
The shot pulls back from when they jump connoting how this incident effects more than just the household.

The final shot is also a pull back shot from the window to reveal our protagonist ( the woman in black) we are introduced to her over the shoulder and do not see her face creating narrative enigma as to who she is and her purpose to the story. Her outfit is black suggesting supernatural presence or a figure of morning, foreshadowing her true motives to killing the children later revealed in the film

Shawshank Redemption opening analysis

Shawshank Redemption

Director: Frank Darabont

Studio: Columbia

Budget: $25 million

Total gross: $28.3 million

Genre: period drama.

The opening of Shawshank is a very poignant scene in cinema as it is very striking, bringing us as a viewer into the prison and makes us feel almost included.

The first shot is a mid-shot of our protagonist Morgan Freeman or "RED". In this shot we see his full body as he walks through the crowded prison. The fact we see his full body depicts him as an honest man with nothing to hide.

There is also a voiceover from our protagonist who acts as a narrator throughout the film. We are made aware of the fact it is a prison due to the costume our protagonist is wearing. The shots in this scene are very de-saturated  illustrating the setting to be a place of discipline and order. There is also minimal foliage through this whole scene which draws our mind towards what our character is saying. The narrative helps give background to our story yet also encourages narrative enigma.

The following shot follows "REDs" viewpoint as the alarm sounds and he looks towards the tower. The tower is above RED suggesting power and how he is inferior compared to the authority, this is a theme throughout the whole film. This is shown through an over the shoulder shot.

The next shot is very iconic. A helicopter shot which tracks the movement of the bus up to the prison and then flys over the prison to reveal the shear scale of Shawshank and the fortress like structure it possesses. The shot illustrates how small and weak the humans are compared to the prison as we are looking down on the very small people, in addition it foreshadows the fate for the new prisoners arriving on the bus.

Following this shot we are introduced to our second protagonist, "Andy Doufraine" through a push in shot on his face moving through the bus destined for the prison. This shot allows us to empathise more with Andy, a man who we never feel threatened by throughout the film despite the crime he is accused of. The push in puts us closer to his thoughts and emotions as he enters the prison however his face remains absent, this portrays Andy as very humble but in addition very strong willed and complex something we become more aware of throughout the film. The push in also seems to be slightly handheld, most likely achieved through a dolly in the moving bus. This slightly turbulent shot foreshadows Andys time in prison, the turbulent and sometimes traumatic experiences he will undergo throughout the film. One again we are presented with these cool colours throughout the sequence depicting the lifestyle as dull and very clinical.

The next shot is a tracking shot to eventually looking up at "RED" we follow him as he goes against the crowd towards a higher viewpoint where we look up at him. This depicts him as very different to the other prisoners and also puts him higher than the rest hinting at his position of power within.

The final shot of the opening sequence I analysed is another viewpoint, looking over the shoulder of one of the guards as the new prisoners enter Shawshank prison. With the guard in the foreground holding a gun, it physically makes him seem much more powerful than all the prisoners as he is looking down on them once again, portraying the sense of hierarchy.

The soundtrack is very prominent in the opening scene. It is a very humble tune yet with a hint of darkness once again showing the qualities the prison has within. Seemingly very ordered and yet with an underlying darkness which could be hinting at the corruption and violence within.

Feedback so far

This is the feedback on all work so far leading to the 10th of October 2016

Tropic Thunder opening analysis- VODCAST

Tropic Thunder

Director: Ben Stiller

Studio: Paramount and Dreamworks

Budget: $92 million

Total Gross: $188 million

Genre: Action Comedy

The opening of Tropic Thunder is something to be understood in context to the whole film. Its very over dramatic and graphic. Initially shocking the viewers until we realise the whole opening is the making of another film.


Here is the first ever vodcast I made.

Defy, opening analysis of previous students work.

The opening begins strongly using cuts from various global news reports. Instantly showing us a global issue we are being made aware of in the future. To strengthen this idea they map the faces of each news presenter onto a world map. We are next met with a black screen presented with the definition of the title. The text is san sariff much like a true dictionary definition. This adds narrative enigma instantly as we wonder how the definition links to the film ahead. Sound is minimal at this point which furthers are enigma as we have no sound to put the text in context too. The first camera shot is a slider shot pushing right to left, which in this instance is our establishing shot. We do not get a true establishing shot presenting the area in which the protagonist is in to be a secret The slide shows us the rebel logo followed by a first look at our protagonist, looking up at him. This presents him as a powerful character. A voice over is introduced at this point, very official sounding which we assume to be the protagonist. The voice over gives us further insight into the story yet the use of diexis within the narrative further creates narrative enigma. The protagonist is wearing dark clothing and a hat, suggesting he is trying to hide from something and is further being secretive. The surrounding of the protagonist with technology highlights it plays a key role in the story which we are later confirmed of by the voice over. An over the shoulder shot is used to further enhance the use of technology as we look over the protagonists point of view at a laptop with code in red. The colour red of the code suggests our protagonist is doing something illegal or controversial on his computer he doesn't want anyone else to find out about. A soundtrack is then introduced over the narrative. It consists of synths which are commonly used in futuristic films confirming our belief the film is of a dystopian nature. The character then leaves his desk and runs up the stairs hastily, the introduction of handheld camera effect increases the intensity of the action. A new soundtrack is then introduced more energetic as our second character who is seemingly searching for our previous one breaks into a building. The cutting between shots here is much faster increasing our alertness as an audience and in addition adding more energy to the scene than previously present. Our second character is presented as a silhouette at first suggesting a dark nature to his character but also shows he is secretive and stealthy. A dutch shot is also used as the second character walks in, which could suggest an element of destruction and decay as it almost looks to be the point of view of a fallen CCTV camera.

Overall I think this piece tells a story really well, through the voice over, intro and action sequence however I think some of the shots are quite weak and should they have been stronger the piece would have had more visual impact which is key to triggering emotion and captivating the audience.

Thanks for reading.

Prelim Task

Prelim

For this video we demonstrated our knowledge and understanding of shot angles and applied some basic editing on Final Cut Pro X. 

I was quite pleased with the end result, I was in charge of framing most the shots and was content with most of the shots. If i was to do this again I would zoom in more on the subject on the over the shoulder shots as I felt there was too much negative space which would draw the eye away from the subject.

I wanted to show the journey to the room in order to enhance character personality and give us a brief feel to the emotion to the following scene, pride in the knowledge she has gained. We did this through a long shot. In post I chose to cut together the clips very quickly in order to convey a sense of urgency for our protagonist to speak the knowledge to her friend.

The chose to shoot a pull focus over the shoulder of our friend to view our protagonists entry in order to add shot diversity but to also show the shift from the previous location to her new one so it was more an establishing shot of the room transition. I was not pleased with the framing in this shot as it cuts our protagonists face off as the sits down making for a quite harsh and rough looking cut to the next shot of her full face.

I used the 180* rule in order to show both protagonists as they engage in conversation. Framing wise I felt I should have pushed more into the subject as the background is very distracting to the shot putting the viewers attention away from the talent.

Editing for the over the shoulder sequence I wanted to keep the cuts as smooth and seamless as possible which was quite difficult as the dialogue was not consistent in both takes.

For the final cut I wanted to show the reaction of the protagonist "Sophie" as she looks very proud in herself as she knows she can use the knowledge to manipulate people. To show this I left the shot on this despite Ed speaking, this drew emphasis to Sophies growing pride rather than Eds dialogue.

For this shoot I feel it was well executed for a first shoot. I became more used to the Sony cameras and where to locate their settings such as aperture, white balance and ISO I left the shutter speed at 60FPS as we were shooting at 30FPS and this we to achieve a smooth looking image as you must shoot with the shutter speed always at double the frame rate.

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