Task 2 - The Woman In Black Analysis

The opening of The Woman In Black starts off by fading in to the scene. The first thing we see is, what i assume children, playing with their toys, pretending to have a "tea party", it is a close up shot of the tea party taking place. It doesn't show the audience who is playing with the toys until after the "tea" has been poured. The eerie music starts to play making it obvious something out of the ordinary is going to happen. The sound of the tea pot coming into contact with the cup is very loud, I think this has been done purposely as everything is happening in slow motion and it makes the audience aware of what's going on.

Next we see a clip of the three girls, who are all dressed in very traditional, victorian clothes, with bows in their hair, playing with dolls that look like they were made from the victorian era (1920's). The jump cuts show close up clips of each toy / doll being played with and being given the "tea". There is no movement of the camera and each bit of film the audience sees is very still which makes it easier to watch and we are able to focus on what is happening. We see the girls acting very happy as they're playing with their toys which gives the audience the impression something is going to go wrong.

Suddenly there is a change in the music and we now see a shot of the whole bedroom that the girls are playing in. The girls then look towards the camera as if they have seen something, they pause in that direction for about five seconds. This could be interpreted as the person behind the camera at this point is the Woman In Black. Next there is a low angle shot and the girls quickly change and look straight at the window which we are then shown a clip of as the camera slowly zooms towards it and the girls follow.

As the girls are walking towards the window we see them drop their toys, step on their toys and break them. We see an extreme close up of each of these happening and we can hear each of the toys breaking one by one from a worms eye view. The sound of them breaking is made louder than what it would actually sound like because of the music that is alo playing. It has been made louder so that the audience is able to hear it having an impact on the effect the breaking toys has on the rest of the film.

An establishing shot is now used where, in unison, the three girls step onto something beneath the window and then open the window. We are shown a close up of one of the girls hand twisting open the lock on the window and then there's a jump cut to the wide shot of the room where we see the three girls step up to the window sill and jump out simultaneously.

The camera now reverse tracks away from the window where the curtains are blowing against the wind. We hear what is thought to be the mother, screaming "my babies" suggesting that the three girls have committed suicide. A close up of the doll that they were playing with is now shown with wide eyes, looking shocked at what has just happened. The camera slowly zooms out of the doll's face but still focusses on it. The camera now cuts to the shot near the beginning where we are shown the whole room. This time, as the camera is slowly reverse tracking we see the side of the "Woman In Black's" veil. This suggests that she has been watching this the whole time the girls have been playing and essentially, told the girls to jump out of the window.