THE WOMAN IN BLACK ANALYSIS

The Woman In Black Released: February 10th 2012

Synopsis: young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghosts of a scorned women is terrorizing the locals.

Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet Mcteer and Ciaran Hinds

Genre: Horror-Thriller

Subgenre: Paranormal

Director: James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Descent Pt.2) Budget: $15 Million

The Woman In Black: Trailer

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYMUnJGURI

Music• Music: Marco Beltrami

• The trailer starts of with the main character Daniel Radcliffe sat on a train, the audience first here the diegetic sound of the steam train. This makes it clear that the film is going to be set in olden Victorian times, It also establishes that the character is going somewhere far away as the rural surroundings suggest.

As the trailer gets more tense and fast pace non-diegetic sound is added so it fits in with the events and editing of the trailer. Its almost an screeching sound, this makes It very uncomfortable for the audience but makes them aware of the climax of the trailer. Screaming emphasizes the horror aspect of the trailer also.

Editing

• Editing: Jon Harris

• The trailer fits quite nicely with the music, it starts of quite slow paced giving a chance to explain the narrative of the film.

• As there is a new scene it fades out black, I think the reinforces the whole mood of the advert, as more tense the trailer gets the more different cuts are made, get more fast paced to make the audience feel scared and nervous.

Trailer analysis• The trailer doesn’t give too much away in terms, but in

most horror adverts tend to do the same. We get introduced to the main character, he is riding a steam train and is wearing a black waistcoat. This is immediately give the audience of the time and place the film is set in. The audience are then introduced an old creepy house, its dusty and misused.

• A set designer must of took a lot of time to make the props and sets look extremely aged. Its quite chilling for the audience as they are still quite unaware why he is there and why it looks so dated.

• It is slowly building tension, throughout the trailer there are some quick snippets of some very disturbing images, we see the actual woman in black multiple times, and young children which makes the trailer seem much more twisted because of the contrast between the three innocent children, to the dark frightening ‘Woman in Black’, from our shared cultural knowledge of horror films, children and involved frequently, it almost contradicts the audience expectations, to make them feel uncomfortable.

Trailer Analysis

• There is a lot of attention to detail with the props in the advert, the old dolls and the spinning picture let the audience get more established of what era the film is set in. There are a lot of horror related props also, like a rocking chair, dolls and old dusty furniture.

Filming Techniques

• The first shot is an establishing shot of the train moving away, it almost suggests the main character is getting away from his hometown into the unknown. The next shot is an another establishing shot of an old abandoned house, which is now deserted and run down, there are trees surrounding the shot it almost suggests that the house is quite hidden inside a woods, all this connotes mystery and neglect.

• Then there is an high angle shot of the main character entering the house it almost gives the impression to the audience that the view of the camera is the view of someone watching him.

GraphicsI think throughout the advert they stick to typical dark and misty effects, the graphics of the title tells the audience immediately what type of film they would expect to see if they went to see it. The screen print from the advert connotes mystery and fear. The text stands out, we know that this is the title because it’s the bigger than all the other texts.The foggy, rustic effects reinforces ideologies of an old, Victorian trailer. Its important for the audience to get a feel for what the film will be like.

How can Elements from this trailer be used to create our own?

Themes

• We have already come up with our film concept and theme, but woman in black has inspired us with some theme aspects, editing and music. We have decided to create a found footage film, with paranormal attributes.

• We found the Woman in Black trailer was great at creating suspense and had a good dynamic between the introducing narrative stage and the extremely tense stage. We can take some inspiration from the trailer by some of the props and paranormal elements they use.

Characters

• As Woman in Black was a big blockbuster, they had money for big stars such as Daniel Radcliffe. We want to do the opposite as our film is going to be a high rating certificate we want the film to seem as realistic as possible for our audience, so as it would seem there would be unknown actor/actresses in the advert to keep the film very unexpected and real.

Sound

• Throughout the trailer there is a nice mix between diegetic and non-diegetic sound, normally in horror it starts of with diegetic sound when introducing characters/narrative and then as suspense builds up it is normally supported with non-diegetic sounds such a music, sound effect etc. We are going to use this technique with our trailer. We want to start of with the feel like it is a real found footage, so we will have people talking, maybe sounds of a train – like in The Woman in Black trailer and maybe sounds of running. And then as the disequilibrium of the trailer begins, sound effects of ghosts might be used, and maybe a soundtrack which suits the moment of the trailer.

Mise-en-scene• We are going to challenge some of the conventions of a typical horror film,

it is going to be found footage which is quite rare. Our trailer is going to have some elements inspired from the Woman in Black but some completely different.

• Its going to be set in the present day, so the props, set and costumes will be the opposite to The Woman in Black. As it is found footage, the lighting will be natural lighting or just a light/night vision from the camera itself.

Shots What I found woman in black did well was creating suspense within the shots and editing, for example the shot to the right, although its not the main focus of the shot, its still terrifying. We want to use similar techniques for our trailer, although its found footage, maybe have someone filming something and then something runs behind in the background.

Because our trailer will be found footage we are not really going to plan camera shots and angles, We assume there will be lots of close ups and long shots. But we can’t really plan in or the found footage feel won’t feel so real.

How is narrative portrayed in the trailer?

• First off It shows the main character on a train journey, it is a quick introduction to where he is going, and why, without giving too much away. Throughout the trailer it shows shots of the area, the house, the village and some of the rooms, its going to give the audience an awareness and a snippet of what the film will be like. We know instantly the era, by the clothes, steam trains, buildings and the old car. There are lots of different cross-cuts within the trailer, to try and cram as much information as possible, to make the audience want to see the film in the cinema.

• There is a shot of a flashback with the main character hugging his son, the audience can identify this is a flashback because its in slow motion, and completely different lighting compared to the rest of the trailer which has quite a muggy dark feel to it. As an audience we have a shared knowledge of how flashbacks are usually displayed. It is usually a completely juxtaposed shot compared to the one before.

Who is the Target Audience of The Woman in Black?

• The target audience for The Woman in Black is quite diverse. First you have the Daniel Radcliffe, a successful star of the huge franchise of Harry Potter. So you have Daniel fans, and Harry Potter fans wanting to see him in another role.

• There is also thrill seekers, people how loved to be scared and spooked on a night out in the cinema.

• And finally as The Woman in Black was an adaptation of the famous play, fans of the play would be interested to see how the film compares.

• Our trailer we be quite the opposite, were not aiming it to be a big blockbuster, so we don’t need the big star, but we are involving more ‘unknown’ actors to give more of a realistic feel to the movie. Where The Woman in Black was a lower rated film, maybe this is suggesting the more main stream and popular the film is, the less scary it would be. Maybe they were thinking that most of there audience was Harry Potter fans, which are mainly 13-18 years old, so making it a 12A will make the film much more successful.

Who does the Trailer Represent? • It is based in the Edwardian era, and the way of life was completely different, In the trailer

the representation of class plays a big part, the divide between the people in the town, wearing quite old ragged clothes, looks quite unclean, compared to the main character coming from London With a clean black suit on, looking very presentable.– This is a clear indication of the difference between upper and lower class. The juxtaposition between the rich and the poor – House size, clothing and attitudes.

• Another representation I got from the trailer, is the young parents in the film. As the whole village are scared for there children because of ‘The Woman in Black’ – so parental fear is represented in this film.

• Also It was quite common for people to start a job at a successful age and it seemed this way in the film, he was a young dad about twenty years old, and was a solicitor, who had a deadline he had a complete.