Research Into Similar Media Texts

The Women In Black

• Literally as soon as the opening of the film starts, which goes straight into the film rather than starting with credits, we know that it is a horror film. This is due to the mis en scen and the music. The music that is playing at the beginning is very dark and eerie. Because the music sounds like a lullaby but slowed down it adds to the conventions of it being a horror. What adds to that is what we are first shown which are old children tea sets, and the emphasise being added to the clinking of the cups. 
• By just being shown the hands of (what we assume are) children's hands and the heads of old dolls, we can guess as an audience that something bad is going to happen and it will be a key bit for the film.
• At 0.17 the camera zooms out so that we can see the three little girls playing. When the camera does this it enables us to see the mis en scene properly. The lighting is very low and makes the room look one colour. We are also able to see more of toys, in the room we see broken arms and legs of dolls, by doing this it adds suspense to the audience as we are unsure of what is about to happen.
• The camera then does close up shots of the girls playing with the dolls. This has purposely been done, as the dolls from the olden days are seen as more creepy looking compared to the dolls now a days. 
• We see the girls smiling and laughing, which contrasts to the dark mis en scene. However, we don't hear the diegetic sound of the girls laughing as there is non-diegetic music still being played. 
• The music really helps set the tone for the film as it is very slow and you can tell that something bad is about to happen.
• The music starts to become louder at 0:38, this is when the girls stop what they are doing and all turn around at the same time. When they turn around its as if they are looking at something right next to the audiences eye, but we are unable to see it this creates a lot of suspense for the people watching as we are so close to it.
• A jump cut is used to go closer to the girls, but when it cuts to them at the same time they turn their head to something else. By them turning around at the same time it suggests to the audience that they are being manipulated by something, but we don't know what. 
• The same music is still being played but we can hear more bells. I think this really adds to the opening sequence as its the same level throughout which means you don't know when something jumpy is about to happen, this is a technique used to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
• We are shown the girls standing up (again simultaneously). We are shown certain bits of them when they are doing this. For example we see a close up of a hand dropping a cup. Jump cuts are used to travel down the body to the hand and then when the cup smashes, a cut is used to go to the feet. Close ups are used to show them standing on things and the objects smashing. I think this has been done to show that there is something controlling them and that they are destroying things they were just playing with caringly.  
• The girls walk toward the camera, which looks like they are walking towards the audience. By not making eye contact it draws the audience in more because you want to know what they are looking at.
• There is an extreme close up of one of the girls opening the window, and again there is an echo when the window is opened. The girls jump out almost naturally which shocks the audience, what also makes us more tense is the music as it finally changes- it becomes more louder like a bang is about to happen but then all of a sudden stops. 
• The ending is very effective as the camera zooms out from the window, the music has also stopped so it is completely silent but then we hear a women scream. When she screams "My babies", the audience put together what we have just seen to understand what has just happened. It ends very well, as a jump cut is used to do close up of one of dolls. This links to the beginning of the sequence when we first saw the dolls, however this time it was more effective as the doll was full screen and had big eyes. It then ended on a jump cut to a long shot of the room, enabling us to see the whole room. This implies to us that this is important to the film.
• The use of jump cuts used in the opening sequence helped established that the film is a horror film, as it was fast and sudden. The music also helped establish this.