We start the film with a close-up shot of three little girls playing with a tea set. There is some eerie music playing in the background whilst the children play. You can tell that the film is set in England due to the use of the tea set, tea is usually associated with England so this is very stereotypical. The tea set gives away the setting of the film. In addition, the type of cups used and the clothes on the dolls suggest the era that the films is set in, so the mise-en-scene reveals a lot about the films, as we find out within the first 30 seconds.
The music used in the background of the opening is very eerie and creepy. It is quite slow and calm, it makes the audience feel on edge and they are expecting something to happen. From the background music the audience is given notions of death and they are left with an uncomfortable feeling. This foreshadows the feelings of the audience throughout the film and also could foreshadow what is going to happen during the film.
We then see a medium long-shot of the three little girls sitting on the floor and playing, they are still looking in the same direction. They all stop playing with their toys at the exact same time which suggest that the presences of something powerful made them all stop at the same time. This could then make the audience think their is a character that holds this power, possibly the Woman in Black. When the little girls start turning their heads, it as if a ghost like figure as taken over control of their bodies, this suggests a possible narrative. The music begins to get louder at this point, this could be to build tension, and make the audience more anxious about what is going to happen, the loud sound connotes danger.
Once the three little girls have seen this character. they turn their heads and look in the direction of the window,the audience are unaware that the girls are looking at the window as we haven't seen the window yet. We then get a medium long shot of the windows,and how there are three large windows. The music also changes at this point and gets louder,to convey to the viewers that the windows has a lot significance in this opening.
Before the girls were controlled by this unknown narrative they were playing with their toys, and illustrating to the audience that they were friends, like young girls would normally act with their toys, but as soon as they have no control they start to disregard their toys and this is very strange as before they loved their toys. When the girls begin to walk towards the window the camera is on their feet the entire time and you see them stepping on the toys. They have edited some diegetic sound of the teapot being crushed and the doll's face being stood on.
We then get a medium shot of the girls walking towards the window,the camera moves with the girls towards the window and you see the girls from outside of the window. As the girls step up onto the window seal,the camera cuts to the back of the three girls and you see them in front of the window. A zoomed in shot of the girls turning the window lock ephmasises, that they are going to jump out, and you see them turning the handle at the exact same time, this shows that they are still possessed.One by one they then step higher onto the window ledge and then they step out of the window.
The camera then zoomes out, back through the room, and you hear a non-diegetic sound of a women screaming and you assume as the audience that someone had found the girls.As the line 'my babies' is screamed the camera cuts to the close up of a dolls face and it has a scratch above the eye, the doll looks possessed and very sad. The camera continues to zoom out and in the right hand corner of the screen you see a vale which is black and the camera continues to zoom out and then the sree fades to black.
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