Shot Types

Women in Black

Shot 1This wide, establishing shot is showing three children during the late nineteenth century who are simply playing together with dolls and the furniture. The impact of this shot is that it shows the audience the innocence of the children and the high key lighting gives the audience a sense of security and safety. However, this contradicts horror conventions as stereotypically there tends to be a lot of low key lighting and a serious lack of innocence. In horror, however, children are quite often the victims as a result of their innocence which is emphasised by the fact that they are playing. The fact that all three of the characters are girls could also be significant as it stereotypically females are more vulnerable.

This type of shot could be used in my film because it gives the audience quite a lot of context into what is happening and the high key lighting which gives the audience a false sense of security and so is even more surprising when something bad happens.

Shot 2This shot type is that of a close up and it gives us more context into what is happening. It gives the audience more specifics into what the children are doing. For example, this particular child is brushing her dolls hair. This again makes the situation look quite safe and the audience isn’t particularly on edge at the moment. The pale colours in the shot also emphasise the time period as there wouldn’t have been much access to colourful resources at the time and this is probably what the director was thinking about when he added in the shot because it gives the audience a sense of realism and historical context to the film. The use of the doll also adds to the affect because it’s quite, in my opinion, a creepy doll which emphasises that this is a scary, horror movie.

This close up, depending on the story line, is something that I could use in my film opening. It could be altered, however, to a characters face perhaps, rather than an object. This could emphasise a characters emotion and cause empathy amongst the audience.

Shot 3This next shot is quite a loose frame and is at a slightly high angle. It shows all of the children looking at something off-camera with facial expressions that aren’t particularly happy, immediately causing the audience to immediately become tense, especially seeing as the audience is still not sure as to what is happening. This can put them on edge put also intrigue them to carry on watching to find out exactly what is happening. This shot is a lot wider than the first and so it also, to some extend, gives us more context as to where the children are. Whereas before, we could only see that they were playing in a room, indicated by the bed, we now know that it is a bedroom.

Again, it is possible that this could be used in my film. But with all the children looking at the camera, this is something that is very specific to the plot and storyline of woman in black.

Shot 4This fourth shot shows a close up of one of the children, as she makes her way towards the window breaking things in her path. This could represent the disruption of innocence of the children. The effect this could have on the audience could be that they feel tense as to what is going to happen next and it also can make them feel quite curious and urge them to continue watching the film. Again, referring to the previous shot, it can make them wonder what was behind them that urged them to get up and start walking. In terms of using this in my film opening, a close up could be good because it quite often shows what a character is thinking and how they feel about something. This therefore could influence the way the audience shapes their opinion

on that character. However, this close up is of a doll being crushed and again is very specific to the storyline. However, a close up on an object may also be a good idea.

Shot 5This last shot is a wide shot of the three children about to jump out of a window. By this point, the audience are no especially curious as to what happened off camera previously. This can have a huge impact on the audience because by this point all innocence has be wiped from these children and the audience look at them in a different light from how they were viewed at the beginning of the film. In terms of using this in my film, the wide shot can be very useful because it allows the audience to get a wider perspective on the situation at hand. For example, this shot allows us to see that the children are stood on a window ledge, whereas if it were a close up we wouldn’t be able to see what is going on.