Woman In Black Trailer Analysis...

The first two seconds of the trailer shows the institutions involved in The Woman In
Black in doing this it gives Momentum Pictures an independent distributor along with
Hammer Productions more recognition in the film industry. This is good, due to these
companies being independent and competing with big conglomerates which dominate UK
cinemas. As this film was a success it gives them more recognition. This shot has smoke
behind the institution and after this shot there is a shot of a train where there is smoke
coming out of the top which links the two shots together. I will incorporate this

idea in my own trailer showing the distributors as it seems in most good trailers
they give the institutions recognition. Also the mise en scene is a typical horror
convention.

Nearly 30 seconds in we get a feel of where the narrative begins although the film trailer
is not in a linear form, this establishing shot shows the start where the equilibrium is
disturbed (disequilibrium) Tzvetan Todorov Narrative theory. This establishing shot is
opened by a fade in and with a sting note, to show the importance of the house and
punctuate the scene and change of scene giving an impact on the audiences feelings
toward this. I also think I will incorporate stings in my trailer because it has a massive
impact on a scene, making it scary or showing its importance. Without even knowing the
film trailer is a horror due to fog which is stereotypical of the horror genre, so once again
complying with horror conventions, we know what type of film it will be. Also the nondiegetic soundtrack playing adds to the tension and the atmosphere, it suggests that
there is not something quite right about this house. Then the next few shots are the
inside of the house which still establishes the setting and like a stereotypical horror
movie it has the dark mise en scene and an eerie tune which adds to the audiences
feelings (baring in mind the aim is to make them either scared/on the edge of the seat).

As our main protagonist walks up to the Zoetrope there is a non-diegetic crescendo of

music and as soon as he touches the zoetrope everything is silent which adds to the
tension. It is a very stereotypical thing to do for a horror movie to have crescendos of
music to build up to something for then to be jumped by a ghost/monster/birds etc. This
shot is followed up by our protagonist looking down through the zoetrope and then being
jumped out by an eye looking at him which is complimented with another sting note
again to make you jump and create an impact on the audience viewer. Also having this
room being quite old fashioned, the mise on scene of this sets the tone of the
scene/trailer of the film being set in an old type of setting even my protagonist , his
costume is in an old fashion. Also the lighting is very dark and the colour pallet is dark
and dull colours stereotypically like horror movies in general.

This shot is a head shot with a large gap behind him where we see a woman that is
dressed in black. During this 3 second shot the figure in the background turns to look at
him and then the shot quickly cuts to another shot. This shot is using Alfred Hitchcocks
Bomb Theory or in other words dramatic irony as we, as an audience know something
that the character on screen doesn't, the figure is most likely villain in this film. During
this shot there is cross cutting between this scene and a scene where a woman is pouring
him a drink begging him not to go back to the house. There is a beat in this scene and
the beat picks up and gradually gets faster, as it gets faster the cross cutting shots also
get quicker, sort of like how your heart rate increases this is to add tension and I like the
use of fast editing which I will try to include in my trailer.

This shot is a crow that suddenly jumps out onto the dressing table which automatically
makes the audience jump having this makes the audience scared. During this action of
the crow the sounds are amplified, like the crow noise and an non-diegetic sound of a
sting that interupts the normal music that was over dubbed. We as humans assoicate
crows with death and the next few shots definaly show death being played out, showing
this was no accident. Just before this shot the camera shots were slow and after this jump
it suddenly becomes fast cutting again to these shots-

These are the three fast shots that help create that tension and immediate fright into the
audience; it shows a problem (house on fire) and the emotion on the woman on the rights
face and our protagonist. These shots have to be linked as they are next to each other.
These shots are also cut to the sound of the beat each shot changes to a beat. This
section of the trailer gives us an insight to the story and it has to be linked with the
woman in black and the man who is at the house in which she is in. After these shot is
fades to black after the crescendo of music.

This quote in the middle of the trailer shows a statement with very simplistic typography,
white on a black background. We associate black with death, unknown, being scared and
darkness so it ties in with the horror theme, it does challenge the horror conventions in
anyway. Also as they have made this a statement it can make the audience want to go

and see the film to see if it is true or not. (Even if they think when watching it the
statement is false it is too late, they have paid for the film). Again if the audience havent
already got an insight to what the film was about the certainly do now again giving you
more information about what the film/storyline is about. This shot again is met by a sting
note showing it jumps out at you; also having white writing against a black background
makes it easier for the audience to read the statement.

This shot comes after the statement/quote and it is a three shot of three girls, in old
fashioned clothes showing this could have been in the past. Although they look alive and
they all look like they are in some sort of trance which gets the audience thinking could
this be because of the woman in black. The next two shots show the girls going up to a
window and a close up of a hand opening the window this is suggesting that they are
going to jump. During this montage of shots there is a voice over of a man You should of
left when we told you too this quote is blaming our protagonist, suggesting this scene
has happened because of him going to the house.

This shot confirms that the three girls in the previous scene are dead and it is because of
the woman in black as they are where she lives or is. The low key lighting and pathetic
fallacy gets the tone of fear for this shot and as you cannot see the girls faces there is an
element of the fear of the unknown.

This shot shows our protagonist hugging his son, we know it is him son due to the voice
over of the woman, saying he should go home to him, as the audience knows that the
woman in black come after children could his son be next? This shot opens questions and
goes along with horror conventions of the theme of the 'unknown'. Also seeing the
emotion of our protagonists face being happy contrasts with the non-diegetic sound
played during this shot to show something is not quite right and something bad will
happen.

This shot of our protagonist in the house shows him ripping off wall paper and discovering a
message that suggests it is written in blood, which is stereotypical of a horror movie.

This message gives us more info into the storyline with giving it away at all it just
keeps out heart beating and fear levels up

The audience does not know who this character is covered in some sort of mud is, but we can
see it is a child and it looks like a scary character screaming. This shot makes the
audience jump because our protagonist looks down and then looks up and this little boy
appears and matched with a sting of music which makes the audience jump out of their
seat.

This close up is typical of a horror movie. The close up shows the emotion on the character or
characters faces. In this case it shows the fear on my protagonists face. Fear is emotion
that passes from person to person so having someone you are watching being scared
automatically makes you scared too. This is part of an extremely fast pace sequence of
cutting shots and the faster the cuts the more tension it adds.

This shot is similar to the opening shot where there is cloud and smoke. Having a big actors
name such as Daniel Radcliffe of course they have to show that in the trailer because
the companies can use his name as a selling platform and people who are fans of him
can just come and see it due to their favourite actor being in the movie. This shot is soon
followed up by the title so people know what the film is called.

The last shot of the trailer is a jumping bit where there is an over shoulder shot with nondiegetic gloomy/creepy music and slowly our protagonist looks into the window and
suddenly this womans face appears and screams to make the audience jump. The mise
en scene is dark there is low key lighting which gives the gloomy affect (which
compliments the dark supernatural theme throughout the trailer /film) and prepares the
audience to be scared. This will have the effect of people arent going to forget the trailer
as if it has a big impact on the viewer it is more likely stay in your mind.