The Women in Black: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z_XetLZlqc
The first thing we see is two small china tea cups, this is a close up shot and because we don't know where we are or what setting we are in this adds mystery to the opening scene.
We also hear eerie music slowly fading in and we hear the teapot scrap the edge of tea mug which isn't a very pleasant sound so it makes the scene tense.
The scene then cuts to dolls faces zoomed in and we see a hand, presumably a child's hand, lift the mug up to the dolls mouth so the doll can "drink" the tea. It then cuts to 3 girls playing with their dolls on the floor, this gives us a sense of where we are because we know can see that we are in a little girls room.
The eerie music is still playing but it is sounds more like the music an old music wind up box would play but it had been slowed down to give it an eerie feel. We don't hear any dialogue from the scene.
The scene cuts to a close up of the dolls faces and of the girls brushing the dolls hair and playing with them. It then zooms to the girls laughing and smiling, this contrasts to the music and feel of this opening scene because as an audience we can sense that something bad is about to happen.
Suddenly the music changes so it sounds like church bells are playing the song in the distance and the girls all stop playing and look up one by one, they all look towards the doorway as if something/someone is standing there, the shot is zoomed out so you can see most of the room including the windows in the background. The shot then changes to a low angle looking up to the girls on the floor as the girls all turn there heads, we don't see what they are looking at.
However, when one of the strong notes are played in the song the shot cuts to a view of the window as if you are standing looking at it and the camera zooms in.
the shot then cuts back to the floor and shows the girls standing up, just before they are about the stand the shot cuts to close ups on their faces, hands, bodies and feet. They show a girl drop a china cup and step on her doll as she walks, this may connote that they are being controlled just like dolls are by humans and they are about to be broken and useless. The camera lingers on a girl stepping on dolls head, this may connate that they are about to die just like that doll did, and someone more powerful will help them with it.
We then get a shot of the three girls walking slowly towards the window and the camera moves back with them, so we feel like they are walking towards us. We then see the back of the girls as they stand on the bench and open the windows in sync. When they twist the handle we get close up shot of one of the girls pulling it down and we hear a sound effect of it opening which adds tension to the scene.
The camera is still facing their backs as they jump out the windows and it slowly zooms out as we hear a scream from their mother who has just witnessed the deaths. When the camera zooms out it gives us the feeling that we are a person who controlled them to do this. During it cuts to a close up of a dolls face, this may connote that now the girls are just like their dolls, limp and lifeless. The scene then cuts back to the zoom and out of the right hand side we see the back and a women dresses in black, this finally makes the audience see who was controlling them, although we don't know anything about the women so it keeps the tension and anticipation growing.
Defiantly, Maybe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDAlFhnY4tg
In the first scene of Defiantly, Maybe we hear Will Hayes (who is the main character) do a voice over about who he is, what job he has and he also tells us about how he is in the "46% of people who's marriages have failed" and how "Tuesdays and Fridays" are his favourite days because he gets to get out of work early and pick his daughter, Maya, up from school. So in the first few moments we have already established that he is divorced, works in advertisement and has a daughter. During this we see a close up of him rubbing his hands over his face as if he has had a long day at work, then it cuts to a long shot of him putting on his suit jacket. We then get a shot where it looks like we are a person leaning against his office building waiting for him, this may connate that we are waiting for Will to tell us his story, he then opens the door and the camera pans from the window to him as he walks towards the camera as the camera is slowly moved backwards,
It then cuts to an over the shoulder close up shot of him putting head phones in his ears and the camera pans from one ear to the next. During this we hear him talking about how its a "great feeling when you find the right track to go with the day" and how he has found the "perfect track" for the day.
The camera then goes to a close up of his hand where he presses his MP3 player, the music of a rap song comes on and the scene cuts to his face which has a look of confusion on. The camera then cuts back to his hand and as soon as he presses play on the MP3 the song starts playing as the overtone music. This connotes that this film is going to be a romantic comedy because it hasn't had a too serious beginning to it and the music is happy and upbeat.
The rest of the opening sequence is very interesting to watch because a lot happens. We follow Will on his journey to pick up his daughter but we see a flow of different shots and angles of him walking, for example we get a close up shot of Will looking down as if he is reading something and then it flows into a shot of a man selling items, the camera angles in this make us think we saw Will looking at this man and now we have Wills perspective so we can see what the man is selling. We get this a lot throughout the sequence which makes us feel that this story is from Will's point of view and we will see his side/version of the story.
The shots are all continuos and we get a mixture of long shots, close ups, pans, low angles and high angles to show his journey. This may connote to later on in the film where he is telling his daughter about his story of how he met his wife because they way the shots are set and flow into each other with screen breaks make it almost look like a story board.
The music in this makes it seem like we are in Will's head because halfway through the mixture of shots we see a long shot of will at a zebra crossing, he is about to cross and a man puts his arm out to stop him as a bus speeds pass while hooting at him. We then get a close up of Will mouthing "Thank you" to the man and it cuts to the man mouthing back "your welcome". Again this makes us feel like we are looking at Will's point of view and we have our headphones in aswell so we can't hear traffic or what people are saying just like him.
The final shot is a long shot and it extends across the screen as we see Will walk in to the school and then it cuts to a mid-long shot when Will is inside the school and his voiceover says "But sometimes, no matter how carefully you plan your playlist, there is no right track for what awaits you" and as he pulls the headphones out from his ears the music slowly fades and we hear the children around him, this makes us feel that. like Will, we have no idea what's happening at the school so we get a sense of anticipation
