Textual Analysis

We received our inspiration from three main films. These movies were Frank Miller's 'Sin city', Victor Flemming's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and 'Sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles'. We used all three films to gain the maximum inspiration - the characters and the storyline.

The first film we thought of was 'Sin City'. In this film, the primary aspect of it is the black and white style, with certain, vibrant colours outstanding. These colours might be a colour which describes a characters personality. However, we couldn't have the intended single colours, but we kept the inspiration of the black and white theme.

Our second film which gave us inspiration was Flemming's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. Here the inspiration came from parts of the story line. The idea Flemming uses of a split mind or schizophrenia, helped us influence 'A Widow's death' - the Widow suffers from schizophrenia, which we see in the first scene with the diary entry. If we were to carry this film on, the theme of schizophrenia will be shown throughout the rest of the film. we took this aspect of 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' to show how the condition can drastically change peoples lives.

Finally, the third film which greatly influenced us was 'Sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles' directed by David Attwood. The way Attwood has set this film gave it a spooky feel to it which we liked very much. Therefore, we wanted to include this in our film. We chose a church which was a very spooky feel to it and a lot of of gravestones in its yard. Aswell as the influence from the spooky, eery feel from 'Sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles', there was the aspect of the character Sherlock Holmes, which we would base a detective character on in the rest of 'A widow's death'.

Filming

We filmed on 7th November 2009 at Great Missenden Church. Josh and I met Ed and Dan at the church along with George. We used several props like an axe, and the costumes - a dress for the widow, and a cloak for the murderer.

To film, we used a video camera and a tri-stand. We tired out different angles and planned out which ones we were going to use and which ones looked best. We worked well as a team, because we discussed our ideas.

We also came across a few problems on the way. One of which was people getting in the way of our shots. we couldn't do much about this, so we just had to wait for them to go.

There were also problems which we came across after we had filmed. For example, when the widow is dead, you can see her breathing. This isn't such a big problem because we haven't filmed the rest of the film, she might not be dead. This was at 1:50 minutes in the film

Another problem we came across, was when the widow knelt down to put the rose down by her mothers grave, we then realised that she never got back up and so just appeared walking down to the church. to resolve this problem, we put the shot at 52 seconds in reverse to make the shot at 1:00 minute.

The Music

In the background of "A widow's death", we have diagetic sound of a little girl singing "ring a ring of roses."

We had the piano playing "ring a ring of roses". We planned on having the voice of the little girl singing with the piano accompanying it. We wrote the piano music on Garageband and then recorded the voice. Unfortunately they were in different keys, so when we put the two together, they didn't sound right. They were also different tempos do they didn't match up.

Due to this, we decided to swap the piano for a violin, which gave the film an spooky feel with more of a sad tone . Richard Atherton recorded the violin for us, and I sang the song. We finally got it right, and put it onto the film. Unfortunately it just didn't sound right, so we decided to just have the little girl singing A Capella. This is what we have in our final film.

Different thing we tried but didnt work

We tried a variety of different things, which didn't work, so we cut them out.

Firstly, we tried having the piano playing the tune along with the girl singing. This brought up confusion and ended up not working. This was because when we recorded the piano, it was in the wrong key to the voice, so when we played the voice and piano over each other, they were in two different keys. Another thing we found when we put the two together was that the voice and piano didn't match up - they were at different tempos.


Due to this piano/voice thing not working, we decided to switch the piano to the violin, with a more sad/spooky feel to it. We had it playing slowly and recorded the voice again to fit. We finally finished recording it and matching it to the film when we realised that it didn't really fit to the film and we just didn't like it. After all that work on the sound, we decided to just stick with a little girl singing in A Capella. We added an echo effect to it, which worked and that's what we have in our final film.

Diary Entry

We wrote this diary entry to show the audience that "A Widow's Death" is set in 1943 and to tell the story. If we were to continue this film, we would have it based around different diary entries to tell the story.

"Visited mama today. She did not look at all well. I stayed with her a while. And we talked a while. About nice things. The time we spent together and the fun that we had. And then i left her. Just as she left me. So unexpectedly. So...sudden."

We have used short sentences to show that the widow is thinking bout her thoughts. The longest sentence is "the time we spent together and the fun that we had". This is also the happiest line in the diary entry. She reads this like its the thing that made her day and shes over joyed that it happened.

The lyircs to "Ring a Ring of Roses"

We chose to have this song being sung in the back ground, because of the lyrics and the reference to "roses"

"Ring a ring of roses,
a pocket full of poses,
a tissue, a tissue,
we all fall down.

the king has sent his daughter,
to fetch a pail of water,
a tissue, a tissue,
we all fall down.

the bird upon the steeple,
sits high above the people,
a tissue, a tissue,
we all fall down.

ring a ring,
ring a ring,
ring a ring of roses,
we all..fall..down."

we used an echo on the voice to show that its a memory and the give the place and eery feeling.

A Widow's Death

Meis en Scene

In the beginning of the film, there is a hand, writing a diary in a fountain pen. The fact she uses a fountain pen connotes it's set in a different time period to now-a-days. The handwriting is also written with an "old-fashioned slant" and very "girly", which connotes the diversity between men and women at that time. We have also chosen this handwriting so the audience can understand the connotation set 1843. We have written the date on the diary entry to show the audience exactly when it was set and there is a light of a candle flickering in the background to give a feeling of a time when there was no electricity. There is a woman's voice reading the diary whilst you can see her write it. The girls voice is soft, with an uneasy tone to it. This also connotes the Victorian era.

The whole of the film is in black and white. We got our inspiration from "sin city" which is in black and white with a certain colour outstanding. We tried to make our film all black and white, apart from the red colour of the rose. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to do this.

After it shows the girl writing her diary, it fades into the girl walking up some steps with a little girl singing in the background. This is the widow remembering the fun she had with her mum, mentioned in the diary entry, as they played ring a ring a roses. This gives a uneasy feel to the mood , which is what we were aiming for. she places a rose on her mothers grave, which connotes love.

A girl (Elizabeth) is at the graveyard wearing all black: a black flowy dress, black tights and black hi heels. We put her like this because she has just lost her husband, so she is in mourning. We have also made her face pale by putting talcum powder on her face to contrast with the darkness of the black. This also connotes he being ill and depressed with her loss.

After each verse of the song "ring a ring of roses", we hear church bells in the background. This is to show that she is not alone, even though she doesn't know it.

My favourite shot is when the widow is crying by her mothers grave, and the murderer is the other side of the grave stone. I like this because it shows that the mother was in the way of the murderer when she was alive and there she is too - between them. I also like it because, he is so close to her but she doesn't realise. This happens at 0:59 second into the film.

The murderer follows the widow into the church and she prays at the alter. He walks up behind her and she turns around just as he swings an axe into her back. He then places the rose on her chest and walks away. This could symbolise the love he has for her and this makes the audience think about if he will regret killing her. The light gets brighter and brighter when he walks back up the aisle, as if shes going up to heaven above him.

We have also put the murderer in all black. We decided to do this to connote the fact that he is evil. This also shows a connection between the widow and the murderer. The murderer could be related to the Widow or even he supposedly "dead" husband - you would find out in the rest of the film.