1. Opening title sequence – The Ward
From the beginning of The Ward, fear is struck into the audience as
the titles consist of a series of old style-torturing techniques
expressed through pictures on old cave walls, and black and white
pictures taken that show how old these techniques date back to and
that they are still used recently, which is sick for the audience to
think of. In between each picture shown, there is scenes of glass
being smashed, which will unnerve and strike fear into the audience.
Actors and creators names are plain to see throughout, as they pop
up in each corner of the screen in their own time.
Before this however, their are multiple establishing shots of the
outside of the psychiatric ward that will be featured in the film, with
a low shot taken just next to the name of the ward, so you can see the
name of it. These shots are all taken in the dark, which implies that
the ward is a dark and scary place to be, and past experiences inside
the ward could feature horrific events that foreshadow what the
audience will have to endure throughout the film.
During these shots there is an eerie, low key rumbling sound in the
background. This is almost like an engine sound, which would imply
that there is still something going on inside the Ward. Soon into the
establishing shots, the rumbling sound is overtaken by a heavy
breathing sound, then silence. This silence is soon broken by thunder,
as a tracking shot approaches a window in the building from the
inside, and flashes of lightning effects can be seen.
There is then a bird’s eye shot of a room, with a girl seen sitting on
the bed. There is a slight scream heard when jumping to this frame.
The camera then returns to the corridor which it was tracking down
before, and footsteps can be heard. This low angel gives the effect
that the camera is at the feet of someone walking, and that is why the
footsteps are then so distinct. The following shot is a slow moving,
free hand shot of a mirror, which supposedly has a character’s name
written on in toothpaste, ‘Tammy’. This free hand shot is used to give
almost a Point of View effect of the person that was walking in the
corridor, and this will involve the audience as they will feel like they
are in the film, wandering around this Ward.
2. POV shot is used again as the camera moves towards the door, which
leads to the room of the girl sitting on the bed, and it makes the
audience feel as though this character is peering through the window
at the girl. She is looking back in fear, which the audience will pick up
on, and they will know that this is not a person that the girl wants to
see. A low shot is taken of the bottom of the door, where the audience
will see the shadow of the protagonist underneath. This will strike
more fear into the audience, as they know a well feared character is
about to walk into the room with the girl in.
The camera then jumps into the room and slowly zooms in on the girl
from a medium shot to a close up. The audience will be able to see
the fear on the facial expression of her face. Zooming also happens
when a reverse shot of the door is taken, as the audience awaits to
see who is going to walk through the door. A few reverse shots are
taken to build up the intensity of the scene. Background sound of
drumming also intensifies until the girl screams; she must have seen
the scary character come into the room.
There is then an outside shot of the skyline, where lightning flashes
and thunder is loud. The audience is left to guess what is going on
back in the room. A side shot is then taken from a medium distance,
and you can see the girl being picked up from her neck by a dark
hand. There is then a floor shot of her feet kicking and dangling with
only darkness and two feet silhouettes can just be made out, this is
the person killing the girl. A sharp cracking sound can then be heard,
and the dangling feet stop kicking as just hang. Her neck has been
snapped and she is dead. These low camera shots remove any chance
of the audience being able to make out any features of the killer, and
therefore can make no guesses as to who he is later in the film.
Nothing is given away by these dark, low shots and so keeps the
audience interested. The background music is the only non-synchronous
sound in this opening, which is used to help build
suspense and tension. Soon enough all sounds then slowly die away,
and the camera reversely tracks through the corridor it came down
earlier.
