The orphanage title sequence

Last Lesson Mr. Buckmaster showed us the title sequence for ‘The Orphanage’. First he got us to just watch the scene, he then replayed it again and asked us to make notes on different categories: Characters, relationships, location and genre. (See most of the opening scene below)

Characters

 - The first character you see (Laura) is the focus of the scene for about 5 seconds. It is a young female wearing old clothes shouting out some words in Spanish and then looking behind her. The young girl looked innocent however; I felt that her being on her made her look like she was lost and maybe a bit unsafe to approach. After a few seconds a hand comes into view and grabs the shoulder of the little girl, this also makes the situation seem slightly unsafe.

- We then see some young children and the camera spans out and it becomes apparent that they are playing a game. They look like a group of happy friends, innocently playing together on the lawn.

- The final character in the scene (the caretaker) was an adult female. She is inside the dark house (which has a strong contrast to the light, summer day outside) creating a darkened and mysterious atmosphere. She answers the phone and her tone of voice makes her sound regretful and upset. She also sounds as though she is hiding her emotions which make her seem like she can’t let her emotions get in the way of whatever was said on her phone call. The woman steps outside and watches the children, she is given a state of authority and this point because she is stood on a step looking down on the children making her have a higher status, she is also the main feature in the shot with the children playing in the distance, making them look smaller.

Relationships

- In the scene we get the impression that the caretaker has a duty of care over the children. We get this from the way she answers the phone, as though she is in charge and the way she stands over the children, creating a higher and more important status compared to them.

- The children were playing as thought they were good friends. They looked close and gave the impression that they had known each other for a long time.

Location

- The characters speak in a Spanish accent, from this we can assume that the film is based in Spain. They are in a large garden that is surrounded by trees, this gives the impression that it is in a rural location. From the sunny day I assumed that it is set in spring/summer time.  It was a summer day, however a screen shot of the clouds showed they were grey and slightly ‘gloomy’, this may be foreshadowing that something bad is going to happen later on.  The trees surrounding the garden may have also been foreshadowing that something bad is going to happen as they were creating shadows in the distance. I could tell the film is set in a slightly historical time because of the old fashioned costumes the children we wearing, and some of the props, such as an old telephone. I knew that the film was a horror because the soundtrack at the beginning was dark and mysterious. There were also shadows and that sound of creaking doors when credits came up which also gave a mysterious feel and sense of ‘unease’.

- Finally the credits were presented on dark red, old fashioned wallpaper that was being ripped; it gave the impressions of the generic, old, ‘spooky’ house found in a stereo-typical horror film.