The 9 frame analysis summarizes the progression of frames in a horror story about a little girl investigating a strange noise in her house at night. Each frame increases the tension and unease of the audience by showing the girl in more vulnerable positions and locations in the dark house with unknown threats potentially present. The analysis explores how each shot is framed to build fear and leave the audience feeling uncomfortable about what may appear or happen to the girl.
3. The first frame
In the first frame, the little girl is sleeping in her
bed with the lights turned off. This gives us the
impression that everything is calm, however,
people are at their most vulnerable when
they’re sleeping so it also gives the audience an
uneasy feeling because the little girl is unable
to fight back if anything does happen.
4. The second frame
In the second frame, see that she is looking rather
scaredhe little girl has woken up and we can. Just by
looking at this image, we can make the assumption that
she has possibly had a bad dream or she had heard
something that startled her. This lets the audience
know that the little girl is now feeling uneasy, thus
preventing her from sleeping any longer. This then
makes the audience feel slightly more uneasy as they
now know that something is most definitely wrong.
5. The third frame
The third frame is a wide shot of the room- this is used as a
point of view shot, showing everything that the little girl can
see. This is to put the audience in the little girl’s shoes and
then as a result they feel less comfortable due to their minds
believing that they are actually in that room and they could be
in danger. Not to mention the fact that they can no longer see
behind her where she is most vulnerable.
The little girl is clearly scanning her room for any signs of
danger because she’s scared and there is no way she would be
able to do anything else whilst being this scared.
6. The fourth frame
In the fourth frame, we can see that the little girl had gotten out
of bed and is heading out to the landing to investigate. This
again makes the audience feel very uneasy because ANY thing
could jump out at her at ANY time.
This is a mid shot, so it shows her from the waist upwards. From
this we can see that she’s wearing pyjamas. Although pyjamas is
the normal thing to wear to bed, it also shows hoe she is as a
character at that time- she is vulnerable and despite her fear,
she is probably not awake enough to be able to defend herself
from any danger she may encounter.
7. The fifth frame
•The fifth frame is a long shot that carries on from
the fourth frame- this shows match on action as
she is walking through her bedroom doorway out
onto the landing. There is a mysterious white light
behind her suggesting that something is not
normal about the house. This provokes the
audience as they are humans and humans are
naturally scared of the unknown.
8. The sixth frame
• The sixth frame is basically the same as the fifth one
but the little girl has turned the light on. This shows
that she is intrigued and wants to find out what woke
her up. This also makes the audience want to know
more but they also don’t because they know
something bad is eventually going to happen - they
have contradicting feelings- this leaves them on the
edges of their seats but also hiding behind their
pillows.
9. The seventh frame
•The seventh frame is a long shot, showing
the little girl opening a door- this is probably
to check and see if her parents are still
sleeping and if they heard what she heard
or not. This makes the audience feel
uncomfortable because they don’t know
what’s behind that door.
10. The eighth frame
The eighth frame shows the little girl making
her way down the stairs. In other paranormal
horrors, a lot of activity happens around the
stairs because they can be very dangerous in
some circumstances. This causes the audience
(provided that they’ve watched other
paranormal horrors) to feel very
uncomfortable.
11. The ninth frame
•In the final frame, the little girl is turning the
light on at the bottom of the stairs. The girl
is standing in front of a door way, however,
the audience can’t see through the
doorway, so this then makes then a little bit
couscous as to what is through the door and
weather it is something dangerous.
