I decided that i wanted to analyse a film that i hadn't yet scene therefore i would be more observant, rather than being bias and missing important part out because they're never meant anything any other time i've watched it. i wanted to analyse a film that i was intreged in, and one that was a similar sort of genre to our film. i chose to analyse black swan because its dark, mysterious and it is the sort of film that will target the same audience as our film 'ebony'. i am going to analyse the first 15 minutes of the film whilst taking into concideration the sound, editing, cinematography and mise-en-scene used throughout.
Scene 1
Black swan’s titles is introduced with the diagetic music ‘swan lake’ with a hint of dark laughing in the background to give the music a darker feel making the genre of thriller apparent above the more obvious genre of ballet dance. The beginning of the film introduces the main character of the film who is a ballet dancer. The lack of lighting creates a darker feel alongside using a spot light emphasises the fact that this is the main character. Throughout the first 4 minutes of the film the diagestic music gets louder and deeper to develop a harsher effect upon its audience. Another character appears behind the darkness, a man in a black cloak; at this point in the film it is not obvious who this man is, whether he is a relevant character or not. 
The variety of shots throughout this section of the film range from long shots to establish the scene to closes ups of the main characters feet to highlight the importance of the character. The darkness and harshness of the first 4 minutes of the film creates suspense and interreges the audience making them want to watch further. 4 minutes in and there is a blackout. Scene 2
In the next section of the film there is a complete change in mise-en-scene. The beginning sequence turned out to be a dream of the ballet dancer; she was dancing the black swan with different choreography. This dream could be a really big emphasis on foreshadowing Nina getting the main role of the Ballet Performance. The non-diagetic music is soothing and soft which creates the sense of the girl still coming around from waking up. Another close up of her feet is shown the repetition of showing her feet could be foreshadowing something important. 
Nina’s mother dresses her in her jacket and there is an eye line match used and then a close up of her shoulder where there seems to have been some sort of scaring, the use of the eye line match and close up of this is used to emphasise what is shown to highlight that it might be revelent in the rest of the film. Scene 3
Scene 3 starts off with a really intense high pitched train sound where there is an over the shoulder shot, with a close up of Nina’s reflection in a train window. There is a clear change in mood/mise-en-scene. The way the beginning bit of the scene is filmed looks like Nina is a little bit unstable and shaken up, the camera seems to be hand held, to make the audience feel the way Nina is feeling. The harsh sound in the background develops a dark tone making the audience feel part of the scene and eger to know what is going to happen next.
There is a cut to next carriage of the train showing what appears to be a women, my first thoughts was that it was the same person; the way that they're both wearing similar things, there hair are put up in the same way and they both sort their hair out at the same time made me think this. the camera follows the woman off the train with a pan. this character could be really important throughout the film, at this stage of the film it isn't obvious; but they wouldn't be a lot of emphasis on the character if she wasn't relevent.
When the woman is out of shot there is a quick cut to the back of nina's head, then a cut to the front of her head, then again to the back and a jump cut to another shot of the back of her head; the use of the short cut and the jump cut really emphasises that Nina is rushing to get to her dance studio.
This scene ends with an over the shoulder long shot of posters of a performance that is going to be put on, i am lead to think that this is the performance Nina is hopeing to star in, this shot is around 2/3 seconds long, to stress its importance within the film.
There is a cut to next carriage of the train showing what appears to be a women, my first thoughts was that it was the same person; the way that they're both wearing similar things, there hair are put up in the same way and they both sort their hair out at the same time made me think this. the camera follows the woman off the train with a pan. this character could be really important throughout the film, at this stage of the film it isn't obvious; but they wouldn't be a lot of emphasis on the character if she wasn't relevent.
When the woman is out of shot there is a quick cut to the back of nina's head, then a cut to the front of her head, then again to the back and a jump cut to another shot of the back of her head; the use of the short cut and the jump cut really emphasises that Nina is rushing to get to her dance studio. 
This scene ends with an over the shoulder long shot of posters of a performance that is going to be put on, i am lead to think that this is the performance Nina is hopeing to star in, this shot is around 2/3 seconds long, to stress its importance within the film. Scene 4
Scene 4 starts with a variety of shots that show a great deal of mise-en-scene to bring attention to where the main character to is, and her surroundings, developing a better insight to Nina's character.The lighting in this scene is starts of bright, the brightness could suggest Nina's bright future in the business or her bright character, representing her 'white swan'. In the beginning bit of this scene we are introduced to two new characters. we see closes ups of the two characters to highlight what the other ballet dancers look like and show us what girls Nina is up against in getting the main character in the ballet performance.
During this scene, we are shown a series of shot reverse shots between Nina and another character, the shots are really pacey which emphasises the way Nina is feeling, we are shown her reactions and she seems to become more and more anxious everytime we are shown her. Further into the scene, the lighting becomes a bit darker and we are introduces to the women who Nina first saw on the train, she walks through the door and there is a high angle shot of Nina suggestion that the new character is dominant over her and Nina feels overpowered; represented further through her facial expression. The scene ends with non-diagestic minor music playing following through into scene 5. Scene 5
Following on from scene 4, the minor music plays throughout the beginning part of this scene. We are shown 13 jump cut close up shots of Nina's Ballet shoes, showing her preperations take a long time. There is a cut then to a close up of a long line of ballet dancers feet, to show there technique and skill. There is a lot of emphasis on the amount of people in the ballet company, to stress that Nina is up againt a lot of competition to get the lead from of the Black/White Swan.
In this scene we are obviously in a Ballet studio, where the dancers are in rehersals; the lighting is normal and there is diagestic piano music which the ballet dancers would usually practice to. There is a variety of shot put into this scene ranging from close ups of faces for reactions and dialogue to long shots to establish the scene. We are shown a high angle shot of the whole studio from behind a silhoutte of a man; this suggests that the man is the dominant, most powerful character throughout; This character is the owner of the ballet company.
This is very stereotypical of a man is the owner of a ballet company, and women are the dancers, there is a few men dancers featuring in the scene also, though. There is a lot of close ups on this character to highlight the importance of his character, and to draw the audience in while he tells the story of the Black Swan to them and the dancers. 
There is 4 close ups and extreme close ups of the mans fingers tapping the shoulders of certain dancers, this is emphasised because is it important; those that got tapped wont be getting the role of the Black swan, they were told to go to normal rehersals, those who didn't get tapped were being concidered. Whilst the man is speaking to the dancers, keeping in the 180 degree rule lines; it is obvious that all the dancers respect him, because they're all stood with great posture and giving eye contact to him; In return he isn't that respectful to them, as he doesn't make contact with them all, this would be a normal thing for him to do, because if he was friendly, he wouldn't be the most dominant/powerful character in this scene. 
During this scene there is a really powerful shot, a shot of the man through a mirror, this mirror has a split down the middle, therefore shows two of his face, this is very important because it suggest the two alters of the swan that he is talking about at the time, these two alters of the swan are the black swan and the white swan, the person that gets the main role in the 'swan lake' performance they're putting on will play both of these characters. When the man reveals that those who wasn't tapped were being concidered for the main role in the production, it is clear who are the main ones up against eachother to get the role because we are shown a close up of their reactions. 
The scene finishes with these reactions, this is a great way for the scene to end, to leave the audience with an idea of whats to come. Scene 6
This scene is a really powerful scene, although not very long; i feel that it represents the character of Nina. It starts off very cool, layed back and elligant; then there is a breakdown and things start to go wrong, the whole personality of Nina will change. The scene is introduced with a long shot of Nina to establish where she is, it seems she is in a corridor of the ballet studio, collecting her thoughts. There is some really soft minor non-diagetic music; to create the mood of fantasy, it is as if Nina is in her own little world.
After this shot there is a close up of Nina's face to show her expression of content, this is emphasised because after a few seconds her mood is interupted through a loud smash of breaking glass. Their is a 4/5 second build up of the slamming of a door, this is built up through a really high pitched non-diagetic sound and a variety of shots to show the reaction of Nina and what is going on in the room where someone is obviously distressed and angry. The anger of the woman is further stressed when we are shown medium shot of the woman shouting at Nina for standing and looking. After we are shown a long shot of an empty corridor stressing that the woman has now gone. There is a gradual entrance of a really intence low pitched sound suggesting that someone is going to do something that they should, Nina walks into the room to investigate. The contrast in lighting in this room from the corridor is highlighted; the room Nina is in now is the dancers 'Beth.M'.
The mise-en-scene shows a lot of pretty girly/pinky things with make-up, mirrors, lights and flowers, this could be representative of Ninas present character or emphasising the fact that Beth.M was a really top class Ballet Dancer who was given a lot, and the fact she was smashing her room up could be because she has lost that respect and has given up on ballet dancing. We are shown an over the shoulder mirror shot of Nina; this is relevent because it could mean that Nina is going to take the place of Beth in that room and in Ballet dancing as a whole. In this section of the scene we here really smoothly child-like jewellery box type music; this is important because it could inturperate that this is what Nina has always wanted to happen, since she was a little girl. We are shown a close up of Nina picking up some lipstick,when she picks the lipstick up we hear really low pitched breathing from Nina. Nina puts the lipstick in her pocket; we are shown a extreme close up of this to stress that Nina has metaphorically stolen Beth's place in dancing. The scene ends with another bang of the dressing room door, when Nina exits the room slowly. Scene 7
The final scene of my analysis and we are in the 'principals room' where the dancers are giving their interpritation of the white and black swan; in this room is the dancers chosen, wall sized mirrors and a piano. Nina is first, and we are shown her routine through the camera following her in circles, this is much more effective than just showing us a longshot, because it puts the audience in Nina's shoes. The music in this scene is the diagestic piano music playing the very ligh song that may feature in the white swan section of 'swan lake' performance. After we are shown 5/6 seconds of Nina's routine we are then back to the low angle close up of the owner, who is observing Nina's routine also. We can still see Nina in the mirror but we are shown this shot, to see his reaction of her routine and also to re-establish the fact that he is the dominant character and no matter how good Nina is; he is still the one picking the part of the principal character.
We are shown a variety of shots to show Nina's complexity of dancing, when Nina's 'white swan' routine is finished, the owner talks down to Nina telling her that she would get the part if she was only to play the white swan, then we are shown another routine; her 'black swan'. The music for the black swan isn't as light/minor as the white swan; in this section of the routine, Nina isn't as floaty and elligant is in the white swan, instead she is much more bang on and hard, we are shown a close of her feet, showing her steps are hard and fast. We are then quickly put into the eyes of Nina as we are shown a personal view of Nina, whilst spinning on her toes, we see what she is seeing rather than what she's doing. this is good because it makes us feel dizzy before Nina is interupted again by someone coming in the studio late. which makes us feel just like the way Nina must feel. We are shown a medium shot to be formally introduced to the woman featured in scene 3 and 4. She is called lily, and is clear competition for Nina; this shot is shown to also establish who has broken Nina stride in getting the role of principal character. 
Nina's emotions stressed through non-diagetic minor music playing, this is playing because the owner of the company has told her he doesn't want to see anymore; If lily didn't walk through the door when she did, maybe this would have been a totally different situation. we are shown a close up of Nina to see her reaction, and the scene ends with a track shot, following Nina out of the studio. 
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