It starts with a narrative opening, a dream one of the main characters had. The title of the film is shown after the indents of the production and distribution companies. It is on a black background, & is first shown to us in the middle of the screen, with plain white font, which then transforms into a distorted font that is made out to be in UV glow paint, to contrast to the background. The music added to this is eery and quite quiet, & an added crackle sound- similar to that of a faulty lightbulb- is heard when the title switches back and forth. The title is also not too big, because the changing fonts and colours will have a strong impact on the viewers mind already. The UV paint also becomes significant later in the story, allowing the audience to identify key elements. 
Towards the beginning of the film, the atmosphere between Esther and her new family seems to be normal, happy to start a new life with her new family. Therefore the mise-en-scene is portrayed to be normal as well. The scenery is bright (as it is snowing). But when things turn ugly most of the action happens and night or in the afternoon, where the scenery is darker therefore more mysterious. Esther herself also wear a lot of dark dresses and has black hair, which contrasts to her pale skin. The performance is also normal, a working mother and husband with two kids of their own adjusting to a third child. They are a modern American family. Esther however wears very different clothing and has an accent. Already making her stand out from the family. She usually wears 'Little Bow Peep' outfits, choker and velvet ties around her wrists.
When the mother begins to suspect that there is something unordinary about Esther, the scenery changes and the atmosphere is tense. For example, there is a change of music from quiet, soft and calm soundtrack to a tense eery soundtrack. Ester also had her own sound motif, it varied from scene to scene but the audience could predict that something strange was about to happen. This allowed the audience to engage and possibly relate to the character. Sound bridges also allow the audience to suggest that two scenes are linked together and tension starts to rise.
The camera work in 'Orphan' are a range of shots, usually when something bad is about to happen, the scene is shown in a wide/long shot, to allow the audience to engage in what they are seeing and predict what may happen next. When showing possibly a tool or an object that is significant, they would usually close up on it to show that it may become a problem in the coming scenes. A lot of high angled shots are also used when Esther talks to Max, the biological daughter. As Esther is older and controls Max in doing all the 'dirty work'. But a lot of low angled shots are used when the mother talks to Esther, showing that the mother overpowers her and also shows the convention of 'good overcomes evil'.
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