Opening scene- Zombieland

Zombieland opening scene

In the clip I used from Zombieland, it is the opening credits where there is little speech with some voiceover to explain what the film is about.

You know this film is a Zomb-com as the voice over uses strong language when describing the theme and you see a zombie character in the first shot. This shows a basis for what you expect from a film of this genre.

Mise-en-scene

The setting of the film is a stereotypical area which looks normal area in the country but this applies to a general aspect of having equilibrium at the start of the film, this is strange aspect to add to the film as the film is based mid apocalypse. In each shot you realise it is a mass of different places in America that is shown. You don’t know the place they start off in from the opening all you know is its in America. This plays on the mind as you see clips of places from around America and see what the Zombies have done to it and how it’s like this everywhere in America.

The performance isn’t shown much in this clip to shown as you don’t see any main characters. But the zombie characters are well preformed as each zombie moves in the same as each other: in a stumbling fashion, forceful and ‘wanting to eat someone’. This is very good as you need quite believable kind of enemies that make it look better when watching the film. Also in each shot there is a clear shot of people’s faces where it shows the intense fear of getting chased be a monster that wants to kill you. This again makes a film more believable to a viewer and makes them possibly feel more in tune with the characters.

The costume of each character is generally all casual as it’s meant to be an average day when the infection spreads. This has a naturalistic effect to the film which means a person will feel more relatable to a character. The costume for the zombies is done very well as there isn’t an over use of each style as each zombie has a different aspect to another E.G more blood dripping, ripped clothing or blistered skin. All zombies have grey skin this makes them seem different and less human like which means the audience think it is ok if they die. This also allows the audience to distinguish when someone is changing into a zombie or a zombie from a healthy human.

The characters aren’t shown in this clip but you hear Columbus’ (Jesse Esseinburg) voice as he explains what happend to the world is. You know he is a main character as he refers to himself for staying alive a lot. This allows for people to become attached to characters straight off as in this genre you normally like to see a lot of deaths to opening sequence to hopefully set the tone for the film.

The props used in this sequence are mainly just everyday items like; milkshakes and briefcases. Although there is a handgun used which is explained by the voiceover as an example of one of his special rules. This also uses stereotypes as Americans stereotypically have a lot of access to guns. Also there is a lot of blood used throughout the clip; like zombies spewing blood, from dead bodies and when some crashes. This over use of blood shows that the genre is comedy as a typical comedy film over uses everything to the highest level and this makes it look funny.

Cinematography

In this clip there is a wide range of aspects used as with a stereotypically Hollywood blockbuster it is shot in 35mm which means it has a good crisp image which allows everything in shot to be seen by the audience. This helps the horror aspects as the zombies look better than if they were shot in a different quality. The aspect ratio for this film is 2.35: 1 which is again typical for a Hollywood film. The lighting is high key generally quite natural except for the night time shots in which it was being lit buy light in the scene.

There are a lot different shots used. At the start there is a zoom out which transitions into a hand held shot as the camera focuses on the zombie coming towards it. This adds a sense of fear into the viewer and a hand held shot is an unnatural shot and makes the audience uneasy. Then in the voice over parts there is tracking of the ‘fat guy’ as he runs from the zombie and of the woman as she fails to kill the zombies. This adds a first person feel to the shot as makes the audience feel like they are part of the film. Then as the music starts it goes in slow motion but still uses tracking shots and mostly at long shot distance. Again this adds fear aspects into an audience member as you would be doing something similar in that instance.