“How does the director use media techniques to make this title sequence
effective?”
The director has used many techniques in the title sequence
of ‘Dawn of The Dead’ to make it both capturing and informative for the audience.
These techniques include mise en scene, sound, editing and camera work. Most of
these techniques are used to draw the audience into the film to make them want
to keep watching, making it effective.
The director has used mise en scene to express how the
fundamental world which we know has been torn apart. We are shown a medium, eye
level shot of some kind of office area which has been completely abandoned,
obviously in a rush, as paper and various other objects have been scattered
over the ground. This is only shown for a second as the editing pace is
extremely fast. These two elements suggest the rush which the people left in
and the state of national panic which the film is set in, the effective of this
is that the audience knows the extent of this disaster. It also shows the
audience that this event has affected ordinary people not only politicians or
the military, this idea is also represented by the fact that it is taken with a
hand held shot which appears to have been taken from a mobile phone or some
kind of ordinary low-quality recording device, adding to the emphasises that
this disaster has affected normal civilians it also helps to reflect the place
where the film is set. The shakiness of the camera also emphasises the person
recording’s fear about what is going on, as people “shake” with fear as they
would be breathing heavily which would cause the camera to shake. This idea may
also possibly suggest that our main character(s) will be ordinary people
dealing with the supernatural.
This medium shot of the office setting may also be a symbol
to represent society as a whole in the film; it has been broken down and
abandoned by its inheritance, like the abandoned office setting. This hints to
the audience that this film contains themes of panic and running away from
danger. This sets the atmosphere of the film, we know the rough story line of
what is going to happen in the film just from this little scene, it is about
surviving a broken society. Office and economy work are the foundations of
society and so by suggesting society has been broken represents the breakdown
of the world. Similar to this scene many other shots also were hand held as if
things were being filmed spontaneously instead of it all being planned out and
calm. This makes the sequence effective as it gives the audience information
which hints at to what the rest of the film will be about and thus makes them
want to watch the rest of the movie to find out what really happens, this makes
this scene camera work act as a “hook” drawing the audience in by repeating a
similar technique throughout linking each individual scene.
Another part of the mise en scene which was effective was
the zombie’s make up, it was very realistic looking, they were covered in
realistic looking blood and scars, adding to the element of realism within the
opening sequence. The camera work and editing also helped to make the zombies
appear more realistic. The camera is often hand held shots to show the
“non-staged” element of the movie, the rush of the people moving away from the
danger or the zombies attacking those who are filming, this helps to make the
film appear more realistic as it doesn’t run “smoothly” and gives the effect of
just being people’s pieces of recording placed together, something much more
relatable as we can all video record using phones etc. The editing makes the
scenes with the zombies change quickly with fast paced editing this is to make
sure we only see a flash of the zombies, this has been done to add an air of
mystery in the sequence making the audience want to continue watching the movie
to discover the enigma which has been caused. It may have also been done so
that we focus on the main colours in each snippet of film. The main colour is
red to create a graphic match between each scene. This red is used mostly for
the zombies make up to make them appear as if they have been eating human flesh,
it is also used within the text on the scene. Red connotes danger and death
which is a convention of a zombie apocalypse film, this helps the audience to
be able to identify what genre the film is very simply, and it also makes the
audience feel the element of danger within the storyline of the film. The zombies
make up therefore makes the audience feel scared and helps them understand the
sense of danger within the movie; this realistic effect also helps add to the
effectiveness of the title sequence as it makes everything appear as if it
could really exist in today’s world. The effect on the audience would be fear,
as the storyline now appears more realistic and could happen in their everyday
lives.
Another thing which emphasises the genre of the film is the
credits themselves. They are made with red text against a black background,
this makes sure they are easy to read. The idea that they are placed in red
helps to connote the theme of danger and death. The font is quite small in
comparison to the size of the screen and the font is quite simple, this makes it
easy for the audience to read and abides by the rules created about the opening
credits. The text then runs off of the page in the form of blood, this also
helps link to the rest of the sequence as there is a lot of blood or other
gruesome images. This is another convention of a zombie film, blood. This all
makes sure the text is linked back into the mise en scene and the zombies
themselves, for example where there was a close up of a zombie being pinned
down by medical people it coughed up blood. Creating this link allows the
opening credits link together with the images. This makes the title sequence
effective as it helps make the sequence flow and make sense as one piece
instead of being too confusing for the audience.
The director has chosen to use a country themed song as the
non-diegetic soundtrack. This is a song by Johnny Cash called ‘The Man Comes Around’.
The song has a happy, upbeat melody, which contrasts strongly with the violent visual
elements of the film. The visual parts of the film show death, destruction and
pain, whereas the song sounds happy and joyful, this is a deliberate juxtaposition
to capture the audience’s attention and make them wonder why this has been done.
The fast paced editing also contrasts with the slow paced song. This is done to
capture the audience attention as conventionally zombie films have sad songs
instead of happy feeling ones. I believe the director has chosen to use this
non-diegetic sound to make his film stand out against the other zombie films
which don’t have upbeat soundtracks. This automatically draws the audience’s
attention into the film as they are confused about the use of a soundtrack
placed next to such violent zombie images; this makes the title sequence
effective as people will want to watch this film as it is “different” from
other zombie films. If you listen to the
song’s lyrics it is about the apocalypse and so this links to the theme of the
film, emphasising what the film will be about. Another interpretation would be
that this is an “everyday” sounding song and thus shows that this apologise is
the “normal everyday” now, this adds to the idea which I previously said that
everyone is affected and therefore this is the new world and so the new normal.
Another diegetic sound which is used is the idea of news broadcastings.
This also emphasises the idea of it being a national disaster and adds to the
realism of the event when paired with the jumbled fast paced editing. The
sounds giving this effect are also jumbled up, giving it a disorganised;
frantic effect again adding to the sense of no one knows what is going on.
These sounds also form several sound bridges linking a broadcast to a shot or
zombies or a text scene. For example right at the beginning there is an
interview going on with a politician telling the interviewers what is happening.
We don’t see the speaker and so his voice acts as a non-diegetic voice over
explaining the situation but in a realistic way. This enables the audience to
understand the situation which is presented, that even the politicians have no
idea what is going on with this zombie attack. This is paired with faced paced
canted shots of zombies to show a visual of what the man is describing through
his dialog. The politician keeps repeating the dialog “we don’t know” this also
adds to the sense of confusion, along with the shots of the zombies it leaves
the audience wondering what is going on and they will want to watch the rest of
the film to find out what is happening and why. The phrase “I don’t know.” acts
as a hook, the audience will remember this line throughout the opening sequence
making them realise the sheer confusion of the characters. This makes the title
sequence effective as it captures the audience attention as they want to know
if they find out why there are zombies. This may have also been done to
represent the people running the country as stupid and unable, this also links
to the idea that our main character will be an ordinary person.
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