Dawn Of The Dead

Dawn Of The Dead

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  The sudden changeto a very graphic close up shot taken an angle is used to shock and also give the audience the first indication into the films genre – horror/thriller. The title sequence starts with a long shot of people kneeling over and praying and this gives the sequence a mysterious start. -859790-913765<br />The sequence also uses non diagetic and diagetic sound very well and effectively as the voice over is both diagetic and non diagetic, this is effective as you can put a face to the voice and the voice turns out to be the president thus implying that there is a national or international crisis. Later on in the sequence there is non diagetic country music in the background this seems to be out of place with the footage but could have been used as a juxtaposition to emphasise that this is happening to normal people. This is backed up by the clever use of what seems like real live news style footage which also conveys a sense of realism.18237207416800182372064782701823720558800017881601099185178816022034517881602025015178816029394151788160379476017881604673600The sequence also uses a low angle shot looking up on what seems to be soldiers suggesting that the soldiers will have a big part to play in the rest of the film as the low angle shot looking up may represent power. There is also a shot of what looks like DNA or blood this suggests along with all of the other pictures that this is an epidemic which has affected the blood of humans. The writing also seems to turn into blood which also hints at the genre of the film.The cutting rhythm is also very fast also to build up some tension and atmosphere the shots stay no longer than 5 seconds on screen this enables the viewer to take in a lot of information but also helps create many questions that the audience cannot answer. The hero of the movie cannot be identified clearly but the vampire like people can be distinguished as the villains. There seem to be many principle characters but the group of vampire like people can be seen as one.The title sequence incorporates a different sequence of titles as the film title comes in before the actual character names most of the other movies when the main character is a recognisable name they tend to come before the film title, the rest of the sequence then follow this hierarchy of power system most other film sequences use. The use of the colour red is also a recurring theme in most thrillers and horrors as it is a symbol for danger (blood).<br />In the terms of narrative structure, there is use of Levi’s binary opposites in dead vs. alive a key feature in films such as this and in most thrillers and horrors, they also subvert the ideals of narrative structure as they do introduce the villain or villains, but if there is a hero and the identity of this hero is unknown – creates mystery. It seems clear that this problem is international as an international icon – and someone who arguably is the most powerful man in the world – the American president is used in the sequence. Even though “Dawn of the dead” is a slasher I feel that the opening sequence is very effective and does in a way link in to a psychological thriller, in the used of titles, in the pace of the scene which is frantic maybe to confuse the audience before settling into the actual storyline, it also shows that the boundaries between genres – especially the sub genres of horror and thrillers – are blurred and are not definite and in this new day there are many cross over’s (hybrids). As much as it is effective it also shows what techniques not to use to send the wrong messages to the audience for example the uses of blood and gore.<br />