Analysing film openings (Zombieland)

The opening









Purpose

The purpose of this opening scene is to show the audience that a zombie apocalypse has hit Earth and there were few survivors when it happened. A screen shot from the opening shows this.

This opening also shows us the narrators/main protagonists rules that he has created in order for him to stay alive in the zombie apocalypse.

Conventions 

Things that are typical of this genre include: 

Zombies(of course)

 Chaos, death and desruction, this all is shown in the opening to show you what type of genre this film is. 

CAM SAM

Shots

Numerous shots are used in this opening scene including; close ups

This shot is very good as it shows the fear in the victims face and is used a lot to its advantage in this opening sequence, 

Wide shots

This shot is good as it shows all different things going on in one shot, and is very good to use in chaotic scenes such as this one, which is the outbreak happening in the city. 

Over the head shots,

This is good for intimidating shots or establishing shots, and in some cases when someone is sat on the toilet waiting to be eaten by a zombie. 

Upwards facing shot,

Good for shots such as this one, when someone is being thrown off of a building.

Movement 

In the start of the opening film the camera is supposed to a hand held camera and therefore moves around a lot and is quite shaky. Throughout the opening sequence the camera moves around a lot and flashes in between different shots quickly, this helps the mood of chaos come across as it does not let you focus on one aspect of the scene too much, so you also don't connected with the actors in this scene as none of them are main protagonists. 

MES

Setting-America.

Lighting-more dark shots than light shots as apocalypses are generally not very happy, dark lighting helps to create this mood. Although in daytime shots lighting is lighter, understandably.

Characters- no main characters are revealed in this opening sequence, only lots of extras and zombies. 

EDITING 

Titles-the titles on this scene are very good! This is due to the fact they are integrated in the scenes to make it look like the titles are there in real life. For example: 

In all the scenes something happens to the title which reflects what has happened in the scene,such as this title...

As the zombie was shot, blood was splattered onto the title giving it this very effective sense of realism that the title was intact there. 

Another example of this includes the final title.

In the first instance the title is intact and displays the words 'zombieland' to show what the film is called.

But as the actor smashes the glass with the crowbar, the zombieland titles smashes aswell which give a very professional look and also fits with the conventions of this genre.

As you can see, it looks very professional.

Pace- whilst the titles are being displayed all the shots are in slow motion, this is perhaps so you can reflect on what's going on in the scene and also to show the titles, and how good the editing is. 

Transitions-in the title sequence all the shots are dissolved into one another so that the sequence keeps flowing. 

SOUND

Diegetic- this is not used a lot in the opening scene, the only times they are used are probably in the city scene(above). And this is on,y the collisions and the screaming that is diegetic. 

Non-diegetic- most of the sounds are non diegetic. This includes the music, the narrators voice, smashing of glass and flesh being eaten. 

Sounds effects-this includes the zombies voices, gun sounds, car engines and blood noise etc. 

NARRATIVE 

Structure-equilibrium and then conflict/disruption. In this opening scene the problem does not sort itself out as it is an apocalypse and the opening scene tries to portray how everything got bad and did not get better.