Some films fall into the Horror genre however there are a whole host of other films that fall into other genres such as comedy or romance. Zombie films are becoming increasing popular and there are even television series out now which is zombie specific such as ‘The Walking Dead. ‘The Walking Dead’ was created by Frank Darabont and the majority of the episodes were directed by Greg Nicotero . The modern concept of Zombies are people who have been infected by an uncommon disease, which causes them to die only to come back from the dead with a thirst for blood and quite often have the unpleasant habit of eating people. Normally the only way to properly kill one is to cut off its head (or what is left of it).
The top 10 things you expect to find in a zombie movie:
Initial inciting incident (outbreak of a disease at a medical facility or a tanker crashing into a reservoir filled with some form of toxin.
Initial inciting incident (outbreak of a disease at a medical facility or a tanker crashing into a reservoir filled with some form of toxin.
- Initial inciting incident (outbreak of a disease at a medical facility or a tanker crashing into a reservoir filled with some form of toxin)
- Hospitals end up NOT being a place of safety and healing.
- Main characters will have to kill a loved one who is infected
- Some form of transportation issue
- One person among the group is bitten but is concealing it.
- First killing of a zombie
- Master plan hatched to kill ALL zombies
- Desperate search for food/electricity/water.
- Quarantine.
- Escape, however though a good idea at the time leads a zombie to also escape or even a group of them, leading on to a sequel.
28 Days Later
An example of a morden typical Zombie film is '28 days later':
Analysis of 28 Days Later
Camera work:
The camera work they used was varied from long establishing shots to show how deserted it is, and frightening to the survivors, to close ups of the guy walking through London. We need to use shots to this to try and make out settings deserted and the main character is isolated. We might have to suggest this rather than show it literally given the limits of the locations we have to film in.
Editing:
The editing is very minimalistic apart from the text screens that have moving effects on the text itself there are only really straight cuts from each camera shot this does however give dramatic effect to the trailer and something that we will try to recreate in our film. 28 days later is a zombie film and typically has a lack of people around and how deserted the cities are.
They use lots of fade to black editing in the trailer, but in the real film they just use straight cuts to show it is realistic and natural. We want to show realistic editing in our film too so it is believable.
Mise-en-scene:
The clothing in the trailer used shows it is realistic, and could happen in every day life. We will try to use this, so we can suggest that our film could really happen.
Lighting is low key and also natural because of the outside locations. This creates fear for the audiences.
Sound:
The sound is very dramatic and uses a non-diegetic sound track with orchestra instruments and sound effects of screaming. This suggests that the creatures (zombies) are otherworldly and scary and lets the audience know the genre straight away.
I Am Legend
They use lots of fade to black editing in the trailer, but in the real film they just use straight cuts to show it is realistic and natural. We want to show realistic editing in our film too so it is believable.
Mise-en-scene:
The clothing in the trailer used shows it is realistic, and could happen in every day life. We will try to use this, so we can suggest that our film could really happen.
Lighting is low key and also natural because of the outside locations. This creates fear for the audiences.
Sound:
The sound is very dramatic and uses a non-diegetic sound track with orchestra instruments and sound effects of screaming. This suggests that the creatures (zombies) are otherworldly and scary and lets the audience know the genre straight away.
I Am Legend
Also 'I am legend' has a lot of the conventions of a zombie film, even though the monsters are not intact called zombies they do resemble and comply to the stereotypical idea of a zombie:
Camera work:
The camera uses a lot of fast movements, such as the tracking followed by the panning and the whip pans, getting faster paced and more tense as it goes along, as you would expect from a trailer in this genre. The effects on the audience are fear, mystery and a sense of lots of action. The trailer also uses a wide variety of camera angles, and shot types to confuse the viewer, and to add a lot of mystery around the plot line.
Editing:
There are lots of special effects in this film such as explosions to show that Will Smith's character is brave and escapes death. It also cost a lot to do, and we won't have a big budget. The zombies also have CGI SFX to make them seem otherworldly, but they also look real due to the makeup.
Mise-en-scene:
The clothing is very normal and natural for Will Smith's character helping the audience relate to him because he is a real person and they can think that this could happen to them too.
Lighting is very low key when Will Smith is hiding from the zombies, and he has a flashlight creating more shadows on his face. During the scenes where he is on an adventure/journey to save mankind, the lighting is natural because a lot of the journey is outdoors.
Sound:
The voiceover uses dramatic words, such as "survivor" and "infection" and "six million people died". This shows that we need to use dramatic words in our film but not make it like a trailer though. In the actual film, Will Smith's character is shown to be very brave and gets a lot of the dialogue. There is lots of orchestra soundtrack that is non-diegetic and dramatic. This creates the idea of a survival journey, and builds up to faster paced music in the tense music.
Mise-en-scene:
The clothing is very normal and natural for Will Smith's character helping the audience relate to him because he is a real person and they can think that this could happen to them too.
Lighting is very low key when Will Smith is hiding from the zombies, and he has a flashlight creating more shadows on his face. During the scenes where he is on an adventure/journey to save mankind, the lighting is natural because a lot of the journey is outdoors.
Sound:
The voiceover uses dramatic words, such as "survivor" and "infection" and "six million people died". This shows that we need to use dramatic words in our film but not make it like a trailer though. In the actual film, Will Smith's character is shown to be very brave and gets a lot of the dialogue. There is lots of orchestra soundtrack that is non-diegetic and dramatic. This creates the idea of a survival journey, and builds up to faster paced music in the tense music.
Above is the opening sequence of 28 Days Later which my group felt inspired by. We really like the way they did the fonts with the horror / blood font of the opening credits and numbers. We also decided we want to do the opening of a zombie horror film as close to this style as we could because it was really effective. We liked the dramatic music and the build up. We also liked the way the animals were used, and the low key lighting to create suspense.
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Conventions discovered:
- Weapons that appear in zombie movies can come in varying shapes and forms.
- There can be firearms such as rifles, handguns or shotguns.
- Knives are also used, usually to finish off the zombie that was trying to attack.
- On occasion a sword may also be used to decapitate any zombie who unwittingly stumbles into the protagonists path.
- On occasion weapons may have to be fashioned out of things that are lying around or just come to hand. For example, pieces of wood, pipe, tools, torches or random pieces of furniture.
- Another zombie film favourite is the baseball bat.
- Always dependable as a weapon to defeat a zombie!
As a result of my research, am going to try to use some of the conventions of zombie horror movies, such as fast camera movements, to create a sense of 'rush' for the audience. To do this i also need to include a wide variety of camera angles, including ground shots and high angled / bird's eye view shots. I think it is also important to show an initial killing, but i think it would be hard to achieve a professional job with a weapon and with a killing in college with amateur actors, and so i will try to show this through a dead body and a flash back. I will have fast paced editing to suggest about the protagonist as the hero killing all of the zombies. To get convincing acting, i will just show apart of the zombies bodies so that they don't get shown too much as bad actors or amateur makeup and costume. I will use fake blood to suggest the death.
To create special effects, i will use effects on the font and editing. To give the idea of escape or chase, i will have the actors run through the corridors at a fast action pace. For the sound, i am not going to use a voiceover, because i am aiming to create the opening of a zombie horror film, and not a trailer. We liked the sound in the opening of 28 Days Later, as it was dramatic and didn't have any dialogue. This has given use the idea of how we will show the opening of our film, but we can't use cartoons or SFX, so we will have to show the conventions of mystery / chase / sci-fi elements / murder / weapons in our own way.
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