Tom holding the finished brew (whilst looking a little like a psychopath)

These are the stages we went through to make fake blood....

We experimented with trying different masks and clothes to see if it would look any more dramatic... It actually looked rather silly and would have broken the illusion of sincerity so we dropped the idea.

It turns out that me and Jack are experienced with starting camp fires (i.e. boys brigade, the scouts) so we thought to add to the realism of the scene we'd have a camp fire. Thus why we started one.....

This is us walking to the location with all the gear, it was heavy....

We took a dramatic photo of the protagonist James Carson (Tom) obeying the rule of thirds to perhaps use in post production....

 This is the second location we will be using to film the extract with the zombie.....

We went and filmed parts of our scene today, we took all of our props and filmed the parts that required us to be in the building itself. We will return another day and film the parts outside where we establish a zombie  entering the scene (of course remaining in the same clothes etc to create accurate continuity).....

This is a video I took of Tom (James Carson) exiting the building where we did our recce. The concept of the video is irrelevant, but it shows the location of the outside of the building.....

When we did our first recce, we explored shots and angles to see what would look best when we actually filmed.

These are the initial character bios for our three protagonists (based around ourselves briefly so that we don't have to waste time auditioning actors).....

This is Drew, and he is the ideal targeted audience for the horror/zombie genre......

These are a list of actors I think would suit the criteria of the film we're shooting due to their experience and credibility as actors in horror/psychological/thriller films......

Here is a list of shot types I think will be best suited to the genre to put emphasis on key aspects of the scene.....

Zombieland intro analysis

The introduction starts on a slow motion establishing shot of a middle aged woman crashing her car into a truck thus she flies through the wind shield. The diegetic sound of this woman screaming is accompanied by the non-diegetic sound of a dramatic drum roll on some tom drums, creating suspense and build up to what may follow. As she lands, the shot cuts to an ariel shot as she skids across the ground leaving a trail of blood behind her; this showing she is in a complete state of vulnerability (this being a common stereotype of the middle aged woman being vulnerable, and not quite being attractive enough to survive until the end). As this occurs, the timing returns to real time, and the graphic writing of “rule #4: seatbelts” creates the illusion to be written on the road, this is a joint focal point for the audience. The non-diegetic drums the finish as a minor keyed strings chord is played to suggest that the danger has occurred. This is followed by the non-diegetic voice over of the film’s protagonist saying “fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride”, guiding the audience in with a literal cliché; it’s conventional that we as an audience trust the narrative voice. The shot then fades to black as a large non diegetic sound of a church bell plays as part of the Iron Maiden song “Run to the hills”, a song written about zombies and the undead, in this sense the song is only fitting.

As the scene fades open, we are witness to a low angle long shot filmed in slow motion of a young man being thrown of off a tower by a zombie. We can tell it’s a zombie as there is blood all around his mouth and neck, plus his mouth is always wide open with rage – key aspects of the traditional undead. The graphic of ‘Columbia Pictures presents’ is positioned to look like part of the scene, being a joint focal point on the screen.  The music is still playing at this stage and crescendos to a louder pitch. We can tell that there is a sense of vulnerability in the un-infected character as the look of fear on his face and the desperation in the scene shows there’s nothing the humans can do when the outbreak is at its pinnacle.

At about 31 seconds in, we see a young woman sprinting away from an enraged zombie with a look of terror on her face. She is holding a cup of strawberry milkshake which is now spilling all over the place due to the speed she’s running at. The fact that the scene has been considerably been slowed down is an indication of how quickly the virus took over, and zombies took the world – the slow motion editing just displays a more in-depth perception of how the occurrences started. The concept of a young woman being the most vulnerably viewed is a common stereotyped being obeyed in this intro, but also matched with a diverse range of other multi aged/sex/cultured backgrounds.

Notice as the shots fade into one another, at the end of each sequence, the letters go from structured and aligned to falling apart and disporting as the scene draws to an end. This is a graphic metaphor which fits the criteria for a zombie film, as all structured life is wiped out in one blow, thus represented in the clip. There is diversity between serious natured scenes of fear and aggression, so light hearted and dark humoured ones, like the scene where the zombie in the wedding dress lunges at the groom who spills his drink. This is without a doubt going to register as humorous with the mature audience the film’s intended for.

In conclusion, Zombie land is one of those zombie films that should be taken as a light hearted, dark humour horror flick for the mature audience, and you can tell this from just the first 2 minutes. With the variation of how the infection started, humorous and terrifying; we as an audience know how quickly the infection took over due to the slow motion editing. The fact that also there is no diegetic sound after the opening sequence is finished, and the narrative voice has silenced, we know that our attention must be focussed on the soundtrack and what’s occurring on screen, no dialogue means there is no real sound to be listening out for. If anything is to be taken from this and put into practice, it’s that variation and diversity is key to a successful opening, not to overwhelming, but completely structured and revealing to what may occur in the film.

Our group has ultimately decided to chase the idea of zombie/horror - chemical warfare inflicted infection. These are some of the films in the genre already for us to analyse.......

For our first task we need to create a short film in groups of four. The film opening needs to contain different shot types and camera movements.....