Dawn Of The Dead Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwBigliX1Bo

The opening begins with a close up on tree's with birds flying out of them, the use of the birds flying away denotes a threat and a sense of danger. There is then a black background with the words Universal Pictures Presents in the right hand corner, this is written in red to connote danger and murder. This is the institution and this tells the audience who made the film. These words then run across the screen like blood and this again connotes danger and death. It then goes onto a high shot of hundreds of people praying, this denotes that people are praying for safety which follows a dull grey colour scheme connoting that there is no escape. The words A Strike Entertainment/New Amsterdam Entertainment Production appears again in red against a black background. These are the production companies. Similarly, these words run off the screen like blood and there can be an non-diegetic scream heard which connotes fear and panic. There is then a montage of clips which show bodies and lots of jumpy cuts to reveal a close up of a zombies face. The jumpy cuts create a sense of fear and panic and the blood around the zombies mouth is red and the only colour in the grey scheme and this connotes danger. There are still non-diegetic screams to be heard and they seem animalistic to create a sense of terror. A black background then appears and reveals the film title. The words Dawn and Dead are capitalised and are bigger than the words Of and The. This is to denote a sense of death to the audience to create a sense of fear. There is then a jumpy cut of a zombie face and another animalistic scream can be heard. The title then gets sucked away and the blood further connotes a sense of danger and terror.

There is then a panning high shot of two soldiers in gas masks, the high shot connotes their power over not being infected and the gas masks denote that there is a disease in the air. For the next 23 seconds, a secession of black backgrounds play and each background reveals an actors name in red which follows the blood theme. In between each actors name being revealed is a clip of a zombie and throughout these clips are zombies being restrained and zooms of zombie faces creating a sense of terror in the audience. Each zombie is supported by the non-diegetic scream which further causes terror. Whilst the names and zombies are being revealed a diegetic interview can be heard and there are questions being asked like "is it a virus?" which gets the response "we don't know" which creates a sense of panic in the audience because the experts do not know the cause of the zombie mutilation. The camera then zooms onto the male being interviewed and he says "we don't know" the worry on his face symbolizes the worry of society as this virus is spreading fast.

The song "The Man Comes Round" by Johnny Cash then plays, which is iconic as it is about panic, as the rest of the opening shows lots of footage of zombies, citizens running away, news reports, the police, fires, the army in front of the White house and zombies attacking people. All of these create a sense of terror in the audience and reveals the worldwide panic as the zombie virus spreads. Throughout, diegetic screaming and news reports can be heard to further connote panic and the opening ends on the lyrics "And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him." The words death and hell connote the fate of the world in the film and this creates panic in the audience. The opening then ends on a female unconscious on her steering wheel where the car door is open.