The opening sequence of 'Dawn of the dead' straight away gives hints on what is going on and how the story may unfold.
The apocalyptic/outbreak horror genre is best shown and explained through the opening sequence with the use of sound, editing, font and various other filming techniques. A very effective method both to add credibility, to help suspend the audiences disbelief, and tension is to use a newscaster reporting the outbreak and skipping ahead again and again to show either short or even long passes through time, via cuts and cross cuts, was sadly not used in this movie.
Scientific images are used in this extract, of genes and cells which give the idea of some kind of genetic mutation or virus to anyone who has seen resident evil. This is further proved, as during a long shot of the road, you can see many unusual human figured entities walking in an disordered way. The opening sequence of the film does not introduce us to any characters as a result of the archive footage used. The film opening is shown to be located in a House, which is in a neighbourhood, in the US. The people played in the film are the parents, a young girl who has turned into a zombie, and extras who were the citizens/zombies. The representations fit perfectly well with the genre convection.
A wide variety of camera shots, angles movements and transitions have been used in the opening sequence of the film. The camera movements are very calm as this creates the event that we are in a dream and that its not part of reality as the camera isn't shaky enough. During the middle of the scene there are about a second shots. These second, snappy shots are very effective as they surprise the audience. The cuts that are used throughout the opening scene are sequenced.
The use of mise en scene within this extract adds points towards the horror genre cup of the film. The use of darkened lighting creates a blurry, foggy effect on the camera, creating a sense of foreboding and building tension in the audience.
Much more detail needed
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