Analysis of film opening

The film I have chosen to analysis is the opening of the film Dawn of the Dead. My fist impression of the film was that it was going to be quite scary because it starts off with just a black screen with red writing on it. This could represent blood and these both are dark colours which could tell the viewers that the film is going to be dark and scary. Then it goes strange into the shots and these are all very fast paced and only last about half a second each which created tension because they are shots of riots and violence. They also only last half a second each which then leaves an image in the viewers mind like subliminal messaging. Through the film opening they keep on flashing back to the same clip of this one zombie and this builds the tension because it is setting the scene for the movie which is about zombies and because these are so frequently pooping up for about a quarter of a second each time this keeps reminding the viewer that they are watching a zombie movie. Also the effect of having fast paced shots is that it also makes the viewers jumpy making them more scared and raising the tension. All the shots are filmed at a hand held angle which makes them seem more like they where shot for the news and also making it more realistic, so its more believable. Then after a couple of seconds you hear some non-diegetic sound from an interview talking about the zombie invasion. In this sound clip it keeps on getting interrupted by the sound of the zombie screaming. This brings tension to the clip because the screams get louder further on through the clip. Until the the non-diegetic of the interview becomes diegetic and mets up with the clip. This brings tension because they put emphasis on the last line of the interview which is a very tense line. Then strange after this some more non-diegetic comes on in the form of music and the fast paced news reports and these us hand held camera angle to make them more realistic. The song that is playing in the background is a Johnny Cash song and its about death and with the war torn footage playing on the screen all the viewer can think about is death, now they know what to expect from the film. Through the into titles appear on the screen and then drain away like blood this editing raises tension because the viewer is getting the image of blood put into there mind even if they don't want it there.

The into for Dawn of the Dead: http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/06/30/dawn-of-the-dead/