After we were satisfied with our research, our group began to plot out a basic story board for the film opening so that we could visually plot out which camera angles we were going to use and what would need to be incorporated in the mise en scene.
This story board is a mock-up of our film opening, though nothing is concrete as of yet.
The basic plot for our post-apocalyptic film opening is that two characters (A radio host and a survivor) are going to communicate with each other via a walkie talkie in a near-abandoned world. An unknown disease has wiped out most of the population - the rest are feral scavengers.
Note: A new and improved storyline that's more orientated around the story of the film opening has been made by Jack on a comic strip creator sight.
The main theme of our opening will be touching on isolation and loneliness. Two characters - a radio host and survivor - are going to be connected by just their voices. They never actually see each other. There will be a large amount of cross-cutting from a dingy radio station to a bright, grimy landscape (either a forest or deserted street).
During a trip to Nottingham Comic-con, I took this opportunity to study costume and the importance is has on the overall impression of a character.
Here we see a Bane cosplayer and a Tony Stark cosplayer (See the reactor glowing through his chest?) Due to the fact that Bane-guy is so tall and imposing, and his face is concealed, it de-humanises him and makes him seem less, well, approachable. On the other hand, Tony-guy's hair is scraped away from his face and his has a quizzical expression whilst looking at the villain. He is also wearing a band T-shirt, which makes him more apporachable to a viewer/passer-by.
Here we have myself and another Supernatural cosplayer. Our clothes are very dull and we each wear plaid. On the left, Winchester-A is wearing glasses - this makes her seem studious and book-ish whereas Winchester-B is holding a [plastic] gun and dresses generally darker. Though their costumes are similar, they are very contradicting characters.
NOTE: Winchester B's costumes may feature in the film opening.
Now the interestign thing about stormtroopers is that although they follow the villainous archetype as faceless and armored, their attire is clean and white which makes them seem more robot and less human. It could also mean they're a blank slate with no personality. In the foreground, there is a cosplayer in glasses, a smart shirt and a lab coat. Obviously, he is a scientist. There's definitely a character clash in comparison with how much detail is in each outfit.
To umbrella an array of tasks and to stop some repetition in posts, I have decided to analyse the Planet Terror as a means of picking apart its conventions, attracting features and production companies.
PLOT SUMMARY (Planet Terror)
"After an experimental bio-nerve gas is accidentally released at a remote military base in Texas, those exposed to the gas are mutated into zombies out to kill. Various assortments of people including a stripper and her mechanic-ex boyfriend, a doctor and a local sheriff have to join forces to survive the night and stop the "sickos" fro taking over the town and eventually, the world."
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up to create a fake production company called Grindhouse in order to sell their films: Death Proof and Planet Terror. It is also a parody of the Hammerhouse film production company based in the UK that used to develop early horror films such as the Frankenstein and Dracula franchises and crossovers. Ofcourse, the style has been heavily Americanised with action, sex and violence to attract a mostly male audience. After all, a Grindhouse is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows Exploitation films. It is named after the Burlesque theatres of New York where strip teases and bump'n'grind dancing was featured. Exploitation films are usually in the horror genre, which links into the Post-Apocayptic films as Zombies seem to be the most popular choice for ending the world. The films are seen to be low budget (Despite Tarantino being influential directors who have hired a plethora of A-list stars for their films) and include sex & violence as a key selling point.
Despite a large budget and a substantially well-known cast for both of these films, they appeal to their audience because they seem so culturally unappealing.
The real production companies for Planet Terror, however, are high budget and are famous for bringing us numerous amouns of different-genred films.
Dimension Films is a major American film production and distribution studio formerly owned by The Walt Disney Studios, it is now owned by The Weinstein Company. It is famous for horror and action films such as The Crow, From Dusk till Dawn, the Scream Franchise, Sin City and Equilibrium.
Troublemaker Studios is a film production company founded and owned by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and producer Elizabeth Avellan. They're responsible for for most of Robert Rodruiguez' films such as Once upon a Time in Mexico and also Spy Kids.
These studios create cult classics which mostly appeal to the male genre. Though not culturally fulfilling, they generate alot of money and hype among cinema go-ers.
Animal activists invade a laboratory with the intention of releasing chimpanzees that are undergoing experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes rage. 28 Days Later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to seek out anyone else to find London is deserted, apparently without a living soul. Selena and Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London tore itself apart.
28 Weeks Later picks up six months after the Rage Virus has decimated the city of London. The US Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage Virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection and the nightmare begins... again.
The 28 "" later franchise is a perfect example of films that possesses all the qualities and conventions of the post-apocalyptic genre.
However, unlike the previous films that put quite alot of focus on each shot, 28 days later was filmed with small, cheap cameras and scatters about the sets so that match on action could be accomplished on a larger scale, and the changing camera angles added more action and horror. You don't know where to look because the zombies, the heroes and creatures are continually moving at a fast pace like Danny Boyle himself had taken a shot of the Rage Virus.
In the first film, colours pop throughout the drab environmnet (For example: Jim's blue hospital gown in the empty city or Selena's red dress in the dusty old house.)
Due to separate film makers in the second film, more focus is put on the quality of the shots (For example: The boy staring through the glass to give off his reflection/A rifle scope showing a girl in the window), but there's less suspense in the sequel. This is due to the fact that you expect what's coming, and there is less attention on the jumpy camera angles that frighten the audience - gore is key in 28 weeks later.
John Murphy's In the House, In A Heartbeat is a score written of 28 Days later's soundtrack. It is one of the most iconic instrumental songs in film making and the horror genre due to its gradual build-up of sombre instruments that conjeal into a mass of whirring guitars, heavy drums and coincide perfect with the film's themes of rage, human nature and shocking horror.
The blue of Jim's scrubs stands out in the vast, empty city. Everything in this shot is out of place, even the carrier bag.
Selena and Hannah'd red dresses could almost pass off as befitting for the old house that they're now living in, if not for the soldier guarding them and the mayhem happening outside of the doors. The portrait that separates them is of a lady, which may infer than womanhood is the only thing that stands between Hannah and the fate she's subjected to at the hands of the soldiers who want to repopulate the earth.
Staying on the similar focus of radio broadcasts, I like My Chemical Romance's Danger days album and the Post Apocalyptic, gun toting, gamma radiated universe it creates in the dunes of America's deserts. The radio host gives the introduction of MCR's Na Na Na a Vanishing Point meets Mad Max feel to it. The stings and sound parallels tie in with the Western-ised wasteland, and the bold imagery stays in the mind. Not too much information is given out about how the world's turned out this way. All we know is that we're on the side of the killjoys and whatever they fight for.
Of course, there aren't any deserts around Kirkby, but I'm sure the themes of Dystopian wastelands and rock 'n' roll gun toters can be incorporated, especially in the wardrobe and costume department.
"Look to the North. Keep looking. There's nothing coming from the south."
-- Today's proverb, Night Vale Pliot
Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale. It was created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Who voices Cecil Baldwin), and is inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The podcast consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern United States". Every episode of the podcast includes a piece of music as its "weather report,", each by a different independently-published artist.
I've decided to examine a podcast rather than a film opening due to the fact that Welcome to Night Vale's sound choices are pretty interesting. Though not directly part to the Post Apocalyptic genre, the dystopian and conspiratorial atmosphere is very inspiring for a world that our group are soon to create for our film opening.
The initial theme is mellow and slightly unnerving - in addition, the themes and ambient sounds used throughout the broadcast to coincide Cecil's smooth narration adds further unease and draws in the listener. Every sentence is abstract and incomplete and deliverance, and questions are never really answered.
When a pandemic of vampirism strikes, humans find themselves on the run from vicious, feral beasts. Large cities are left as tombs and survivors cling together in rural pockets, fearing nightfall. When his family is slaughtered, young Martin (Paolo) is taken under the wing of a grizzled, wayward vampire hunter, called Mister (Damici).
In contrast to The Walking Dead, there are no names of actors shown in the titles sequences - only the presenters and the producers. This advertises where the film gained its sponsors (Seeing as it is a low budget film) and the viewers do not need to be drawn in if they've bought or chose to watch this movie. Therefore edgy titles and actors are not necessary to stop the viewer from changing channels.
The film opening starts with the pruction companies such as Dark Sky films, so that the additiona films that the company may make are advertised to the viewers.
It is done with Scarflix as well. The company has its title spray painted on the side of a wall, which indicates that the company do not help produce or create rom coms.
The production companies and sponsors of the film are advertised one after the other due to the fact that this film is low budget and independent, so it needs all the help it can get.
The establishing shot is of a country lane with a sprawling field and trees which frame the shot. The credits appear in the corner of the screen beside the tree. It sticks to the rules of thirds, and thusly draws the eye towards the titles to make them read them.
The titles in question are advertising the labels shown in the first few seconds of the opening titles to makes sure the viewers hadn't tuned out and ignored the production companies. As well as this, the car is coming into view of the camera, being track by the camera as it comes by. This makes the viewer feel like they're spying on the car too, and soon make them want to know more about who'se drivign the car in the middle of no where.
As the car leaves the shot, we are left with a broken sign advertising a small town. The population part of the sign has been shot out. This adds to the theme of desertion, andwe immediately feel like we're in a wasteland rather than a quiet country road.
We soon find out who we've been following in the car with an interior shot over the shoulder of our protagonist and the music ends. His voice over then begins to paint a picture of the world they're in and what he's suffered. However when he turns around, we see he's only a young teenager who looks anxiously to the back seat; to where the growling and scratches are coming from in the trunk.
The man beside him is similar to Zombieland's Talahassee; the quieter, more confident survivor of the duo who seems to be a paternal figure. All we see of him is his tired eyes in the car mirror, but it's all we need to see to figure out what kind of character he is.
Match on action is used here - we see the back of the two and the elder man pulling out a gun before seeing a close up of the gun firing at the back seat. This change in camaera angles adds a sudden change to the initial calm and quiet of the opening.
We see the bullets hit the upholstery of the car sea tand the growling eventually stops. The speaker continues talking throughout this, like he's used to this situation.
A long shot of the car driving is shown, and makes the viewer feel like the characters are always running from something, and the least of their troubles is what the viewer may think of them.
The ending shot is of a parn with its doors open. There are forks of lightening and thunder used for sound effects. The colours are warm inside the barn, and may be seen as a fond memory for the protagonist before the vampires took over. Everything is centred, because it is the centre of attention.
Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) comes out of a coma several months after being shot whilst on duty. When he wakes, he discovers that the world has been taken over by Zombies. Rick finds his wife Lori and son Carl along with a small group of survivors who struggle to fend off the zombie hordes, as well as competing with other survivor groups who are prepared to do whatever it takes to survive.
The opening titles for the TV show are segmented and vaguely tie into the the TV Show and the characters. For example, the clip of the sheriff's badge lying in the grass respresents Andrew Lincoln's character who was a sheriff before the zombies claimed America. The fact that the badge is lying in the grass may also suggest that the country is now lawless.
Similar to the previous clip, Norman Reedus' character - Daryl - is always seen with a crossbow. Ergo, a pair of arrows are stuck into a tree with his name in the middle. His name is closer to one arrow than another, which may suggest he's torn between two points (If you watch the show, you might realise it's referring to Daryl's brother and the group of survivors he's found himself with.
In between the titles and credits, there are the odd clips of abandoned buildings and landscapes seen from travelling in a car. Seeing as the film is about zombies, a clip of one of the infected's eyes are shown to give the viewers a taste of what this show is about, and the gore they're soon to see. Seeing as this is the opening titles for the thrid season, there doesn't need to be too much information shown in the titles. This is because the show's creators may assume that their viewers are loyal and have watched the previous seasons.
Another long shot is of a grimy prison - above are more credits. These last the longest because they are moderately more important than actors and producing companies, and the prison is also something included in the TV Show. It draws us in and makes us question why they're showing a prison when the world's ended, and people are probably free to do as they please.
Finally, the opening title sequences end with the title of the show: The Walking dead.
FONT
Capitals
Bold
Grimey and Textured
A stark contrast agains tthe rusty green background
COLOURS/LIGHTING
Harsh lighting
More grime
There is low contrasts with the colours
Everything seems to be shades of green and grey to give a gloomy atmosphere
SCORE
The violin music gives the opening a Western feel,
Highly strung and tense
Added stings are used to give more of a forboding atmosphere.
This is a timeline of the Walking Dead's opening sequence. As is clear in the TV series genre, the primary production company is displayed at the very start - this is followed by actors (Seeing these names will draw in the audience) and lastly, further production companies as well as the origins of the series (The graphic novel creators) are displayed.
Though not directly affiliated with the post-apocalyptic genre due to its ambiguous ending, The Birds is a film by Alfred Hitchcock which is inspired by Daphne Du Maurier's novel with tells the story of a small village terrorised by a sudden attack of, well, birds. It stars big celebrities from the sixties such as Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy.
Tense music is used with an additional score of a symphony which gives the opening a tense and grand effect. Dark silhouettes of birds also flit across the screen to coincide with the titles, which fly past the stark blue writing and give an imposing feel to the colour schemes in frame.
Similar to the previous film openings, the title is included in the opening title sequence, but unlike the previous films, no story is being foretold for the events about to unfold. This film is more a thriller than a post-apocalyptic piece, and therefore the events will unravel with the viewer, and will therefore make them feel more sympathetic towards the characters.
As the credit roll, a transition effect is used which causes the text to dissipate into the next section...similar to if a bird had pecked at the text or if the lettering was being beaten away with the wings of the birds.
ADDITIONAL
An establishing shot of the city if the first thing we see after the credits have cease, and instead of showing us the main character initially, we see a bus full of people. In a flock, similar to pigeons in a coop. It draws the eye's attention to follow the bus, but also makes us feel included in the city scene.
After the bus leaves, the camera then tracks the journey of the blonde figure, Tippi Hedren. She's dressed stylishly and well in her time line. There is no distant or eventual future - she is, for now, just an average civilian in sixties America.
There is a moment before she enters the pet shop when she notices her friends walk by, yet it also makes the viewer feel self conscious, like at any moment she may notice us watching her.
But she is being watched in a way. Above head, we see her looking up at a sky full of the same shadowy-black birds in the title sequence, heavily contrasted against the white sky. This ssems to foreshadows things to come.
Now what would a Hitchcock film be without a cameo?
CHARACTERS
The characters and their costumes outwardly reflect the era and the character. Tippi always dresses stylishly - her character is a rich heiress and she appears just that. Though at heart she hates conforming to the rich-guy persona, she is a model example for sixties style. However, as the film progresses she becomes more and more disheveled from the bird's attacks. Her hair ruins, she gets covered in cuts and her clothes become dirtier.
This also happens to Rod Taylor as the male lead and protector of the group. He starts off in the pet store as well dressed and witty, but looks can be equally deceptive due to the fact that he's a coastal boy who lives with his mother and his daughter.
The mother and the daughter are always well dressed (And Tandy oddly looks like an older Tippi Hedren), but it's their relationships with one another and hard exteriors that are tested in a post-apocalyptic situation that develops their characters in the end.
Ah, now where would we be in our post-apocalyptic examinations without a zombie-ridden blood fest of gore and gratuitous violence? Zombieland - the film that stars Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg - is set in a not-too-distant future where foot and mouth disease has jumped species and has, of course, turned most of the world's population into the ravenous undead. But fear not, there are elements of romance, comedy and action to coincide with the gore.
There is little to no dialog used in the title sequence of zombie land. The music used for the film opening is Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls." Great song. Great opening. The music also connotes a hell-ish environment and adds an energetic but still very negative tone - and appeals to the target audience: Young people and students.
Throughout the opening, different clips of civilians running away from zombies tells us a bit about what to expect in the film, as well as fill in the gaps of how the world 'ended' without boring the viewers with too much background knowledge. People came to see this film for one purpose only: violence and zombie...and the opening could singularly deliver this without the film ever being mentioned.
Silimar to I am legend, the titles used in the film assimilate with the mise en scene and interact with whatever might be in the frame. For example, the credit can be blocked or broken apart by thins in the frame.
The font is bold, in capitals and looks similar to carnival signs, which foreshadows some of the film's plot.
The title of the film is in the same style as the credits and interacts thusly with the surroundings. For example, it crumbles when the man in the clip smashes the glass with a crow bar in slow motion.
COSTUMES/CHARACTERS
The goodies - and anti-heroes - of the story dress in clothes similar to the time the film as made, similar to I Am Legend.
The main character (Columbus) on the left is the narrator and our guide to surviving Zombieland. His body language is closed and he's clutching a shotgun, and is also trying to stay a part of the group.
Wichita and Little Rock (The centre girls) are clutching each other, but also wield guns. This tells us they have a strong bond, but are just as vicious than the men beside them.
Tallahassee (The one in the cowboy hat) is by far the most calm and casual member of the group. Large, imposing but also possessing an open body language - we can tell, just like in Mad Max and I Am Legend that this dark knight has a softer interior...like a twinkie.
The Zombieland zombies, unlike the I Am Legend creatures, are distinctly more humanoid (And clothed) but just as menacing. These fast moving zombies break the mold of the stereotypical shuffling undead made famous by George A Romero. Ironically, they dress like the target audience, by begs a few question about whether or not this apocalypse has already happened.
The film's plot involves a military team who's been tasked with the job to investigate why an out-of-control supercomputer has sealed hundreds of scientists in their workplace, an underground lab facility. They soon discover that the workers have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.
The Lighting - and everything about this film - is sterile and very much in the vein of science fiction, bordering dysptopian due to the film orientating about the viral weapons that a major corporation has engineered. Though it's not a post-apocalyptic film, their take on the zombie genre is something that I wish to draw inspiration from. All scenes are clean cut, and the colours pop.
The titles of the film are written in a sci-fi font, and even the production company's sting fits in with the film. In the first part of the introduction, graphics are shown on-screen of a 3d-map or simple technical shapes as the proudcers and the directors are given credit.
Costumes used involve a hazmat suit and a leather jacket. The main focus of the film isn't on any particular character, the narrator is merely telling a story - so the air of mystery is immediately planted due to the fact that the viewer cannot se any of the actor's faces.
The narrator has a clean, deep baritoned, American accent - and as the film progresses, futuristic ambience sounds are used. As well as this, Marilyn has created the main theme for this opening - sci-fi jingles and humming, tense sound effects have been mixed with distorted sounds which the zombies make throughout the film. This is all to a simple melody that coincides with the beat of a drum and builds up to creat tension. 28 days later have created a similar effect with John Murphy's "In the House, in a heartbeat."
I Am Legend is a stark contrast to Mad Max in opening, execution and plot. The story is orientated around Will Smith - a lone survivor - of a mass contagion which has turned the remaining populace into zombie-like creatures that he must avoid and fight. The film explores the his life in a tense, psychological approach. Though there is action, the mentality of the protagonist and how he reacts to the barren world around him is the key focus of the film - and makes us more sympathetic to the last man standing.
The initial sound used in the film opening is an extract from a news report, but the video has been taken away so all we see is a black screen. This is used to accentuate a feeling of isolation and intimately inform the viewer of the evens prior without spoonfeeding them with a direct story-telling method and giving them visual stimulus as seen in Mad Max 2.
This only lasts for as long as the interview is over before tense, incidental music and stings that draw you into the film and offer a quote as visual stimulus.
The fact that the quote is from "A Survivor", it sets the scene of the film and immediately allows the audience to fill in the gaps and assume that the cancer treatment was not successful, and that some dreadful has happened as a result.
A slow and sombre piano score is additionally used throughout the opening, overlapping the protagonist's inner monologue which emphasises tension and compliments the speaker's harsher voice.
As well as this, each screen shot of the abandoned city has the credits of the film which seamlessly combine with the buildings. The initial shots could be mistaken for a normal city, and there's even a figure heading into a record store.
You may think that the city may just be run-down or in a bad neighbourhood, until you see the shot of the submerged cars that are piled up against bockades and barriers. The sun is shining but the city's dead. These establishing shots are key in finally filling us in with the story so far without just explaining exerything in rolling credits like you might see in Star Wars.
Most of the shots will be explained in the film, but this opening is simply slimming down the things to come and give us some foreshadowing with what to expect. The close up shot of the Mannequin in the record store also makes the viewer curious and therefore draws them in. They want to know the story.
When the voice over cuts off, more stings are used for dramatic effect and incidentally help us transition from one scene to another. The fonts used throughout the film is in captial - this is a common trait in openings, AS CAPITAL LETTERS DRAWS YOU IN AND I ASSUME YOU'RE READING THIS IN A SHOUTY VOICE, YES?
The found is similar to Times New Roman, which gives a sense of traditionalism. Everything is also centred; the 'L' and the 'D' in Legend almost frame the title.
The diegetics in the opening of the car's engine are the only thing that can be heard now in the abandoned city, and the camera tracks the car's focus to the only working car, and in turn, setting us up for seeing the protagonist and following him on his 'journey'.
The shot of the protagonist's face gives something to match the voice to as well. His body language is closed and he looks pretty tired. If not for the dog by his side, we'd assume he's a war torn villain. Such is the case with Mad max and Dog, the dog.
The car is centred in the tracking shot of the car, and makes us feeling like we're the ones chasing the protagonist. This tells us that maybe he constantly feels like thing; sticking out like a sore thumb as the only life in the drab environmnet around him. The red of the car connotes, energy, passion and aggression, and also vividly contracts the mossy green roads.
COSTUMES/CHARACTERS
As we can see, there are clear parallels with mad max and Iam Legend. We see a lone warrior who's scruffy and battle torn, always on edge and always reaching for his gun, but he's alongside a dog which makes us sympathise with him and indicates that they are indeed nice people but they've been flung into an ugly situation.
In contract to our Protagonist, the antagonists (Zombies./Vampires/Victims) are less restricted or protected. They wear little clothing and are constantly exposed like a nerve; feral and terrifying, because these creatures used to be human. And nothing's more terrifying for people than recognizing a monster who is identifiably humanoid.
The lesser of these two evils, these two characters have a very strong bond and are less detached from the world they once knew than the hero and the villains. This can be seen in their clothes that could pass off as normal in this era. They are also rugged and worn like Will Smith's character, as well as uninfected, which connects the trio together.
