The genre of this film is a comedy/ horror and this
is portrayed in the title sequence. The basic narrative of the title
sequence is different situation of different people either running away or having
conflicts with zombie. Adding soundtrack creates a dark atmosphere whereas the
mise en scene make the scene more humorous, thus connoting the genre. The
enigma of the narrative is ‘are there zombies on earth and how do you stop them?’
This intrigues the audiences to watch the rest of the film as they want to the
answer. This is one of the reasons why Ben Conrad has chosen to use different scenarios
of zombies as he wanted to show how wide spread the disease has come but in a light-hearted
way. This is probably the reason he used slow motion as it show the comedy
genre better, compared to normal time which would turn the sequence into a more
action/adventure genre. One of the themes
for this film is zombies which is obvious due to the mise en scene, which the audience know is linked to chaos
due to previous zombie films made.
The music for
the sequence is by Metallica, who is a well renounced heavy metal/ rock band, which songs has featured in multiple films
across the years. The sound track was unusually chosen by the director,
Fleischer who chose the song “For Whom the Bell
The typography that has been used in this sequence is bold
capital letters with a slight shadow behind it. Conrad said in response to an
interviewer ‘We wanted to seamlessly integrate the type into the scene, making the type
become another character. We were inspired by the tension between beauty and
horror that the slow motion footage created. The goal for the type was to
respond to that horrific grace, to react to the movement.’ The colours
used for the font was red which could connote the blood and gore in the movie,
which you can see in the sequence. However, there is animation which some of
the lettering flips and turns white. This could connote the battle of survival between
zombies and humans. The red would represent blood and the zombie and the white
would represent the purity and infection free humans.
The cinematography is mostly consists of long shots,
mid long shots and close ups. The long shots are usually used to bring more contexts
to the scenario, for example the policemen putting out a file while the other
one is running from a zombie on fire. If this scenario was done with a
different shot, the audience wouldn't have got the full emphasis of the situation;
do your job or run. The mid long shot were mostly used for the running scene as
there is little need for detail for it as there is no conflict. This shows the
audience how scared some people are of zombies and in some of the situations,
you either run or die. This shot works best for this reaction as you can see
their legs running but close enough to see the human’s reactions as well. The other
most used shot is the close up which shoes the action between the two races in
the scene; i.e. the zombie getting pushed away by shield. This shot was
probably used to show the violence between each race.
The mise en scene is mostly of blood and gore which
and a convention of the horror genre. Weapons such as guns were scene as well
which promote violence. The only humor that I could get from the mise en scene
is some of the characters. This is especially of the larger people as some
people find it humorous when fat people run, especially if they are zombies.
The information provided in the sequence is that the
world is coming to an end with the start of a zombie apocalypse. It is now a
fight for survival between everyone and you cannot let any emotional
attachments get in your way. An example of this in the sequence is of the
wedding scenario in which the groom’s wife attacks him and kills him as she was
a zombie. Another piece of information in the sequence that is was a battle
between the two races and only one can survive. An example of this is the man
with the gun as he shoots at zombie mercilessly.
The sequence has been edited through fades of each scenario
involving zombies. This continues throughout the whole sequence. This was
probably to show how zombies are everywhere you go and is a continuous thing. There
has also been use of special effect, once when the title of the film came up
and another at the end. Both time included the smashing of glass one way or
another. The first time it happens, a guy smashes through the glass with a
crowbar as he runs away from the zombies chasing him. The smashing of the glass
in this context could connote his escape from the zombies as if there is
another way out. However, the man also breaks the typography with the crowbar
which could represent how chaotic the world is there or how he is trying to
abolish all of the zombies. The next time the glass smashes is when a zombie
falls onto it with his blood first. This could connote how the zombies are
getting through to the humans and connote there is no escape from them. The typography
also falls in the scene which could connote the breakdown of civilization.
Overall the ZombieLand title sequence shows its genre
of a comedy/ horror through the micro features of sound, cinematography, mise
en scene and editing to create a chaotic yet humorous atmosphere and to give
hints to the audience of what the narrative of the film is, combining its
themes and genre.
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