Dawn Of The Dead Analysis

The start opens with the logos of the distributors. We already get aspects of horror due to the jumpy music played over the top. It then proceeds to show a Ana Clark, the main character in the story, doing her shift in the hospital, we gather from the way that doctors instruct her that she is overworked and unappreciated. Ana and the sectary start having a conversation over a patient who was suffering from a bite attack. This is the first clue the viewers get on the infection and fits in with the convention of a zombie horror. Ana finishes her shift and leaves the hospital, as she steps through the doors she sees an ambulance parked up and the back doors wide open with two feet hanging out. At this point the audience have suspicions of the person being one of the infected. As she approaches the ambulance she calls out and the driver wakes up. Just as this happens, the radio in the ambulance asks the paramedics to respond to a bite attack. This is to tell the viewer that the bite attack up in the hospital was not a coincidence and that they are connected to the infection.

As she is driving home she flicks on the radio which is currently doing a news report. The report said “it is not an isolated incident” Ana then without any interest switches the radio onto another channel. Throughout the scene the viewers are given little hints such as the radio, the bite incidents and the thoughts of the paramedic being infected.

As she drives through her neighbourhood to her house a high birds eye view shot shows her route. This shot has not been used not to show isolation but to show a heavy population of what can potentially turn into the infected. The reason this method is done rather than the isolation technique is to allow the viewer to imagine the danger she could soon face. Just before she pulls into her drive she pulls over to talk to a little girl called Viviane, who’s her neighbour and is roller-blading on the road. Because she pulled over to talk this shows that Ana has a good relationship with her neighbours. Ana says “maybe tomorrow after work i will do a few backward laps around the block with you ok?”. This is ironic as we have a good idea that buy that time tomorrow Viviane and a large majority of people will be infected. From the moment we meet Viviane we can see that she and Ana have a very good bond, almost like mother and daughter.

This is a detailed narration of the opening 4 minutes of Dawn Of The Dead. I believe that the opening location was very stereotypical because the whole storyline involves a medical outbreak, in which the opening scene is set in a hospital. This set would have been chosen to portray the outbreak as an undetected and unstoppable virus, we know this because the one place you would expect the virus to be identified is a hospital, but the virus was undetected by hospitals, hence the spread of the virus.

The lighting in dawn of the dead is mainly all natural, although in some scenes the lighting is low to portray an essence of evil and danger. Zack Snyder and Mark Abraham, the directors have used lighting very well and have gained maximum effect it the attack scenes with the zombies.

In dawn of the dead there is diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The music used in dawn of the dead is very deep and contains a lot of bass. The music itself gives the impression of evil, even sometimes before it arrives. In the scene where Viviane approaches the Clarks bedroom, the suspense based music starts before we even see Viviane in a clear form or even in here blood drenched zombie form. As the music so does the suspense until she finally steps from the shadows into the doorway. As Viviane reveals herself the music reaches its peak as there is aloud quick paced beat. This is one of many examples in the way in which the music has been used to build the suspense in dawn of the dead. Through out the film the viewer would pick up on this and come to realise that with the start of that type of music means the start of danger.

The location used at the start of dawn of the dead is the hospital and the residential area. The hospital is mainly used to fit in with Ana’s character. the second location used is the residential area, this is a well chosen set as it gives maximum effect as the virus spreads into a populated area which therefore will create maximum amount of danger.

AS Questionnaire of horror/thriller

We will ask the target audience a few questions about horror and thriller conventions, which will hopefuly help us with our specification and ideas.

1) How old are you?


2) Name a scary location.


3) When you hear a scream, what do you think of?


4) Are you more scared by a physical monster or a psychological monster?


5) Do you enjoy a high octane chase with zombies, or being kept in suspense?


6) Does handheld scare you? Or do you prefer still?


7) Does the narrative play an important role in a horror/thriller?


8) When we say the word “Horror thriller” what images/film clips/sounds come to mind?
a. Images:

b. Clips:

c. Sounds:

9) What are you most scared by in a horror film?
Violence Suspense Graphical Horror Psychological Suspense
Other (List)

10) Describe a scary forest? (E.g. features of it)


11) When we say “Zombie” name 3 things that come to mind…

The difference between Horror and Thriller

We plan to use a bit of both horror and thriller in out movie. We plan to have the suspense a horror gives, but give it a horror storyline. Horror is about invoking fear, gruesome images and out of proportion issues, whereas Thriller is about holding suspense. In a Thriller, the fear is a lot more psychological based, where as a Horror has the gruesome graphics on screen. You could say thriller is based on suspense, where as horror is surprise. We plan to use both these in our film, similarly to what Alfred Hitchcock did. We give it a Horror based storyline, zombies, put a Thriller edge to it, making the zombies smarter than normal, and not showing themselves till necessary.
The lighting in thrillers is mostly studio based, to give an extra emphasis on the scenes although you do get ambient lighting in a lot of Thriller to create realism. In a horror, the lighting is purely natural. The flashing lights or red dull lights are in the scene, such as a broken spark or an alarm. The locations of Thrillers are very wide ranged. You can create suspense in anything if you can do it right, where as a horror needs a proper location to give the true effect of the destruction the antagonist gives, such as a small village is almost wiped out, or a city is in ruins. The storylines in Thrillers are often based around a flaw in the protagonist where the antagonist provokes it. There are many sub plots and sub genres in Thrillers. This is massively different to horrors, where the storyline is set and is purely based on the antagonist and protagonist and the struggle to survive. The camera angles in Thrillers have a lot of low angles and high angles to show strengths and weaknesses of the characters as they progress through the film. There is also a lot of close ups to show the characters reaction towards a certain event. In a Horror the camera angles are often point of view, or you are put in the scene as a person, while the scene takes place. This keeps the audience as close as possible to the danger, rather than trying to distance them from it. Thrillers have minimal editing, except the fast transitions at some points to build suspense, although in a Horror a lot of editing is needed, such as special effects to enhance what is going on in the scene.

To conclude we plan on using both the typical conventions that make a Horror scary, but keep the suspense that a Thriller gives. We plan on making this a whole new way of looking at a film; bringing two very mainstream genres and trying to make them a hybrid. It has worked before. Seven is a film that has both aspects of a Horror and Thriller. You could say the same about 28 days/weeks later, although that verges mostly on the Horror side.

Gantt Chart

Here is a gantt chart we made that will show our time on each stage.

How to make a zombie

If you are going to have a zombie, there are a few things that you might want to consider before you start to make it. First of all, will it be an ‘Intelligent’ or a dumb zombie. We found ‘Intelligent’ ones in 28 Days/Weeks Later, and in I am Legend, whereas there are dumb ones in Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead. The zombie’s personality plays a great part in thrillers, as dumb ones are usually massed and are killed all the time, though many more come, where as the ‘Intelligent’ ones seem to be everywhere, and can interact with the surroundings better. In I am Legend, the zombies are extremely fast, and are also very ‘Intelligent’; in the sense they lay traps and stay away from sunlight. There is also the ‘Intelligent’ ones in 28 Days/Weeks Later, where they mass, run extremely fast and are able to interact with surroundings. The dumb ones are usually used to show isolation due to the sheer mass of them, where as the ‘Intelligent’ ones usually create tension and suspense making the characters attempts seem useless.

When we think of zombie, we get the image of rotten skin, teeth showing, brains, claws, torn clothes and a relentless attitude. When we make our zombie, we will consider all these things, though we can not have very graphical images, so we will stick to showing silhouettes of them, or at a distance.

There is also the zombie “hot spots” such as dark rooms, isolated areas, urban cities and the classic, zombie hand clawing through the window. All these areas need to be thought about when thinking of where to make the protagonist go. A lot of zombie thrillers show the protagonists trying to get to another abandoned building, and must pass masses of zombies to get to them. This is a common theme in zombie films.

IOn our first storyboard, our zombie will wear over sized clothes, though you will only see silhouettes of it running. We will make them extremely strong and fast, making the protagonists seem inferior to them, even though they are still teenagers. We will have masses of the zombies, though we will only show a maximum of 5 in the woods scene. This is to still keep the realism of the zombies actually following the teenagers, and the isolation of them.

We could consider using fake blood and wounds if we were to use a close up, although due to our budget, we will stick to keeping them at a distance.

Preliminary Task

We were told to do a preliminary task based around a person walking into a room and exchanging conversation. Me and simon decided to have a gangsta style one, and it turned out pretty well.