Zombieland Opening Sequence Review

Notes: 2009
Director - Ruben Fleischer
Actors - Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone & Woody Harrelson
Opening Conventions: The institution sequence (Columbia) is played loudly at the start
There is a voiceover to explain where we are & what is going on.
Furthur on in the sequence the titles are shown over the sequence but they are placed asif they are part of the scene eg. letters break off if someone falls through them. This is effective as it is interesting & differernt.
Narrative Function: We can guess the storyline because we are told that there are no people left in America & we can see zombies chasing everyone so we can guess that it is about the survival of someone living in zombieland.
We do not start withing the story, we just have different scenes of people being killed by zombies whilst the credits are shown.
Characters: No charachters are introduced but we assume that the person who is the voiceover must be the main charachter as he is the only one that is being focused on.
Hook Audience/Enigma/Action Codes: The sequence is done very cleverly which makes it interesting for us an audience to watch & we want to watch more. Also, we want to see if the voiceover survives & what the storyline is going to be throughout the film. This film also used very modern technology & despite the slow-mo, it has quite a fast pace which keeps us interested.
Film Lang - MES, Cinematography (Light & Colour): There is a US flag at the beginning so its clear that the film is set in America. Horrific events are shown straight away so we know that the film is going to be gorey & a horrow but there is also a hint of comedy from the voiceover, The colours are quite bright & vivid which would give the impression of a happy film.

Film Lang - Movement, Framing, Editing & Sound: The use of the hand held camera at the start puts us in the point of view of the man who has just been attacked. It also allows us to have a closeup of one of the zombies. Also, the camera is tilted at the start which gives the idea of chaos & that the world is not right. The opening sequence is all in slow-mo, this allows us to focus on the horror & makes the pace not fast yet still not boring. The music is heavy metal which fits with what is going on. At the start the sound is diegetic as we can hear the sound of the man screaming & the zombie chasing him. Each rule is shown on screen which makes it interesting & it makes sure we saw the rule. Also, due to their being violence & swearing withing the sequence, we know that it would not be appropriate for children instantly.

Rules are written over the sequence