dawn of the dead trailer analysis

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zvbQcOGsSwU

Dawn of the dead is a 2004 horror remake of the original George A Romeros 1978 classic ‘Dawn of the dead’. It tells the story of a group of survivors trying to fight of a ward of zombies while taking refuge in an abandened shopping mall. It was released in America and the UK in March 2004. The trailer lasts for a total of 2 minutes 32 seconds, and it gives a wide view of what the story is about in this short period.

Firstly, the beginning of the trailer focuses on the daily life of a woman. We can see what she normally does after a hard days work, but we do not receive any other information about her other than that she has a partner who she is sharing a house with, and that she lives in a suburban area in the USA.from this we get a sense of normality, as people can relate to what she does and we get a sense of feeling that everything is alright. Along with the various clips of her daily life shown, words in the following order ‘Evening, Night, and Dawn’ are shown on the screen. Clips are shown in an order where once the word is shown, a clip of that time of day is shown, once again focusing on the women and her partner along with the city they live in. straight away this gives us the impression that something bad is going to happen, as the director wouldn’t just make these words appear in this sequence for no reason, so it kind of creates an enigma.

However, straight after the word ‘Dawn’ appears the use of diegetic sound of a clock ticking away creates a lot of tension and suspense. Time is being used to build up to something big, and we are forced to hear the seconds which build up to this event. Also when the word dawn is shown, the music deepens a little which makes that word stand out, and the way the director connected the words and music makes us feel as if something is going to happen. There is then a long shot of the door, which is shown a little open leading into the ladys room, and there are long shots from both behind the door, and infront of the door where the couple are sleeping. This type of shot creates a lot of tension as we can guess that something is behind that door,and the shots used to show the couples happiness in their photos contrast the life before what is about to happen, and their life after what happens.

While the long shots are being shown, a sound bridge of the clock ticking away is present, to build up the tension and suspense. It could also represent time, and how quickly the virus had spread overnight turning infected humans into zombies, but up to this point in the trailer the audience are unaware of this. The use of a big close up on the door and the creaking of it tells us that something bad is going to happen, as all the events previous to this helped build up the tension so the audience are fully engaged in the trailer. The use of low key lighting around the door and key lighting on the door makes it stand out, showing that the door should have been kept shut or something. Once the door is open, a little girl standing there is shown. She is wearing a normal night suite to show her that theres nothing suspicious about her, but low key lighting is used on her body and face, and her image is kind of blurred out so the audience can’t see. This type of shot appears to be a point of view shot, and her image is blurred to put us into the mans shoes, as he has just woken up because of her opening the door so his eyes would be all blurry.

However, as the man wakes up we are able to see the use of make up creating her into a zombie. The phrase ‘Honey are you ok’ is spoken in a soft tone showing that the man is not fully aware of how she looks as hes just woken up. Right then a large pause is used, where the clips fade and everything turns black. This helps build up a lot of tension, as we want to see why all the events previous to this were shown and what the purpose of the make up was for, as we don’t really see that shes a zombie but she does look ill. When the editing is used, the sound bridge of the clock ticking stops and straight away a loud scream is heard coming from the man and a big close up of himself in agony is shown.

Straight after, the use of high pitched strings are used to build up the tension even more along with the horror shown in the clips. The low key lighting which is used on the little girl in combination with the long shot of her getting up shows us the evil inside her and the zooming in of the lady helps show us her reaction of what she has just witnessed.the sound bridge of the high pitched strings help related to the horror which the women is facing, and this type of music is used in a lot of horror movies to create the same effect.

When the lady leaves her house in an attempt to run away, the camera once again fades away when she goes out in search for someone else and says ‘Help’. A long shot of her at the front of the camera and the background shows us what she is seeing, which is the chaos around her. The funny thing is when she went out for help, she realised that every one else was also in need of help and she wasn’t the only one. The long shot also lets us see what else is going on around her area, and we can see that the threat of zombies has spread everywhere. The heavy breathing coming from the lady and the chaos around her shows us that this threat is really big, and from that point it seems impossible that shes going to survive and we can see her reaction of panik. After that the following words are used ‘When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth’. The second line ‘the dead will walk the earth’ fades in and comes out, which makes the audience take in the information stated, and this line helps give the overall plot of the film where zombies try to take over.

The next clips show a medium shot of the lady driving her car, and the camera is behind the car following it through the chaos on the streets.with the help of the non diegitic sound of the newsreporter, we are able to understand what is goin on as much as the lady understands what is goin on, so both the audience and the character receive the same amount of information about the situation.a long shot of a mall’s name is shown after the reporter states find a safe place, showing us that this is the place she is going to go to in order to stay safe.during this point another sound bridge is used when the reporter states their station is goin off the air, and different close ups of other characters are used to show their identity, and also their reactions. On the close up of the women, high key lighting is used, and key lighting is placed on her hair to show the setting of where they are, and where the lights in the mall are placed so it looks normal. Fast edits are used to quickly show their uncontrolled emotions of the situation.also, the long shot used helps us to see the range of characters present, and we expect their will be some sort of fight against the zombies as the whole narrative unveals, with survivors trapped in a mall, with a security guard present so we expect they would have guns and other equipment to defend themsleves. Once this clip finishes, it fades out and pauses for a second, and unexpectidly a zombie rushed to a door which is barracaded, and a young black man reacts terrified while holding his gun. Straight after another fade is used, along with even higher pitched strings showing the shadows of quick running zombies.the long shot after shows the mass number of zombies waiting for the survivors, and the words used by the police officer ‘Maybe their coming for us’ which is said in a calm herioc voice shows us that he is the type of character that will look out for the rest of the people.

A series of other shots are then used to help give the narrative of the story away and a combination of the lighting, sound, make up, props and costumes help bring out the genre of the movie, while making the trailer entertaining for the audience to watch.for example a shot where the young black man helps his girlfriend give birth while shes a zombie relates back to the genre as clips like these are only shown in horror movies.the use of low key lighting and a close up of the ladys pregnant stomach makes the audience feel like pucking up, as a natural procces of life which suppose to be beautiful is broken up with this filth.

Towards the end of the trailer, fast edits of clips are shown from different parts of the movie in combination with a sound bridge of high pitched strings and voices rising as they sing. Then the camera shakes rapidly as clips are shown 3 times relating back to the chaos in the movie as everything is all over theplace.straight after the 3rd time, the clips freeze and start burning up. The screen then goes white and titls down onto a glass frame of zombies behind it which signifies their large numbers and the fact they they are unstoppable. The title then appears as a special effect, and the colours used are red and orange, to signify the colour of the sun at dawn, which related back to the title, and the blood which gets contaminated from the spread of the virus, and all the blood and gore present in the movie.

Altogether, the use of sound, props, lighting, costumes and make up along with the camera angles and shots help relate back to the genre of the movie, and really engage its viewers into staying focused throughout the trailer. The whole setting helps us to relate to the movie, and brings out the terrifying horror as these events are shown in places that we live in, so we get even more scared as we feel that the zombies can get everywhere which leaves us very vulnerble.