Film Openings: Zombieland

The film opening I have chosen to analyse  is Zombieland.The film Zombieland is a action, comedy and a horror film.The film is about zombies which have taken over America and  a student is trying to reach his family in Ohio(a place in America). In an action film we expect to see guns, explosions, fire, hero's and villains and so on. In a horror film we expect to see blood and dead people. In a comedy film we expect to see funny comments from characters, bright lighting which represents happiness, funny clothing and so on. Knowing what the genre of the film, the audience would expect pacific scenes to happen in the film, for example in a action film we expect guns, if we don't see guns in the film then the film doesn't fit its criteria. We don't expect to see a film which contains comedy and horror together because they are the complete opposite, horror scares people and comedy makes them laugh, but Zombieland is a horror and comedy film.

In the opening the first thing we see is an American flag which shows us the film is located in America. The camera is hand held. We also see the white house as proof of it is filmed in America, and the white house and cars are on fire, everything is destroyed. Then out of no where a zombie jumps and starts running towards the camera, the zombie shows us that they are the ones who have destroyed America. We see the world destroyed, showing the audience that the zombies are all over Earth. The film in introduced by an narrator, the narrator tells us rules on how he survived and everyone else died. 

The film opening of Zombieland follows the convention of film openings by having

• The films opening credits- The credits are shown around 2 minutes in the opening (production and distribution). 
• Introducing the key settings and location- Film set in America. 
• Introduces the story line- About Zombies.
• Music used to set up the mood of the film- Music is fit for an action,comedy and horror film.  
• Sets the genera of the film- An horror(zombies), comedy( Narrators comments), action (chasing/running and guns).
• Gives the audience a sense of the pace of the film- A quick pace film (action film). 

   Convention of film openings, which are not followed

• Introducing to the main characters- The film doesn't show us the main character, but we do hear the main character talking (the main character is the narrator).
• The film title shown early in the sequence-The film title is not shown early in the sequence, the title is shown, at about 2 minutes in the opening.