Zombieland:opening Title sequence

Thomas Madden

Homework: Write a review on the skills that have been used to make the opening title sequence of zombieland.

The title sequence starts with red splats of blood creating some sort of illusion, that someone is getting killed because it looks like blood stabbings. Indicating that the genre of the film is likely to be horror. The font implicates that the setting is within an industrial working environment that is safe guarded as, it looks much like a zone that is barricaded that could forward the idea that whoever in the film is the protagonist is trying to hide from zombies or even fight back.

Putting ‘’Columbia pictures’’ at the beginning gives the audience a sense of recognition and will enhance a larger audience to go to watch the film as, it is the first impression and the first piece of text used. Putting the film label at the beginning would also have been used for promotional purposes as if they saw this at the beginning people will see it as, a trusted label which has made many other films before with giving recognition to the audience.

The sound is rather like a rock band which makes the film seems once again seem a horror genre as rock bands are known for scratching noises which makes it seem like it will foreshadow fights and crimes within the film. This sound is forwarded throughout the sequence, which works rather well in keeping consistency and continuity and the pitch reaches heights when the pictures layered behind the characters is displayed.

It then goes on to add the names of the stars in the film in descending order of familiarity to the public as well as the larger parts within the cast. It begins with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and then Emma Stone. All the names fit within the images that are layered behind them. The fact that that the female is the first one in the film to have a weapon were as, the male actors before have had splats of blood behind their name indicates, that the females are stronger characters compared to the stereotypical weaker class within society suggesting that the director disagrees within sex classifications. Therefore, this could also suggest that the females in the film have an unfair advantage as, they have an item of destruction or that they are not diseased by zombies like males are.

This notion could then suggest that killing the zombies is the only way of survival and also the only way that they can die within the film is through physical force and death. Therefore, becoming a zombie is through an infection in the blood and this is why the repeating colour of red is used. The weaponry used indicates that they audience would be over twelve years old as, a lot of blood is shown and weapons are employed in the sequence.

The blood then starts to become scratchier suggests that the fight becomes fiercer as it is becoming more abstract so the death would seem more explicit. The blood then starts to move away from the name indicating that the bodies or fight are getting cleaned up to hide from someone as the blood moves off of the area. The next name is under the title special guest seeming much like a n exclusive that can only be found within the film and the name is under a target range giving the impression that the star is going to get killed.

Blood remains and the directors name is now within a hand print which juxtaposes how it would usually be seen in a film. The hand is slightly eroded at the side and the typography remains the same look like a barricade. The title sequence then ends with the films name zombieland and the blood spreads giving the hypothesis that the zombies spread within the film around the setting. The reason that the film may have used red might be because red is a colour which connotes danger and love and these two themes juxtapose clearly which could then indicate a sub-genre of perhaps horror and comedy or horror and love.

Personally I feel that the sequence is short for the specific purpose of being set on one narrative which in this case would have death and survival; a cycle.

The use of the weapons gives an indication into the ideology that the film will have very violent scenes and won’t be suitable for the younger generation. The style of the opening title sequence is that it is rather different in editing paces but forms into the next transition through the use of blood from one name to another name. Overall, the narrative in which this sequence forms is that fighting is used women have a sense of superiority from the connotations of weapons and also that in a sense DNA is a way of survival through the use of a hand at the end of the sequence.