X GENRE CONVENTIONS2 General Media Language

SOUND

As sound goes, zombie movies usually have eerie music with long, low pitched notes with high pitched, short notes over the top.  This messes with the audience's heartbeat making them feel the intensity of the genre more.  In romance movies, they often have light, relaxing melodies that appeals to a female target audience.  The comedy genre can vary as there are many different ways to go about it. When it comes to foley or ambient sound, it is exaggerated for the comedic effect.

1st SHOT AND MISE-EN-SCENE

The 1st shot has a lot of narrative enigma, whether that's with the character (like Warm Bodies) or with the fact that there are zombies and the character doesn't know about it (like Shaun of the Dead).  There is a lot of exposition through the mise-en-scene as well, like in Shaun of the Dead, we can see a lot of junk on the coffee table, eluding to the fact that his character is a slob.

The mise-en-scene provides a lot of exposition for where the movie is set and about the characters.  In Shaun of the Dead, we see the messy coffee table portraying the character as a slob.  In Warm Bodies, we see a run down airport providing exposition on where it is set.

CENTRAL PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE

Like most films, the central protagonist is shown through the rule of thirds, a voice over, close up shots and others.  In Warm Bodies, we get the voice over and close ups of parts of the zombies body, so the audience doesn't know he's a zombie.  In Shaun of the Dead, we don't get narrative enigma of his character as the first shot is of a close up of his face, however there are a lot of shots where other characters are speaking but the camera is still on his character.

TRANSITIONING TO MAIN FILM

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X IDEAS2 Zombies

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
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Things we liked (ignoring the bar scene):

• Everyone looking like zombies however they're just doing their boring jobs
• When a car would go past and it would cut into next shot
• The continuous panning from left to right 
• The use of titles such as the Shaun of the Dead on the floor
• The narrative enigma of Shaun panning from feet to head and looks like a zombie
• The quick shots of parts of his morning routine

ZOMBIELAND

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Things we liked:

• The video recorder effect
• Point of view shot with the first zombie
• The visuals of Earth (don't know if we could do that)
• The use of titles for the rules
• The funny list of rules
• The slo mo title sequence (however we thought it was too long)
• The moving titles in the title sequence

WARM BODIES

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Things we liked:

• The narrative enigma of the main character then revealing he is a zombie
• The set design
• The internal monologue
• Flashbacks
• Scenes going on behind character 
• The transition back to how it was before and then back to now