Dawn Of The Dead Opening Titles

Basic Plot Outline

In Dawn Of The Dead the world is hit by a strange plague that turns dead people into flesh-eating zombies. The zombies are out to kill everybody who is still alive. Once you are bitten, you die and return as a zombie. A group of survivors go to a shopping mall to find shelter. They begin to run out of food and then the lights go out. The survivors come up with a plan to escape to an island, but first they must get past thousands of zombies. They use the mall's shuttle busses to make their escape after the zombies break into the mall.

Opening Sequence

The first shot only flashes up on screen for less than a second. it is of a bloddy mouth. So immediately the audience is shocked and engaged with the danger. The first title of this opening sequence, is an animated graphic. It gives us the film name, which is in red, connoting to the audience blood and gore. The title then explodes like splattered blood. Setting up audience expectations for zombies, and blood spill.

The other titles are cut to be superimposed over the footage. So we focus on them. They are similar to the first title. Red in colour again connoting danger, violence and impeeding death, but instead of exploding the credits turn to blood which appears to drain away, perhaps hinting to the audience these characters die.

The camerawork in the opening is shot to create the same effect asd Danny Boyle in 28 days later. It is like a documentary, so making the audience feel mroe threatened and involved in the plot. It is really effective as you are instantly drawn in to the idea of the story, and plays on societies fears as a whole.

The ordinary on location settings, add to the way th efilm is shot as audiences can relate to the settings, as they are those of an every day town or city. Adding to the thrill the audience experierience as it is made more believable.

I think for my opening i will, use credits which are on screen by themselves cut between different parts of footage , as in Dawn Of The Dead, as it creates a good effect. An introduces you to the film well.