GENRE CONVENTIONS – TITLES, IDENTS, PRODUCTION CONTEXT

This post explores different aspects of film openings specifically in the horror genre, including specific general movie analysis. This post is specifically looking at titles, idents and production context. This is the list of topics looked at in this post:

• Titles 
• Production context 
• Idents 
• Film analysis

TITLES, IDENTS AND PRODUCTION CONTEXT ANALYSIS

LAND OF THE DEAD

Budget: 16 million USD

Box office: 46.8 million USD

George A. Romero

No jingles however first one has background sound that fits with it 

atmosphere pictures

Wild Bunch and Universal Pictures presents 

In association with atmosphere entertainment

A Mark Canton-Bernie Goldmann and Romero-Grunwald production

In association with Rangerkim

George A Romero's Land of the Dead (auteur)

Smoke coming from main title

Actors names come up as the storyline begins

High pitched sound in the background

Large font on main title

Splatter style connotes blood splatter

Bold bubble serif font

Different flashing images while titles are going on

All black and white titles and images

HALLOWEEN

Director: John Carpenter

Box office: $60–70 million

Budget: 325,000 USD

Creepy fast music

builds heart rate

No jingles

A Compass international pictures release

Moustapha Akkad presents

Donald Pleasence in

John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN

largest font

Titles do not take place over the opening scene

First shot

VODCAST

28 DAYS LATER

DANNY BOYLE

Danny Boyle is a renowned film director in the specific zombie genre. He is also well known for directing movies such as Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 hours.

PLOT

A group of misguided animal rights activists free a caged chimp infected with the "Rage" virus from a medical research lab. When London bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma a month after, he finds his city all but deserted. On the run from the zombie-like victims of the Rage, Jim stumbles upon a group of survivors, including Selena (Naomie Harris) and cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and joins them on a perilous journey to what he hopes will be safety.

 BUDGET + BOX OFFICE                                                      

The budget of this movie was £5m

The box office was $82.7m

STARS

Cillian Murphy
Naomie Harris

GENRE

Drama, Horror, Sci-fi

IDEAS + INFLUENCES

Decaying title 'presents' fades away
- Blood splatter on main title

- We won't take the style of fast zombies as we would prefer to use the stereotypical style (more practical for filming)

- Security camera style

IDENTS

UK Film council

DNA films

Fox Searchlight Pictures

SYNOPSIS

World War Z is a post-apocalyptic film, which was directed in 2013, by Marc Foster, known for his previous work on Quantum of Solace and The Kiterunner, both films which fall far from the genre of World War Z. He is a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award nominee.

PLOT

The film follows the life of the immediate family of Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), through the end of the world, where a Zombie outbreak occurs. Gerry is a former employee of the UN, who knows people in the military, and goes to them, seeking solace, whilst trying to find the cure for the outbreak, or at least trying to find a way for humans not to be affected by the undead. We see Brad Pitt's character go through many countries, in search of someone who knows something about something. He eventually finds the cure in Cardiff, Wales. Which he finds out is a cure, by injecting himself with it, it's some kind of pathogen which he didn't really know was a pathogen. He could have died or something, but he risked his life to find the cure and from then on he was hailed as an American hero!

IDENTS

World War Z follows an unusual pattern in regards to idents, not following the typical rule of using between 3-4 idents.
World War Z uses 5 idents, which are as follows (in order):

Paramount Pictures

Plan B

Skydance Productions

Hemisphere

GK films

SHOT TYPES

In the opening of World War Z, we are presented with a long title sequence, which shows clips of the news presenting multiple natural disasters, as well as strange occurrences. We are also presented by short clips of large groups of people walking.

The first shot, is an establishing shot, focussing on the house of the main protagonist. We then experience narrative enigma, as a door into a bedroom is opened. Two children then run into the bedroom of the main protagonist and his wife, sleeping. The mise-en-scene, contains very dim, and boring colours, with various shades of brown, grey and blue, colours associated with conservative.

CHARACTERS

Brad Pitt's character and his wife, are both wearing blue items of clothing, Brad Pitt, wearing a dark blue v-neck pullover, and holding a light blue mug.
The actress playing his wife is wearing a light blue, wool, sweater. She is holding a turquoise/green mug.

ZOMBIES

The Zombie's in World War Z, are not similar to the usual portrayal of the undead, which are typically slow moving and take a while to turn from human to zombie. The zombie's in World War Z are fast moving, and take seconds to turn from human to zombie. They act similarly to Danny Boyle's 28 days later zombies.