Eval Q1 Use of Conventions

When looking at other film openings it became apparent that there are conventions that are followed for film openings, not specific to film genres. Some examples are:

1. The production and distribution company idents being the first thing that appear on screen.
2. The film titles, including film name, actors etc. Is the next thing that appears on screen. Either seperated in an animation from the first scene of the film or over the top of the first scene.
3. The establishing shot of the film is usually an extreme long shot, or a fade in.
4. Non- diegetic music over the top of the first scene.
5. The last shot of the opening scene fades out, and no more titles appear after this.

Fight Club ident

Suburban Zombie Ident

These are some of the key conventions in the zombie genre:

Establishing shot

• Post-apocalyptic setting.

Word zombie never used, however it is used satirically in the film "Shaun of the Dead" where Shaun tells Ed not to use the "z-word".
Normally revolves around a group of different characters e.g a white racist paired with a strong black character.
 Low Budget
Urban setting used
Big, isolated building
 
 
Conventions used in Suburban Zombie 
 Post-apocalyptic setting
Our film includes this convention, as the setting in the house is clearly very run down, and void of life, excluding the two protagonists and zombies.
 
Word zombie never used
 Our film follows this convention, as the only time the two protagonists acknowledge the zombies is when one of them says "Dinner time!".
 
Normally revolves around a group of different characters
 
Our film challenges this convention, as the two protagonists are both white males, and wearing similar clothing (jeans and hoodies) we did this to create a sense of unity. 


 Low Budget
 
 Our film follows this convention, as we were clearly operating with an extremely low budget. 
 
Urban setting used
 
We chose to challenge this convention by filming in a remote location, in the grounds and around an abandoned house. 
 
 
Preffered Reading 
 
By getting audience feedback we found that our encoded meaning was easy to follow, or as Stuart Hall described it, the "preffered reading". None of the people we recieved feedback from had deciphered an oppositional reading