By Rosie Ward.

MY ANALYSIS OF WARM BODIES OPENING.

This clip begins with a black screen with diegetic sound in the background in the form of dialogue. ‘What am I doing with my life’. Starting the film with this dialogue

helps us to begin to wonder who the person who is talking is and starts to build a sense of the unknown as the viewer is wondering why he is kept hidden under a black screen. This then fades out into an extreme close up shot of R, the main characters eye. This keeps the

sense of the unknown as the viewer is wondering why he hasn’t been revealed. His pale, pasty face questions

what he is and why he is like that. This keeps the viewer in suspense as they are wondering why he is in that state and how. The constant dialogue behind helps to set the

scene and give a bit of an explanation but is able to maintain the suspense of what the story is about.

The clip then zooms out into a wide shot at around waist height. The mise en scene in this shot shows us the age of the main character. His red hoodie represents that he is a teenager

because the stereotypical views of a teenager is that they all wear these types of clothes. In the background we can see two

other female characters surrounded by rumble which symbolises destruction. This leads the viewer to question why the setting is like that but helps to answer why the characters are distant. The

characters in the background help to establish that he is not alone but allows there to still be a sense of suspense as the

viewers question as to why it has effected all these people. The shot used helps to establish the setting as you can tell that it is a

public place and continues to help question why and what has happened. By R being in the middle of the shot it shows that

although in an isolated setting there is other characters, he is on his own. This makes us question as to why because

stereotypically in thrillers all the zombie characters don’t have a personality like the ones featured in the background of this shot. This builds suspense as to why R is different to them and why. It also builds tension as it is obvious to the viewer that he is going

to be the main character and the focus will be on him but we don’t know why.

The first time the viewer sees R is in a wide shot where R is in shallow focus. We can immediately tell

that he is a zombie character due to his pale face, dirty clothing and veins which is the stereotypical way

a zombie human would look in thriller movies. However the dialogue voice over spoken by R

juxtaposes the stereotypes of a zombie character. He is sweet natured with a soft voice. One code and

convention of a horror thriller is that the zombies are aggressive killing machines who wouldn’t talk but if they did would be ill-mannered with an aggressive voice. Match on action is used throughout this clip effectively to tell the story and allow the viewer to

slowly see and accept R as a zombie. The wide shot is effective as it allows the viewer to see R and work out

what he is. This builds suspense as the viewer questions why he is a zombie and why he acts so

differently to the stereotype.

In this wide shot the dialogue continues as non-diegetic is introduced as R says ‘sometimes I look at the others and try to imagine what they were’. An upbeat, soft piece of music is

introduced. This juxtaposes the typical soundtracks that would be featured in a thriller as its brightening the mood

rather then build tension. There is different characters introduced after and before the ‘incident’ as it tells there

story. This is a short and effective way to communicate to the viewer all the different zombies previous life's before the mystery event happened. The costume that the characters are in is what R bases there ‘previous life’s’ on. This shows how effective mise en scene is because it represents how a character behaves. For example, the janitor stereotypically

in overalls. The wide shot used helps to show the setting that the zombies are living in. This helps to build tension because the viewer stills wonders why they are in that location and

what happened. This fits the codes and conventions of a thriller because although some of the storyline has been

revealed there is still some questions that need to be answered and will throughout the movie.

The music then cuts out as one of the zombies lunges towards the camera. This wide shot used is effective because it allows room for the zombie to be able to lunge towards the camera to make the viewer jump. This zombie fits the stereotype of

zombies within thriller films. This is because she looks like a killer and goes toward the camera

compared the other zombies who keep themselves to themselves and even have dialogue voiceover.

The setting in this part is a graffiti wall. This compares with the rest of the location which apart

from the abandoned items is reasonably clean. This shows the different parts of the location they live and how the zombies can all be different. This helps to build suspense as the viewer questions as

to why the different parts of the airport are like that and as to why the zombies all act different.

This wide shot shows R going up the escalator with a brief montage as to what happened to cause the humans to turn

into zombies and what happened to the aiport,ect. This helps to show the give the viewer a brief idea of what did happen however it keeps some suspense as it is not fully

described and this foreshadows that something is going to change. This is because R as a character is the

stereotypical ‘hero’ in a thriller film however it is controversial because he is a zombie. R motivates all the

shots which shows that he will be the main character throughout. The way the zombies watch R suggests that he is important in each scene. This could foreshadow how in the film he will lead them to greater things because of his

kind natured personality. A code and convention of a thriller is the use of a ‘normal’ person saving the day and fighting someone who has more power than them. This

builds suspense as we are able to tell that he is going to be the hero but we are unable to see the opposition which

causes questions as to whether it will be a human, zombie, other creature? This is stereotypical of a thriller movie.