Zombie Film Opening

A week ago we filmed our zombie film opening, we have not yet edited it but I am going to evaluate the footage based on the mark scheme.

The film openings that we looked at were Zombieland and Shaun Of The Dead. This is because they are both comedic zombie movies despite being completely different.

We decided that we preferred the action packed opening of Zombieland to the pre-apocalypse opening of Shaun Of The Dead, also we decided to incorporate the use of voiceover also included in Zombieland.

Looking back at the footage we have obtained, I believe that we have managed to achieve our target fairly well. We have included a Zombie Vs Human fight and by doing this have set up the post-apocolypse scenario. Once edited we are going to find a person suitable for doing a documentary style voiceover. Also, thinking back, there is a chance that it will end up looking like either a short film or a trailer for a film, so because of this we are going to have the person reading the voiceover say a line at the end that suggests that there is a plot to follow.

The Mark Scheme requires us to include several different things:

• Holding A Shot Steady - for most of the shots that needed to be held steady we used a very reliable tripod. However, for the moving shots in which the tripod was of no use, we can use the 'Stabilising Media' option on Sony Vegas during post production to make it look a lot smoother.
• Variety Of Shot Distances - we have included a range of different shots including a close up of the zombies, a long shot of the zombies, a long tracking shot, a close tracking shot, a crane shot and even a dutch angle shot. This will make it much more interesting to watch as well as ticking it off the checklist.
• Selecting Mise En Scene - the costumes and the make up are specific to the character, for instance the humans have less obvious make up or clothes than the zombies so that we can tell them apart and tell who they are. We chose the setting that we did because we had the option of shooting out of the window but also because it had such a variety of settings just in that little area such as the forest, the streets and the corner. Finally we chose it because it was very quiet so we could film without filming passers by and this adds to the post-apocalyptic idea of planet earth being abandoned.
• Framing Shot Appropriately - We made sure that we only captured the areas that we wanted. For instance, we had lots of equipment on the pavement however, we positioned the camera in all of the shots so that this was not caught on film. Also, we did not film any of the houses that had people in so that it looked more real. In addition to this we chose each shot very carefully, for instance, we never had too much sky or background, we had actors walking in and out of shot etc etc.

Once we have uploaded all of the footage we will start editing it together so that it mostly matches our storyboard. We will use Sony Vegas Platinum to edit as this is very high quality editing software that will enable us to do more and make it look more professional.