Diary of the Dead (2007 – George A Romero) intro Evaluation

First of all there are no opening titles to tell you about, the only text that comes onto the screen is the production companies Artfire

and Romero-Grunwald which gradually become brighter and fade into the black screen. From there on in the intro is just purely action which I think increases the tension because if you saw titles then you would realise that this is a movie but if there are no titles then it would give it a feeling of it being real like it is really happening. This would make the audience more scared of sorts as it gives it realism. Diary of the dead starts off with a pitch black scene like the lens cap of the camera has not been removed as the intro of the film starts off as a news report style format with the anchor filming trying to

get a story. The black screen could represent that at the beginning no one really knows what is going on but as the scene progresses they become more aware. As I said the screen is black but in the background sound you can hear police car sirens then it bridges into the next scene where you can see the police and ambulances so it becomes diegetic sound as you can now see where the sound is

coming from. The screen then goes into a pull focus shot (close up) of the news reporter setting up his camera ready to begin filming. There is still the bridging soundtrack of the sirens coming from the emergency services. The colour of the whole scenario is very dark, the setting I would say is the late evening as the sun is going down and streetlights are beginning to switch on. This helps with giving the whole intro atmosphere because when a scene is darker it is generally scarier. We then get a long, establishing shot of a very intimidating, run down looking apartment building to set the scene and try to project an atmosphere into the viewer that will In turn put the viewer more on edge.

The camera then does a straight pan to the left where it then focuses into a two long shot of two police officers talking about the incident. The dialogue of this key scene, which establishes what has happened at the scene of the crime and gives an understanding of what may have caused them to become zombies. There is then a voice over of what the policeman is saying again what happened over the police radio

The policeman in the shot above is a medium close up, this suggests to me that he is in a powerful position and in control of the situation at hand. He is also in full focus, which tells me that what he is saying is relevant and very important to the overall story because this is how the zombie apocalypse of Diary of the Dead starts. When speaking the narrative he delivers it like it was just another regular day and also he almost jeers about the person who has committed the crime by saying “who cares” this quote again backs up that it’s just another day of work for this policeman.

At approximately 1:20 the female news reporter reporting on the event that has just took place of the man shooting his family. The cinematography of this scene is very simple. The female reporter is in a full focus, medium close up shot. This suggests that what she has to say is extremely important to the situation to explain to the audience and give some understanding of the consequences of what is happening. This would give the audience a sense of actually being in the film because the reporter is directly addressing the audience so it’s as if she is speaking to the viewer. There is no backing sound in this scene but the ambulance sounds are still being used as a bridging sound as they have carried on into the next scene, this is known as non-diegetic sound. The officer’s voice can also be heard so this is also non-diegetic. The surrounding background is however not in full focus because as it’s in a news report format it is not as important and they want the audience’s full focus to be on the reporter. The way they divert our attention in this scene is very clever as probably the most important part of this is the mise en scene in the background. As the two ambulance drivers are bringing the bodies out of the building on the gurneys one of the bodies begins to move and fight. This part of the scene is key to the whole plot of the film because this is how the audience begin to understand how it all began.

At 1:30 The camera man notices that the bodies are beginning to move and instantly switches the camera’s focus onto the gurney, there is some blur because he does it extremely quickly this suggests to me that he could be in a state of panic because he hasn’t quite thought about how he is going to angle it and hasn’t got it into full focus which you wouldn’t care about if you were in a state of panic or shock. This gives the intro more fear factor and understanding because you now know that this is real and you begin to get a feel of what they feel through the use of camera angles and focus. This particular shot is a long shot three shot as you can see their full bodies this could suggest to me that they are in imminent danger and are weak because generally when people are larger they have more power. The language used in this frame is explicit as the camera man is not quite sure of what is not going on, the tone of his voice and speed that he is talking suggests to me that he is definitely now beginning to panic. The narrative is also non-diegetic because you can’t physically see him in the shot however in the shot the news reporter is speaking and is unaware of what is going on behind her and her dialogue is “is there something wrong with the freaking camera” growing ever more agitated. At this point there is also voiceover from one of the main female characters again just explaining how the reporter is trying to get his version of events out there to warn people. The voice over narrative tells me that the perspective that we are going to be looking at mostly through the full film is hers because generally the main character and who the audience is going to be looking at the most is usually the person who begins telling the story.

The next sequence of events are all action based there is no real dialogue only screaming, we don’t however see where the ambient sound is coming from but it does sound like it was from a woman coming from behind but its not in sync with events which means that it is asynchronous sound. The cinematography in this chain also does not make any real meaning, it is constantly being changed as the camera man panics we are almost seeing from his point of view because of the way the camera is moving and constantly being out of focus almost is like in real life vision as if you were looking through your own eyes as in a state of panic when there is danger coming from all angles your eyes would be seeing every thing and darting about not having any time to get precision images. In this sequence of events there are also gunshots and you can also see that the police are shooting at the zombies so that makes it diegetic sound because you can physically see it happen. The police are able to deal with the zombie however one slips away from them and attacks the female news reporter in the shot above. The zombie that attacks the news reporter comes into the physical frame. This is a close up shot because you can see the facial features, she is not in focus at all as you can see by the blur of the camera. This again reiterates the feeling of panic as he does not have time to worry about the way the camera is set up. The camera then falls and the mise en scene of the next frame which is cut in with an interference effect on the camera with distortion sound effects added after editing. The next scene is then filmed from waist height on a cantered angle leaning towards the right, the camera angle suggests to me that the events right now are all over the place there is no set primary worry that you would just have to trust you instinct. There is non-diegetic sound that is in this scene, Firstly, you can hear the camera man behind the camera warn “Bernice” shouting “watch

out” which suggests to me that this man is worried for this woman and doesn’t want her to get hurt. secondly, the zombie then eating her nose off followed by blood dropping onto the floor followed by a gunshot and more screaming which would send the audience into a state of panic due to the graphic image that follows .

George Romero has captured our attention in this using realism whereas in other zombie films you don’t get as scared because you know its not real but in Diary of the dead it feels like its real because of the way the intro is set out its as if you were there watching it with your own eyes.