Shaun of the Dead

2007-05-26T17:49:00.000+01:00

What is there to be said for and against stereotyping in the media? Answer with references to specific examples. (‘00a)

For

Easily identifiable, especially in adverts that only last 30seconds

‘Shake’n’Vac’ Advert women in domestic roles

Audience re-assurance. ‘Brown Clown’ is to be laughed at, women should play the Proppian role of the ‘princess’, however this is subverted with the rise of female protagonists.

Generates humour, for example blonde bimbos. ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ characters are exaggerated representation of Asians.

Against

Stereotypes main the idyllic status quo of patriarchy

E.g. Madonna and whore stereotypes

Femme fatal = always punished for their promiscuous ways

Spivak – differences between groups are romanticized and this shouldn’t be done.

Indian’s = exotic
Representing Asian’s in a third world status also allows Western ideologies to be promoted.

Stereotypes fail to show the zeitgeist and progression.
Asian’s aren’t always ‘the other’, the ‘brown pound’ = when Asian media was popular (the Indian summer of 1997), ‘Bend it like Beckham’ (2002)

2007-05-23T22:30:00.000+01:00

Compare the media portrayal of two social groups. (June ‘02a)

Asians

1970s ITV programme ‘Mind Your Language’ reflects the zeitgeist and the immigration

Asians under-represented on screen because they are mainly represented by white, males who work in the institutions

Lack of ethnic minorities working within institutions

BBC is “hideously white” (Greg Dyke), which shows a lack of progression

Stereotypes of Asians are still used, ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ (2002) uses the accent

Considered to be “the other”

Aladdin (the hero) has a western accent, whereas the villain has an eastern accent, representing him as “the other”

Women

Objectified through the male gaze, the Bond Girls (Mulvey) and are still objectified in The Sun’s Page 3 and other lad’s magazines.

Women’s roles are stereotyped

Bimbos = blonde
Femme fatal always dies for her promiscuous ways
Madonna and whore
‘Final girl’ Carol Clover

Progression of the zeitgeist is shown, e.g. more female protagonists as a result of the third wave of feminism

Lack of female directors, so women are represented by male directors

Both groups still rely on stereotypes in order to represent them to audiences and the audiences can easily identify them.

2007-05-09T17:02:00.000+01:00

Coursework Final Draft
"Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?" Ed (Nick Frost) [1]
How does British zombie film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follow the codes and conventions of the zombie genre?

Inspired by the ‘Dead’ films of the 1960s and 1970s ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004), directed by Edgar Wright and co-written with Simon Pegg, bought in a massive £1,603,410[2] at the UK box office. Distributed by United International Pictures ‘Shaun of the Dead’ a low-budget, British film also proved to be popular in the United States. It is a hybrid romantic, zombie comedy which pays homage to the founding director of the zombie genre, George A. Romero. Genre conventions are “always in play…rather than simply being re-played”[3] as ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a romantic, zombie, comedy it ‘re-plays’ conventions from each genre. This may be one of the reasons why this contemporary text also subverts some of the codes and conventions usually associated with the zombie genre. This essay will consider whether ‘Shaun of the Dead’ successfully follows the original codes and conventions of the zombie genre in comparison to Romero’s genre-defining films, looking particularly at ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968).

‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a contemporary text which shows a good example of conveying the codes and conventions of the zombie genre, hybridity of genres and the inter-textuality that is typical of post-modernism. The zombie genre, or “The horror of Armageddon”[4] as Charles Derry (1977) referred to is as, was first recognized in the late 60s/early 70s; with the release of Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’. The horror genre during the mid 50s was targeted squarely at the “youth market” or “adolescents of whatever age”[5] and was less popular amongst critics. Romero’s film set the mark for the beginning of the horror sub-genre, the zombie film and has been critically acclaimed as a cult classic. It still followed the essential codes and conventions of the horror genre. The themes of isolation and the visual iconography of a big remote area (for example a house outside the city) are common elements that can also be seen in other horror texts leading up to ‘Shaun of the Dead’.
The early zombie films by Romero took conventions from earlier horror films such as ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957) by Terence Fisher. These films take place in isolation and antique settings of “castles, manor houses and remote villages”[6]. During the late fifties and early sixties Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’, subverted the conventions of the classic horror film, making it a contemporary text of its time. These classic horror films “involve a metamorphosis”[7] that became a common convention for the horror genre. Although ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is linked by subject matter, the traditional gothic style of horror juxtaposes the contemporary style of ‘Shaun of the Dead’. The gothic look was a visual style and iconography of the genre during the late fifties. However, genre theorist Edward Buscombe (1970) argues that as we are looking at a visual medium we should look out for “defining criteria…on the screen”[8], suggesting that a genre should be defined by its visual iconography; such as the actors, settings and images that are repeated.

Genre re-defines itself according to technology, the audience and politics. However, Robert Stam (2000) identified four problems with the genre theory, in particular generic labels. One of the four problems outlined was the “monolithic definitions - as if an item belonged to only one genre”[9]. The diction ‘item’ in this case can be seen as the conventional use of the isolated and gothic location, amongst other stereotypes and conventions. Both ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ subvert the classic horror settings and instead use non exotic locations, to create a different visual style for the zombie genre. Romero chooses to use a farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside; the use of isolation reinforces the classic horror film conventions, but has also become a convention for the zombie genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is set in a contemporary non-exotic location of an isolated pub, “The Winchester”, subverting the remote farmhouse used by Romero and creating a humorous tone. The main setting, in ‘Shaun of the Dead’, reflects the use of pubs within the British media. They are often used as a place where characters come together and are commonly used in popular soaps like ‘Eastenders’.

The use of media language can be considered as visually “defining criteria”[10]. However, the media language can also reflect the directors’ style rather than the genres iconography. Both texts use a similar technique to represent the revelation of the living dead. This drives the narrative and answers the audience’s enigmas by explaining the situation. In ‘Shaun of the Dead’ as Ed is flicking through the TV channels the broken dialogue of each channel ironically explains the situation. This style used by Wright creates humor for the audience. However, once he stops there is a full news report which explains the situation to both the audience and Shaun. The news report also describes how to kill the zombies, foreshadowing the resolution. “by removing the head or destroying the brain”[11] has always been a generic resolution to kill the living dead. Similarly, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ uses a radio report. The report explains the reason for the living dead but fails to provide a solution of how to rid the zombies. The protagonist, Ben, uses the conventional way to stop the zombies, as well as fire. This represents them as primitive and gives Ben more authority over the white, mindless zombies. The primitive aspects represent the zombies as “the Others”, subverting the stereotype of the African-American protagonist being “the Other”.

The convention of horror films, especially cult films of the zombie genre, often use a hand-held camera. The scene “Shaun’s Plan” in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ uses a hand-held camera. This gives the audience the sense that they are experiencing the situation with Shaun, especially through the over-the-shoulder shot behind Shaun. This involves the audience and creates a more serious tone over the dominant humorous tone that goes on throughout the film. In Romero’s film the hand held-camera is evident as Johnny fights with a zombie, in the opening scene. The use of the hand-held camerawork therefore becomes a convention for the horror genre to represent a realistic situation to the audience. The hand held camera also becomes a common representation of reality.

The directors choose to convey reality through the hand held camera but audiences know the living dead are in fact fictional. Yet by knowing this the audience have a feeling of control. The fictional monsters allow directors to present the audience with an outlet for their “apocalyptic anxieties”[12] without the audience having to confront them directly. This also makes the audience feel safe as fictional monsters are representing the zeitgeist, making it slightly unrealistic. The rise of zombie films have increased within the last six years, this is due to the fact that the world has experienced many tragic events; terrorism, war, viral outbreaks and natural disasters. Directors feel they can use these social backdrops within in their films. The two British horror films which also uses element of the zombie genre ‘28 Days Later…’ (Danny Boyle, 2002) and the follow-up ‘28 Weeks Later…’ (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007) reflect viral outbreaks. Both Zack Snyder’s re-make and Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978/2005) represent the rise of consumerism in the United States. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ was written during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The social context is shown as Shaun realizes that “the little problems in your life don't go away”[13]. The ‘little problems’ in the film is the relationship between Shaun and his girlfriend Liz. Although the world might possibly end because of these flesh eating zombies, Shaun still feels the need to make up with Liz which ‘plays’ into the romance conventions.

Films do not often fall into one genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a hybrid text that takes elements from zombie, comedy and romance films, where as ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is clearly defined as a zombie/horror film. However, each of these genres has defining criteria. Genre theorists, such as Steve Neale (2000), have referred to this as the “repertoire of elements”[14]. The repertoire of elements can be seen through the iconography, style, setting, themes and narrative structure. This also suggests that audiences’, who watch films defined by genre, have certain expectations of the films. Stam referred to these expectations as the “normativism”[15] problem. The audiences have “preconceived ideas”[16] or certain expectations of the genre and because of its hybridity ‘Shaun of the Dead’ rejects the normativism problem, unlike ‘Night of the Living Dead’ which conforms to genre expectations. However, the repertoire of elements can still be applied.

Romero’s references to American society, during the time he produced his films is unconventional and breaks stereotypes of the horror genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ also uses this technique to reflect the zeitgeist. Romero created and still continues to produces ‘Night’ films and as an opposing argument to the genre theory; Romero can be considered as an auteur. Auteurism “identifies the common attributes that make an individual director's film unique”[17]. In Romero’s case the common attributes are the social context in his zombie films. Although it is argued that horror films show the least connection with American history, Romero clearly subverts this idea but cannot escape the generic label that associates him with cultism. He therefore fails to “win acclaim as auteur of the cinema”[18].

In ‘Night of the Living Dead’ there is a clear reference towards the historical and at the time social context of ethnic minorities, black people in particular. Romero’s choice of protagonist was controversial at the time. He does this by casting an unknown, African-American protagonist to play alongside a white dominated cast. This breaks the conventional white, male protagonist used in ‘Shaun of the Dead’. Romero is referring to the Civil Right Movements in America during the mid-1960s and also represents the authorities of the American law over the “innocent black man”[19]. However, this controversial outbreak reinforces a problem in generic labels; the monolithic definition (Stam). The protagonist Duane Jones worried that audience only saw him as his character Ben; this also meant he was typecast to be a cult-film actor. This reinforces another problem with generic labels outlines by Stam, the “the narrowness of labels”[20] or extension. The extension problem is also evident in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ both Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are stereotyped to play humorous characters. This representation of the two actors is further reinforced in the follow up to ‘Shaun of the Dead, ‘Hot Fuzz’ (Edgar Wright, 2007).

Character codes are a convention used in film. Vladimir Propp’s folk tale character list can be applied to many films, one of which is ‘Shaun of the Dead’. Simon Pegg is the protagonist ‘Shaun’, according to Propp’s theory he is considered as the hero. Shaun plays a funny and entertaining character; a role that he also played in the TV Series ‘Spaced’ (1999). Pegg has been stereotyped and typecast to play entertaining characters. However, Shaun is often represented as the anti-hero; he does not want the responsibility of a hero. Similarly Nick Frost, ‘Ed’, also starred in ‘Spaced’ is very well known to play humorous and entertaining characters, mainly as a helper rather than a protagonist. Ed plays the Proppian role of the helper/donor, as well as helping, he often prepares Shaun. This can link with the “narrowness of labels”[21] as both Pegg and Frost have become restricted and typecast to playing humorous characters. Furthermore, the role of the villain is clearly represented by the zombies.

Both texts have the vulnerable character which is common in horror as well as the zombie genre. Barbara, in ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is traumatized and in a “catatonic state”[22] after witnessing the death of her brother Johnny. Barbara in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ plays Shaun’s mother and is also in a catatonic state, however, she is only represented in this way because she is going through “a metamorphosis”[23]. This conventional representation of women in zombie films conveys a patriarchal society and gives the male characters more authority, reinforcing both Carol Clover and Laura Mulvey’s view of the male constructed “cinematic gaze”[24]. However, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ has strong female characters, unlike Romero’s film. This representation of women is due to the change in society and the three waves of feminism. Romero attempts to show ethnic equality, but the death of Ben maintains society’s status quo and is an appropriate resolution for the audience.

‘Shaun of the Dead’ pays homage to Romero’s film, also showing inter-textuality with the character of Barbara. This playfulness within the genre can be identified as post-modernism. The title of the film itself is a clearly parody of and homage to the title ‘Dawn of the Dead’. Furthermore, there are parody references to ‘Spaced’ and the use of similar lines (“We're coming to get you, Barbara!”[25]) reinforces the post-modern aspects of the text. Romero’s films, on the other hand, only have influences from classic horror films and do not represent aspects of post-modernism. The homage in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ appeals to a wider audience, fans of both Simon Pegg and George Romero.

David Bordwell notes that, “any theme may appear in any genre”[26]. In any zombie film the dominating and obvious theme is the theme of survival and it is explicitly represented to the audience when Shaun says “this is about survival”[27]. The dialogue also reinforces the post-modern element as the text is aware of itself. Therefore ‘Shaun of the Dead’ mocks the theme by repeating the word ‘surviving’ throughout the film. However, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ does not explicitly mention this theme. The theme of chaos and the breakdown of civilization is another common theme of the genre. There are two types of people in this situation: people who try to maintain humanity by fighting against the zombies and the people who become the animal/zombie. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ show a group of survivors who fall into the category of maintaining humanity. However, in both films within the group one person is represented as becoming a zombie, in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ its Shaun’s mother. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ shows a young girl turning into the living dead. This, therefore, becomes a generic convention of the genre. This formulaic, narrative structure is also seen in ‘28 Day Later…’ Furthermore, the theme of isolation is commonly used in the horror and zombie genre, subverting Bordwell’s theory.

‘Shaun of the Dead’ somewhat follows the Todorov narrative structure. The film does not begin with the living dead, which suggests a disequilibruim. However, the opening scene of Shaun acting like a zombie as he wakes up foreshadows the rest of the film. This subverts the opening of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ as Johnny is attacked by a zombie. Likewise, ‘28 Days Later…’ opens with a disequilibrium, the protagonist ‘Jim’ wakes up to an empty London town, the audience nor Jim knows the reason why. Many of Romero’s other ‘Night’ films begin with this disequilibrium. ‘Land of the Dead’ (2005) begins with a representation of a walled city that protects the humans from the living dead. Although the zombie films are not complex and do not have a non-linear narrative structures, these enigmas keep the audience engaged. Unlike other zombie films, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ shows the transition of humans turning into the living dead. There is a social backdrop of society now turning into the “blue-collar undead”[28], as their lifestyle becomes mundane. The ending of the film avoids “the usual twist that Hollywood is so fond of”[29]. The end shows zombies being used as something useful, a humorous resolution that subverts the more serious end of ‘Night of the Living Dead’. By having such a unique resolution ‘Shaun of the Dead’ conveys it is indeed a contemporary text as it subverts the typical generic conventions.

In conclusion, although ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follows the codes ands conventions of the zombie genre, it also subverts genre theory because of its hybridity. The pub reinforces the conventional use of an isolated setting. Although this can be seen as a mock of the horror genre and creates a humorous tone, it still follows conventions of British media. Both films use a similar style of media language. The horror genre uses a hand-held camera to convey a sense of realism to the audience. This also allows the director to present the audience with their “apocalyptic anxieties”[30] without the audience directly confronting them. Furthermore, a conventional way to represent the situation to the audience and the characters is through radio or TV reports, in the diegtic world of the film. The Proppian character codes in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ are successfully represented. The hero is the protagonist Shaun and the villains are the zombies. However, the role of the hero is often subverted by Shaun as his character does not want the responsibility, making him an anti-hero. Although “any theme may appear in any genre”[31] it seems that the theme of survival is most common in the zombie genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ represents this theme by continually using the word surviving within the dialogue; this also reinforces its post-modern element and generates comedy. Romero used ‘Night of the Living Dead’ to represent the zeitgeist, this has become a common convention of the genre. The statement, made by Pegg, “the little things in life don’t just go away…because the world’s blows up”[32] refers to the social context of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Finally, the theme of chaos and the breakdown of civilization appear in the zombie genre and is a repertoire element. The use of two types of people in the situation allows there to be a group of people, which is frequent in the horror genre. Therefore, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ successfully follows the codes and conventions of the zombie genre and subverts it due to the hybridity of the text. Thus effectively making ‘Shaun of the Dead’ “A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies.”[33]

Word Count: 3,014

[1] ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (Edgar Wright, UK, 2004)
[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/business
[3] Lacey Nick (2005) Pg 54
[4]Derry, Charles (1977) Pg 50
[5] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003) Pg 195
[6] Rubin, Martin (1999) Pg 152
[7] F.Dick, Bernard (2002) Pg 168
[8] Buscombe, Edward (1970) Pg 36
[9] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
[10] Buscombe, Edward (1970) Pg 36
[11] ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (Edgar Wright, UK, 2004)
[12] The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg 8 – Friday November 10 2006
[13] http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html
[14] Lacey Nick (2005) Pg 54
[15] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
[16] Ibid.
[17] Buckland, Warren (2003)
[18] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003) Pg 195
[19] Jones, Darryl (2002) Pg 162
[20] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
[21] Ibid.
[22] Jones, Darryl (2002) Pg 161
[23] F.Dick, Bernard (2002) Pg 168
[24] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003) Pg 202
[25] ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (Edgar Wright, UK, 2004)
[26] Bordwell, David (1989) Pg 147
[27] ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (Edgar Wright, UK, 2004)
[28] Jones, Darryl (2002) Pg 162
[29] http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml
[30] The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg 8 – Friday November 10 2006
[31] Bordwell, David (1989) Pg 147
[32] http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html
[33] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748

Bibliography – Work Cited
Books
Bordwell, David (1989): Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Buckland, Warren (2003): Teach Yourself Film Studies. Euston Road, London: Hodder Headline Plc.

Buscombe, Edward (1970): The idea of genre in the American cinema, Screen 2(2), March/April

Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.

Derry, Charles (1977): Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, London.

Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.

Lacey Nick (2005): Introduction to Film. Hampshire/NY: Palgrave Macmillan

Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Stam, Robert (2000): Film Theory an Introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Internet
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html - A site dedicated to Genre Theory
http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html - An interview with Simon Pegg and George Romero
http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml - Online review of ‘Shaun of the Dead’
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/taglines - A Page dedicated to the different taglines of ‘Shaun of the Dead’

Films
‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004) Edgar Wright, UK
‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1978) George Romero, USA
‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978) George Romero, USA / (2004) Zack Synder, USA
‘Land of the Dead’ (2004) George Romero, USA
‘Day of the Dead’ (1985) George Romero, USA
‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957) Terence Fisher, USA
‘28 Days Later…’ (2002) Danny Boyle, UK
‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007) Edgar Wright, UK
‘28 Weeks Later…’ (2007) Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, UK

Newspapers
The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg8 – Friday November 10 2006
/taglines

2007-05-06T19:13:00.000+01:00

Account for the popularity of one genre of your choice. Illustrate your answer with examples. (June ‘03a)

Genre cycles: Reinvigoration
Copies
Sequels

‘Psycho’ (1960) was perhaps the first slasher to personify evil and create a real-life monster in Norman Bates.
Similarly ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974) and ‘Halloween’ (1978) did the same.
Pre-Psycho = villains of fiction and European myths e.g. vampires, were-wolves

‘Halloween’ (1978) reinvigorated the slasher genre for the 80s
The film was overly violent and relied on special effects and gore to engage the teenage audience. This shows the beginning of films relying more upon violence and visceral pleasure rather then narrative pleasure for the audience.

‘Scream’ (1996) revived the genre for the 90s after the sequel era of
A post-modern film gave the slasher genre a different edge. With explicit references to other slasher films the film appeals to older slasher fans who are aware of the ‘rules’ and makes the film more about the audience because they are the insiders who are aware of the slasher conventions.
References toward ‘Friday the 13th’ (1980), ‘Halloween’ and ‘Psycho’ (1960)

The social context of slasher films can account for the popularity:

The ‘Ed Gein’ murders inspired Tobe Hooper to create the 1974 original ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and also reflected the ‘blue collared workers’ redundancy.

‘Halloween’ reflected the ‘white flight’. The film moved away from the isolated house setting and moved into the sub-urban areas.

‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984) was inspired by the death of 3 boys in their sleep and was the reason is was set within dreams.

Sequels
The sequel and franchise era of ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ accounts for the popularity of the slasher genre.
The successful narrative template (Neale, repertoire of elements), set by ‘Friday the 13th’, was the conventional narrative structure that proved to be popular amongst audiences (Rick Altman ‘before and after’). The films don’t end until the killer dies. Both films are first left with open-endings which easily allowed them to be continued.
‘Scream’ on the other hand, with a resolution, still came out with two more sequels, this due to its popularity and its reinvigoration of the genre.

Introduction
The slasher genre can perhaps be traced all the way back to the historical text ‘Psycho’ (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock and has been a genre that is popular amongst audiences. The ‘Halloween’ films reinvigorated the genre for the 80s and the sequels of ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ kept the genre going. The social context of the films can also account for the popularity and furthermore after the decline of the slasher genre, the 1996 post-modern slasher film ‘Scream’ by Wes Craven reinvigorated the genre again.

2007-05-06T13:05:00.000+01:00

“The audience may know what to expect, but are still excited by genre texts.” To what extent is this true? (June ‘05a)

Repertoire of elements (Neale) and the basic template of the slasher genre which keeps the audience excited by genre texts

·‘Final girl’ (Clover)
‘Scream’ (1996) subverts the ‘rule’ of sex = death.

·Masked, male killer
‘Friday the 13th’ (1980) subverts expectation and has a female killer, Jason’s mother

·ineffective authority figures

·Group of teens killed off one by one

·Set in a confined space
‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984) has 'novelty' (Pye, 1975) within the setting and is set in dreams and the subconscious.
‘Halloween’ (1978) moved away from the remote, isolated house and into the suburban area, reflecting the ‘white flight’.

·Set piece: ‘final girl’ Vs the killer
‘Scream’ has closure but still resulted in two more films
‘Halloween’ resulted in an open ending, subverting genre expectations, generating excitement and allowed there to be sequels.

Sequels = the decline of the genre. Audiences are no longer excited by genre texts.
The ‘Freddy’ and ‘Jason’ franchise failed to ‘excite’ the slasher audience. The audience become desensitized to the films and Kruger, with his one liners and dark humour, became a parody of himself.

Re-makes became overly violent. ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (2003) is more gruesome and shows more violence than the original film, this excites the “desensitized” audience. The overt violence in ‘Halloween’ proved to be popular to the young slasher watching audience. Furthermore, audiences begin to enjoy visceral pleasures rather than narrative pleasure.

Rick Altman’s (1999) ‘Before’ and ‘After’ theory
‘Before’, producers notice that ‘Freddy’ and ‘Jason’ are popular and continue to create sequels until the audience become desensitized and the films are no longer successful.‘After’ critics and theorists analyse films based on similar generic traits and in this case expectations.

Introduction
Audiences may know what to expect from a genre text but are still excited because of the “difference in repetition” (Neale) and also the use of something new and novelty within each text. ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984) set within teenagers dreams was a new and unique setting, however, after the many sequels the novelty of the film eventually failed to excite audience, thus already subverting the above statement.

2007-05-06T11:57:00.000+01:00

Recent developments in genre have included the emergence of parody, pastiche and hybrid forms. Show how such developments have influenced the nature of media texts. (January ‘06b)

Plan
‘Scream’ (1996)
Post-modern text; the film is aware of itself

Wes craven (dir.) Krueger the school janitor wearing red and green stripes is a pastiche toward Freddy Krueger (‘A Nightmare of Elm Street’ 1984)

The opening scene of the phone-call is a pastiche of ‘When a Strange Calls’ (1979)

The character ‘Randy’ recites the ‘rules’ of the slasher genre
E.g. alcohol, drugs and sex = death!
The ‘rules’ can be identified as a repertoire element (Neale) and also generic expectation (Stam) for the audience

Direct references to other slasher films: ‘Psycho’ (1960)
‘Halloween’ (1978)
‘Friday the 13th’ (1980)

‘Scary Movie’ (2000)
Mocks the ‘rules’ and slasher films, particularly ‘Scream’

Arguably a hybrid text, it has elements of comedy and horror.

Hybrid forms
Hybrid films: ‘Psycho’, ‘Friday the 13th’ can be considered as thriller/slasher films. Both texts have a mentally unstable killer.

‘Friday the 13th’ can be seen as a pastiche of ‘Psycho’

Both films are mentioned in ‘Scream’
Billy Loomis quotes Norman Bates “We all go a little mad sometimes.”
The opening phone-call of ‘Scream’ questions the character about ‘Friday the 13th’ and is a pastiche of the use of phone calls in 'When a Strange Calls'

‘Scream’ allows the audience to identify with the killer. The audience sees Billy interacting with Sydney; somewhat mirroring Norman Bates’ interaction with Marion Crane.

Introduction
The recent developments in genre of parody, pastiche and hybrid forms can be identified as elements of post-modernism. These elements can be traced throughout the development of the slasher genre and can go as far back as ‘Psycho’(1960). Regarded as “the granddaddy of the slasher genre” ‘Psycho’ is arguably a hybrid text, which fall into both the slasher and thriller genre. ‘Psycho’ has been referred to in historical texts for example ‘Friday the 13th’ (1980) and now in more recent slahser film ‘Scream’ (1996).

2007-03-18T14:23:00.000Z

Self Evaluation...again

Attainment - 1, i'm always trying my best in media =D
Effort - 2, there are just times when i dont try...like on Monday mornings
Punctuality -1, always come to lesson on time
Submission and quality of homework - 2, It seems that whenever i do my repertoire of element sheets its never good enough for mr bush
Ability to work independently - 1, sometimes i find it easier to work indepedently
Quality of writing - 2, i havent actaully written in agges!
Organisation of Media folder - 2, its sorted...but my genre stuff is abit here and there
Oral contributions in class - 2, i dont mouth off as much as i used to
Quality of coursework - 1, its the best coursework i've ever done (ha)
Standard of Module 5 blog - 2, i stopped posting after handing in the the coursework. Althought i was suppose to do a post on 'Hot Fuzz'
Standard of Module 6 blog - 2, i dont actaully spend much time on this blog.

b. Make a list of three targets/areas for improvement to be achieved before study leave.
Sort out my genre stuff in my folder
Start revising properly
...uff i cant think of one more

2007-02-05T11:46:00.000Z

1. How easy has it been to set up your Independent Study blog and to get used to posting things on it? Were you given enough support in doing it? What other help would have been useful?

Setting up the blog and posting is very easy, especially as we did it last year for practical productions and we had enough support.

2. How did the blog help with your research? Did the blog motivate you to do more and better research? How? Why?

The blog was a place where i could post up any sort of findings about my indepedent study. It was better in a way. However, when posting things from newspapers i never got round to actaully doing it.

3. Is it useful having all the Independent Study/blog tasks posted on the Macguffin blog? Does it make it more likely that you will get them done?

Having the tasks posted on Macguffin is useful because its always there. But when your internet crashes its not very useful. Either way, if its set as homework on the blog or by the teacher the task will get done.

4. How often (honestly!) do you check the Macguffin blog? (Remember, it should be at least twice/week).

I check Macguffin about twice a week.

5. Has it been useful being able to see and access everyone else’s research and planning through their blogs?

It has been abit useful, especially if independent studies link, it makes research a bit easier and gives you ideas of what to add to your own blog.

6. How do you feel about the fact that your teacher can keep a close check on your progress through accessing your blog? Is it too intrusive and controlling or is it encouraging and supportive?

Teachers keeping tracking of work progress is a good thing, but it can be a bit intrusive especially if you get told to add more. At the end of the day its an indepedent study, if they dont want to do much on the blog then its the persons own problem.

7. How useful have the comments been that you received from…
a. Macguffin,
b. other students.

I havent gotten a comment from Macguffin so i wouldnt know
I think i got comments long time ago....dont even rememeber.

8. How has the blog helped with your essay planning? How useful was the blog when it came to writing the essay? Do you think your first draft is better because you have used a blog?

Planning the essay was a bit easier, because most of my research was in one place. It helped abit with writing the essay. I think if my research was done in a standard way my first draft would still be as good.

9. How would you evaluate the quality of your blog? What could you have done better?

The quality of my blog is brilliant!...the fact that my posts are colour co-ordinated helps me to rememeber certain posts. (lol! so sad)

10. Do you think you will get a better final grade for your independent study through having used a blog?

The most useful thing about the blog is that most my research is in one place, i dont see how this could effect my grade. But i guess its better than having billions of sheets of paper all over the place.

11. Which are the best three blogs? Why?

Jatinder - she has choosen to do an intresting theory and have loads of research.

Kavita - very detailed and full of loads of research.

Navdeep - a detailed blog.

12. Do you think next year’s Year 13s would benefit from setting up an Independent Study blog?

Yes, they will.

13. Are there any negative aspects to preparing for an Independent Study using a blog?

The only negative aspect is when the internet is down or people are having trouble with their computers.

14. What could be done to improve teaching and/or learning in future through blogs?

Remind students to end each posts with a brief paragraphy explaining why the post was useful and link it to the question so that when it comes to writing the essay, they can maybe copy and paste bits.

15. Overall, are you pleased that we used blogs? Has it been interesting and enjoyable? Why? Why not?

I am pleased that we used the blogs, i find its much easier to use. It has been kinda intresting and enjoyable...but not as fun as last years blog. It lonley once you've experienced doing a blog in a group (ha so sad!)

2007-02-03T16:59:00.000Z

Draft 1

"Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?"[1] Ed (Nick Frost)
How does British zombie film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follow the codes and conventions of the zombie genre?

Inspired by George Romero’s ‘Dead’ films ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004), directed by Edgar Wright and co-written with Simon Pegg, bought in a massive £1,603,410[2]. The low-budget, British film also proved to be popular in the United States. The romantic, zombie, comedy pays homage to the founding director of the zombie genre, George A. Romero. Genre tends to repeat elements and as ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a hybrid text of romance, comedy and zombie, the film repeats aspects of each genre. This may be one of the reasons as to why the contemporary text also subverts some of the codes and conventions of the zombie genre. This essay will go on to argue whether ‘Shaun of the Dead’ successfully follows the codes and conventions of the zombie genre in comparison to Romero’s films, looking particularly at the historical text ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968).

‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a contemporary text which shows a good example of conveying not only the codes and conventions of the zombie genre but also a hybridity of genres, inter-textuality and post-modernism. The zombie genre, or “The horror of Armageddon”[3] as Charles Derry (1977) referred to is as, was first recognized in the late 60s/early 70s; with the release of Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968). The horror genre during the mid 50s was seen as films aimed at the “youth market” or “adolescents of whatever age”[4] and was less popular amongst the critics. Romero’s film set the mark for the beginning of the zombie genre. The film followed the codes and convention of the horror genre; which most zombie films follow. The themes of isolation and the visual iconography of a big remote area, for example a house outside the city, are common conventions that can also be seen in contemporary texts such as ‘Shaun of the Dead’.

The early zombie films by Romero took conventions from earlier horror films such as ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957) and ‘Dracula’ (1958) by Terence Fisher, which were in fact re-makes of the early 1930s/40 basic horror films. These films take place in isolation and antique settings of “castles, manor houses and remote villages”[5]. During the late fifties and early sixties the first of Romero’s films, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, subverted the conventions of the classic horror films, making it a contemporary text in its time period. These classic horror films also “involve a metamorphosis”[6] that becomes a common convention for the horror genre. Although ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is linked by subject matter, the traditional gothic style of horror juxtaposes the contemporary style of ‘Shaun of the Dead’. The gothic look was a visual style and iconography of the horror genre during the late fifties. Genre theorist Edward Buscombe (1970) argues that as we are looking at a visual medium we should look out for “defining criteria…on the screen”[7], suggesting that a genre should be defined by its visual iconography; such as the actors, settings and images which are repeated.

Genre re-defines itself according to technology, the audience and politics. However, Robert Stam (2000) identified four problems with the genre theory, in particular generic labels. One of the four problems outlined was the “monolithic definitions - as if an item belonged to only one genre”[8]. The diction ‘item’ in this case can be seen as the conventional use of the isolated and non-exotic location that has been assigned to the zombie genre, amongst other stereotypes and conventions. Both ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ subvert the classic horror settings and instead use non exotic locations, to create a different visual iconography for the zombie genre. Romero chooses to use a farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside; the use of isolation reinforces the classic horror film conventions, but has also become a convention for the zombie genre too. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ takes into consideration the setting and is set in a contemporary non-exotic location of an isolated pub, The Winchester. The main setting, in ‘Shaun of the Dead’, reflects the use of pubs within in the British media. They are often used as a place where characters come together and are commonly used in popular soaps like ‘Eastenders’.

The use of media language can be considered as a visually “defining criteria”[9]. However, the media language is more of the directors’ style rather than the genre’s iconography. Both ‘Shaun of the Dead and ‘Night of the Living Dead’ use a similar technique to represent the revelation of the living dead; this drives the narrative and answers the audience’s enigmas by explaining the situation. In ‘Shaun of the Dead’ as Ed is flicking through the TV channels the broken dialogue of each channel ironically explains the situation. This style used by the director creates humor for the audience. However, once he stops there is a news report which explains the situation to both the audience and Shaun, the news report also describes how to kill the zombies, foreshadowing the resolution. The advice given is to hit the zombies on the head and this has always been a generic resolution to kill the living dead. Similarly, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ uses a radio report. The radio report explains the reason for the living dead but fails to provide a solution of how to rid the zombies. The protagonist, Ben, figures out a way to stop the zombies, by hitting them on the head and using fire. This represents the zombies as primitive and giving Ben more authority over the white, mindless zombies. The primitive aspects represent the zombies as “the Others” subverting the stereotype of the African-American protagonist being the other.

The convention of horror films, especially cult films of the zombie genre, often use a hand-held technique. The scene “Shaun’s Plan” in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ uses a hand-held camera. This gives the audience the sense that they are experiencing the situation with Shaun, especially as the camera is placed behind Shaun creating an over-the-shoulder shot. This involves the audience and creates a more serious tone over the dominant humorous tone that goes on throughout the film. In Romero’s film the hand held-camera is evident as Johnny fights with a zombie in the opening scene. The use of the hand-held camerawork therefore becomes a convention for the horror genre to represent a realistic situation to the audience. The hand held camera also becomes a common representation of reality.

Another common camera shot that is used in both texts is the directors’ use of reflections. In ‘Shaun of the Dead’ the use of reflection answers the enigma of the whereabouts of housemate Pete. This further reinforces the idea of the audience experiencing what Shaun experiences, especially as the over-the-shoulder shot is used again, to represent a reality. Romero, on the other hand, uses reflections to create tension. As Barbara is trying to escape from the zombie in a car; the shot goes from her face to the side mirror, also creating a point of view shot. The point of view shots, reflections and the hand held camera shows a similarity in the genre through the media language and the style.

The directors choose to convey reality through the hand held camera but audiences knows that zombies and the living dead are in fact fictional. Yet by knowing this the audience have a feeling of control. The fictional monsters allow directors to present the audience with an outlet for their “apocalyptic anxieties”[10] without the audience having to confront them directly. This also makes the audience feel safe as fictional monsters are representing current events, making it slightly unrealistic. The rise of zombie films have increased within the last six years and this is due to the fact that the world had experienced a mass amount of tragic events; terrorism, war, viral outbreaks and natural disasters. Directors feel they can use these social backdrops within in their films. The British horror film which also uses element of the zombie genre ‘28 Days Later’ by Danny Boyle (2002) reflects viral outbreaks. Both Zack Snyder’s re-make and Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978/2005) represents the rise of consumerism in the United States. But also proved to be more popular than Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (2005). ‘Shaun of the Dead’ was written during the unfortunate 9/11 terrorist attacks. The social context is shown as Shaun realizes that “the little problems in your life don't go away”[11]. The ‘little things’ in the film is the relationship problems with Shaun and his girlfriend Liz. Although the world might possibly end because of these flesh eating ghouls, Shaun still feels the need to make up with Liz.

Films do not often fall into one genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a hybrid text that takes elements from zombie films, comedy films and romance films. However, each of these genres has defining criteria. Genre theorists, such as Steve Neale (2000), have referred to this as a “repertoire of elements”[12]. The repertoire of elements can be seen through the iconography, style, setting, themes and narrative of the genre. This also suggests that audience’s who watch films defined by genre have certain expectations of the films. Theorist Stam outlined four problems with the genre theory and one of them is the “normativism”[13] problems. This refers to the audience having certain expectations of films because of the genre. This therefore means that audience’s watch horror films to get scared. The 1931 original ‘Frankenstein’ by James Whale begins with a warning to the audience. The filmmaker challenges the audience to face their fears and by the audience continuing to watch, they immediately accept this challenge.

Romero’s references to the American society, during the time he produced his films; is unconventional and breaks stereotypes of the zombie genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ also uses this technique to reflect the social context of its time period. Romero created and still continues to produces ‘Night’ films and as an opposing argument to genre; Romero can be considered as an auteur of cinema. Auteurism emphasizes the unique qualities of films. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and the other ‘Night’ films by Romero are unique in the sense that they began the zombie genre and were unconventional films during the time of release. However, it is argued that horror films show the least association with American history and directors such as Romero are unable to escape this generic label that associates them with cultism. He therefore fails to “win acclaim as auteur of the cinema”[14].

In ‘Night of the Living Dead’ there is a clear and dominant reference towards the historical and at the time social context of ethnic minorities, black people in particular. Romero’s choice of protagonist was controversial at the time. He does this by casting an unknown, African-American protagonist to play along side a white dominated cast. This breaks the conventional famous, white male protagonist from Hollywood. Romero is referring to the Civil Right Movements in America during the 1920s and also represents the authorities of the American law over the “innocent black man”[15]. However, this controversial outbreak reinforces a problem in generic labels; the monolithic definition outlined by Stam. The protagonist Duane Jones worried that audience’s only saw him as his character Ben, this also meant he only starred in cult-films rather than breaking through to Hollywood. This reinforces another problem with generic labels outlines by Stam, the “the narrowness of labels”[16] or extension. The extension problem is also evident in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ both Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are stereotyped to play humorous characters. This representation of the two actors is further reinforced in the follow up to ‘Shaun of the Dead, ‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007).

Character codes are a convention used in film. Vladimir Propp’s folk tale character list can be applied to many films, one of which is ‘Shaun of the Dead’, and this also links with the idea of the narrowness of labels. Simon Pegg is the protagonist ‘Shaun’, according to Propp’s theory he is considered as the hero. Shaun plays a funny and entertaining character; a role that he also played in the TV Series ‘Spaced’. Pegg has been stereotyped and has been typecast to play funny characters. However, at times Shaun is represented as the anti-hero; he does not want the responsibility of a hero. Similarly Nick Frost, ‘Ed’, also starred in ‘Spaced’ and is very well known to play humorous and entertaining characters, mainly as a helper rather than a protagonist. Ed plays the Proppian role of the helper and donor, as well as helping Shaun, he often prepares Shaun. The role of the villain is clearly represented by the zombies, as this is what Shaun is fighting against.

Both texts have the vulnerable character which is common in horror as well as the zombie genre. Barbara, in ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is traumatized and in a “catatonic state”[17] after witnessing the death of her brother Johnny. Barbara in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ plays Shaun’s mother and is also in a catatonic state, however, she is only represented in this way because she got bitten by a zombie. This conventional representation of women in zombie films conveys a patriarchal society and gives the male characters more authority. By having the character Barbara in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ Pegg is paying homage to Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ this also shows inter-textuality. Furthermore, another conventional ‘vulnerable’ character in the horror genre is the pregnant women. Although the re-make of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004) by Zack Synder had some different characters Synder kept the original pregnant women. This vulnerable pregnant woman is also used in the film by Roman Polanski ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968). The film by Polanski was released in the same year as ‘Night of the Living Dead’ suggesting that Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978) borrowed this element and made it an item used in the cult horror genre.

David Bordwell notes that, “any theme may appear in any genre”[18] however the re-occurring theme of surviving is another convention of the zombie genre. In any zombie film the dominating and obvious theme is the theme of surviving. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ mocks this theme by using the phrase surviving within the dialogue. The theme of chaos and the breakdown of civilization is another common theme of the genre. There are two types of people on this situation of chaos. There are people who try to maintain humanity and fight against the zombies, the second type of people are the ones who become the animal/zombie. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ shows a group of people who fall into the category of maintaining humanity, or surviving. However, in both films within the group one person is represented as becoming a zombie. In ‘Shaun of the Dead’ Shaun’s mother, Barbara, turns into a zombie. ‘Night if the Living Dead’ shows a young girl turning into the living dead. This therefore becomes a generic convention of the zombie genre; there is a group of people maintaining humanity but one person ends up becoming a zombie. This formulaic, narrative structure is also seen in ‘28 Day Later’. Furthermore, the theme of isolation is commonly used in the horror and zombie genre, subverting Bordwell’s theory.

‘Shaun of the Dead’ somewhat follows the Todorov narrative structure. The film does not begin with the living dead. However, the opening scene of Shaun acting like a zombie as he wakes up foreshadows the rest of the film. This opening is different to other zombie films. Within the opening of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Johnny is attacked by a zombie. Likewise, ‘28 Days Later’ opens with a disequilibrium, the protagonist ‘Jim’ wakes up to an empty London town, the audience nor Jim knows the reason why. Many of Romero’s other ‘Night’ films begin with this disequilibrium. ‘Land of the Dead’ (2005) begins with a representation of a walled city that protects the humans from the living dead. Although the zombie films are not complex and don’t have non-linear narrative structures, these enigmas keep the audience engaged. Unlike other zombie films, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ shows the transition of humans turning into the living dead. There is a social backdrop of society now beginning to turn into the living dead as their lifestyle is routine, mainly representing the blue-collared workers. What's more, the ending of the film avoids “the usual twist that Hollywood is so fond of”[19]. The end shows zombies being kept and used as something useful, a humorous ending that subverts the more serious ending of ‘Night of the Living Dead’. By having such a unique resolution the contemporary text shows that it is indeed a post-modern text, as it subverts the typical generic conventions.

In conclusion, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ successfully follows the codes and conventions of the zombie genre. The contemporary film also subverts some aspects of generic elements, making it a post-modern text in its own right. The conventional use of an isolated setting is successfully used through the setting of the pub. Although this can be seen as a mock of the zombie genre, it still follows conventions of British media. The Pub is often a place where people come together. The film also uses a similar style of media language to the zombie genre. The zombie genre often uses a hand-held camera to convey a sense of realism to the audience. This realism challenges the filmmaker to scare the audience. It also allows the director to present the audience with “apocalyptic anxieties”[20] without the audience directly confronting them. Furthermore, a common way to represent the situation to the audience and the characters is done through reports on the radio or TV, in the diegtic world of the film. This is a common conventional element used in zombie films. The codes in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ that are successfully referred to are the Proppian character codes. The hero is the protagonist Shaun and the villain are the zombies. However, the role of the hero is often subverted by Shaun as his character doesn’t want the responsibility making him an anti-hero. The helped/donor, Ed, prepares Shaun against the zombies. Although “any theme may appear in any genre”[21] it seems that the theme of surviving is most common in the zombie genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ represents this theme by continually using the word surviving in the dialogue. Since Romero used ‘Night of the Living Dead’ to represent social context, this has become a common convention of the genre. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ implicitly refers to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, rather it refers to the statement, made by Pegg, that “the little things in life don’t just go away…because the world’s blows up”[22]. Finally, the theme of chaos and the breakdown of civilization appear in the zombie genre and is a repertoire element. The use of two types of people in the situation allows there to be a group of people, which is common in the horror genre. Therefore, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ successfully follows the codes and conventions of the zombie genre, but at times subverts it due to the hybridity of the text. Thus successfully making ‘Shaun of the Dead’ “A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies.”[23]

Word Count: 3, 217

[1] ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004)
[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/business
[3] Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, London, Thomas Yoseloff, 1977
[4] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.
[5] Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
[6] F.Dick, Bernard (2002): Anatomy of Film. Boston, USA: Bedford/St Martin’s.
[7] Edward Buscombe, ‘The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema’, Screen 2(2), March/April 1970
[8] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
[9] Edward Buscombe, ‘The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema’, Screen 2(2), March/April 1970
[10] The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg8 – Friday November 10 2006
[11] http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html
[12] Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood. Fetter Lane, London: Routledge.
[13] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
[14] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.
[15] Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.
[16] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
[17] Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.
[18] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.
[19] http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml
[20] The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg8 – Friday November 10 2006
[21] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute
[22] http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html
[23] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/taglines

2007-02-03T16:45:00.000Z

Bibliography – Work Cited
Books
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, London, Thomas Yoseloff, 1977

Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.

Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Edward Buscombe, ‘The idea of genre in the American cinema’, Screen 2(2), March/April 1970

Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.

Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood. Fetter Lane, London: Routledge.

Internet
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAD1E.htm

http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html

http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/taglines

Films
‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004) Edgar Wright

‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968) George Romero

‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957) Terence Fisher

‘Dracula’ (1958) Terence Fisher

’28 Days Later’ (2002) Danny Boyle

‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978) George Romero/ (2004) Zack Synder.

‘Land of the Dead’ (2004) George Romero

‘Frankenstein’ (1931) James Whale

Newspapers
The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg8 – Friday November 10 2006

Bibliography – Work Consulted
Books
Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, London, Thomas Yoseloff, 1977

Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.

Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Edward Buscombe, ‘The idea of genre in the American cinema’, Screen 2(2), March/April 1970

Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.

Stam, Robert (2000): Film Theory an Introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers
Ltd.F.

Dick, Bernard (2002): Anatomy of Film. Boston, USA: Bedford/St Martin’s.Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood. Fetter Lane, London: Routledge.

Buckland, Warren (2003): Teach Yourself Film Studies. Euston Road, London: Hodder Headline Plc.

Gill Branston and Roy Stafford (1999): The Media Student’s Book (2nd Edition). Routledge

Internet
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAD1E.htm

http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html

http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Dead_(1978_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp

http://www.xmission.com/~tyranist/horror/
http://mediaknowall.com/alevel.html
http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/decades/1960s.html#NOTLD
http://www.katpad.co.uk/media%20website%202000/genre.html
http://www.jahsonic.com/HorrorCinema.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2720#id917

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949578716.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#1980s

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/business

http://www.genrebusters.com/film/review_shaun.htm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/

http://www.georgearomero.com/main.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Dead#Reaction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead_(film)#Miscellaneous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Dead_(1978_film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary
http://www.main-vision.com/richard/genre.shtml
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/taglines

Films
‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004) Edgar Wright

‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1978) George Romero

‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978) George Romero/ (2004) Zack Synder.

‘Land of the Dead’ (2004) George Romero

‘Day of the Dead’ (1985) George Romero

‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957) Terence Fisher

‘Dracula’ (1958) Terence Fisher

‘28 Days Later’ (2002) Danny Boyle

‘Rosemary's Baby’ (1968) Roman Polanski

‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ (1919)

‘Frankenstein’ (1931) James Whale

Newspapers
The Guardian, Film & Music Weekly Pg8 – Friday November 10 2006

2007-01-29T16:41:00.000Z

Self Evaluation

Attainment - 1, i'm always trying in this subject.
Effort - 2, becoming slack!
Punctuality - 1, always in lessons (woop)
Submission and quality of homework - 1, its always there, expect this one it was a day late...better late than never i suppose.
Ability to work independently - 1, yes i can work independently.
Quality of writing - 2, my expression is weak at times
Organisation of Media folder - 3, : << nuff said...lol! ok so my folder needs a bit of sorting
Oral contributions in class - 2, i'll have my say when i'm bothered!

b. Make a list of three targets/areas for improvement over the next half-term
1. Sort out my media folder
2. put more effort in class
3. be "bothered"

2006-12-28T23:13:00.000Z

Blog Task 14

"Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?" Ed (Nick Frost) How does British zombie film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follow the codes and conventions of the zombie genre?

Inspired by George Romero’s ‘Dead’ films ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a contemporary text that is a good example of conveying not only the codes and conventions of the zombie genre but also hybrid texts, inter-textuality and post-modernism. The genre theory categorizes films with similar codes ands conventions and emphasis the similarities between the groups. The zombie genre, or ‘The horror of Armageddon’ [1], was first recognized in the last 60s/early 70s; with the release of Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968). Horror films during the mid 50s were seen as films aimed at the ‘youth market’ or ‘adolescents of whatever age’ [2] and were less popular amongst the critics. Romero’s film set the mark for the beginning of the zombie genre and the film followed the codes and convention of the horror genre that most zombie films follow. The themes of isolation and the visual iconography of a big remote area, like a house, are common conventions that can also be seen in contemporary texts such as ‘Shaun of the Dead’.

[1] Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, London, Thomas Yoseloff, 1977

[2] Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.

2006-12-28T22:57:00.000Z

Blog Task 13

Detailed Essay plan

"Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?" Ed (Nick Frost)
How does British zombie film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follow the codes and conventions of the zombie genre?

Inspired by the ‘Dead’ series by George Romero ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a contemporary text that is a good example of conveying not only the codes and conventions of the zombie genre but also hybrid texts, inter-textuality and post-modernism. My independent study will look at all these aspects of the zombie genre and also the genre theory itself, the opposing argument of genre, auteur, will also be discussed in my study. [G]

Other texts that will be useful for my study is of course the films by Romero; ‘Night of the Living Dead’, ‘Dawn of the Dead’, ‘Land of the Dead’, and also other zombie films that were a part of “the modern horror-film movement” that the mid-1970s audience enjoyed like 'Rosemary's Baby' by Roman Polanski and finally another contemporary British zombie film ‘28 Days Later’ by Danny Boyle. Similarity most of the texts I have chosen are all conventionally created on a low-budget and are on an independent label and can be identified as a form that critics say are amied at the ‘youth market’ or ‘adolescents of whatever age’ as theorists Evans, Kapsis and Wood referred to it as. [H, A, E, I]

Much of the inter-textuality in ‘Shaun’ comes from Romero’s second film ‘Land of the Dead’. The title Shaun of the Dead is also both an obvious parody of and homage to the title Dawn of the Dead. Numerous lines, scenes and background details also directly refer to the Romero movies. Also both ‘Shaun’ and Romero have a social backdrop within their films some of which are the Vietnam War in ‘Night…’ and consumerism in ‘Dawn…’ [S, H, P]

Codes
Stock Characters
The conventional characters that are found in every film and the 8 characters identified by Propp; the protagonist, the helper (Ed), the princess (Liz Shaun’s girlfriend) and the villain (zombies). In the case of the zombie genre some stock characters are often a jock, clown, bimbo, and a detective/priest, ‘Shaun’ subverts the jock and detective/priest character, however, the ‘bimbo’ character can be seen in most of the character as the film is also a comedy. The vulnerable character can be seen in both ‘Shaun’ and Romero’s films, in ‘Shaun’ it is Barbara (Shaun’s mother) and similarly in ‘Night…’ Barbara is also the vulnerable character. [G, R]

Stock Plots
The theory of Todorov can be argued here, most zombie films such as the 2004 ‘Land of the Dead’ begins with the disequilibrium and the enigma (Barthes) is not solved until mid-way through the film, this can also be seen in ‘Night…’ but in ‘Shaun’ the audience slowly see the transition of a normal human to a society full off the “living dead”. There is a social backdrop of society now beginning to turn into the ‘living dead’ as their lifestyle is routine. The social backdrop is a common in Romero’s works. The “ending is spot-on, avoiding the usual "twist" that Hollywood is so fond of” this can be said for both ‘Shaun’ however, this post-modernism means that the film doesn’t follow generic conventions. [S, H, G, N]

Conventions
Iconography
The setting of a big isolated house is a conventional icon of the zombie genre and reinforced the monolithic problem of genre outlined by Robert Stam. Costume is a common stereotype that allows the audience to easily identify the zombies as zombies. Props or weapons used against the evil, antagonist is also a convention in ‘Night…’ we see Ben using fire and a crow-bar, ‘Shaun’ as a parody uses a cricket bat. Finally media language; the use of certain shots are visible in horror films one that is common is the directors use of reflection and point of view shot. [M, R, G, A]
‘Since we are dealing with a visual medium we ought surely to look for out defining criteria at what we actually see on the screen…’
“By iconography Buscombe meant recurrent images, including the physical attributes and dress of the actors, the setting…”

Themes
Isolation, trapped, in malls/pubs is a common theme in horror films.
Consumerism/Capitalism, zombies walking around like humans in malls, represent mindless shoppers, ‘shop till you drop’
Chaos, civilization is breaking down; and there a two types of people in this situation
People who maintain humanity
People who become animals/zombies

It is common for Romero’s films to have the social backdrop of political events during the making of the film, ‘Shaun’ does this in a implicit way, Simon Pegg states that after September 11th he realized ‘the little problems in your life don't go away’ and this is represented in the film as Shaun struggles with his love-life as well as the struggle of ‘surviving’.

Themes, at least, seem inadequate as a basis for defining genres since, as David Bordwell notes, 'any theme may appear in any genre' (Bordwell 1989, 147). However, is can be argued that horror and zombies films will always have the conventional theme of isolation and being trapped. Shaun of the Dead has a theme of surviving, as do many other zombie films. [R, Id, N]

Theorists
Steve Neale
Genres can be seen as 'a means of controlling demand' (Neale 1980, 55) [E]

Theory
Genre Theory

genre theory to continually re-define itself according to the technology, the audience, the political message among many other variables.

Robert Stam identifies four key problems with generic labels in film:
Extension (the narrowness of labels);
Normativism (having preconceived ideas of criteria for genre);
Monolithic definitions (as if an item belonged to only one genre);
Biologism (a kind of essentialism in which genres are seen as evolving through a standardized life cycle) (Stam 2000, 128-129).

Normativism
This could be the idea of sequels; however, Romero doesn’t see his films as sequels and in some cases the characters slowly being killed off one by one, which is present in ‘Night…’
Monolithic
Iconography of zombie films fit into this sub-heading, such as the big isolated area that is seen in ’28 Days Later’ as well as the ‘Dead’ films.

Sub-genre of horror
‘The horror of personality’ e.g. Psycho
‘The horror of Armageddon’
‘Normal aspects of nature that turns abnormal’, resulting in ‘a struggle that is obviously ultimate, mythical and soul-rendering’

Auteur Theory
“Auteurism emphasizes the uniqueness of a film, whereas the genre study emphasizes the similarities that exist between a group of films...”
Romero can be seen as an auteur as he began the zombie genre and the use of the genre to portray an implicit social backdrop to the audience, almost educating the ‘whatever age’ audience. However, Romero and most horror film Directors cannot be seen as auteur, because “Of all the genres, the horror film shows the least connection with American history” and therefore directors cannot escape the negative ideas associated with them of cultism and therefore fail to “win acclaim as auteur of the cinema” [S, G, A]

Books:
Edward Buscombe, ‘The idea of genre in the American cinema’, Screen 2(2), March/April 1970

Charles Derry, Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, London, Thomas Yoseloff, 1977

Walter Evans ‘Monster movies: a sexual theory’, Journal of Popular Film 2(4), autumn 1973

Robert E. Kapsis, ‘Dressed to kill’, American Film no.5, March 1982

Robin Wood, ‘Introduction’, in Britton, Lippe, Williams, Wood (eds), American Nightmare: essays on the horror film, Toronto, Festivals, 1979

Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Buckland, Warren (2003): Teach Yourself Film Studies. Euston Road, London: Hodder Headline Plc.

Cook, Pam; Bernink, Mieke (2003): The Cinema Book. Stephen Street, London: British Film Insistitute.

Website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead#References
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml
http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html

2006-12-21T13:15:00.000Z

Historical Texts
Blog Task 12 (cont'd...)

Films:
‘Night of the Living Dead’ George A. Romero (1968)
‘Dawn of the Dead’ Romero (1978) /Zack Snyder (2004)
'Rosemary's Baby' Roman Polanski (1968)
‘Land of the Dead’ Romero (2005)
‘28 Days Later’ Danny Boyle (2002)
'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1919)

Internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Dead_(1978_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead_(film )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Dead#Reaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary's_Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zty1bgsivxA
Books:
Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers

Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

2006-11-26T15:40:00.000Z

Laura Mulvey and ‘Shaun of the Dead’
how the theory could be useful in my Independent Study

The main cast of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ has an equal representation of males and females. There are 3 males, there is the protagonist ‘Shaun’ and his helper ‘Ed’ and David and 3 females; Shaun’s girlfriend Liz, Shaun’s mother and Dianne.

Unlike other texts female objectification is not so obvious in this text and is probably not in the text at all. However, Mulvey’s other ideas can still be applied to the text. There is a use of phallic symbols in the text as Liz has a hockey stick to use against the zombies and Dianne has a long piece of wood that is too phallic; this could be seen as penis envy. Each character has a phallic symbol and for the male’s it can be seen as a representation of their masculinity.

There is the identification with the male protagonist as there are some point of view shots and over the shoulder shots that force the audience to identify with Shaun. Also the whole narrative is based on Shaun’s experience of the “Z-day” and is told through Shaun; this encourages cross-gender identification; however, most of the audience are likely to be male.

Shaun is shown to take care of his mother in the film; this could relate to Freud’s theory that every boy at one point has feelings for their mother and by showing Shaun constantly worrying for Barbara this theory is reinforced. This could also play into the audience’s narcissism at they could see themselves as their mothers hero. It also reinforces the patriarchal society; Shaun, Ed and David take care of all the females.

Also in the beginning there is a scene where Ed and Shaun attack a female zombie; in a psychoanalytical way this could be interpreted as an act of the unconscious misogyny. Shaun and Ed fear the female, womb envy, and so attack her.

Phallic Objects ^

2006-11-11T20:23:00.000Z

as the voice over would say "Night...of the Living Dead" trailer
Tagline: They keep coming back in a bloodthirsty lust for HUMAN FLESH!...

28 Days Later Trailer
Tagline:The Days Are Numbered

2006-11-09T20:38:00.000Z

Appropriated Research

Alice's Blog
Neil Jordan & the Auteur Theory
There are also recurring themes throughout his work, such as unconventional sexuality and sexual relationships. Also, similarly to Stanley Kubrick or Martin Scorcese, Jordan takes characters who are not conventionally likeable and encourages the audience to empathise with them. This is shown in “The Crying Game” with IRA terrorist Fergus (Stephen Rea) and transgendered Dil (Jaye Davidson) and in “Breakfast on Pluto” with protagonist Kitten (Cillian Murphy).

Another recurring theme is the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Jordan was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1950. The Troubles- “a period of sporadic communal violence involving paramilitary organisations, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the British Army and others in Northern” – took place from the late 1960s until 1998. They therefore affected him, in particular as he was related to one of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings in 1974.

Relevance: The auteur theory is the opposing argument to the genre theory and even though Romero does not consider himself an auteur it is clear that Neil Jordan uses social and historical context in his films too, like Romero does in his 'Dead' Trilogies

Heena's Blog
Information from my power point presentation!!!
VLADIMIR PROPP
•The hero in the films are the angels (Diaz, Liu, Barrymore)= PROTAGONISTS
•The villains are Seamus ‘o’ Grady (Justin Theroux), and Madison Lee ( Moore)= ANTAGONIST
•The dispatcher is Charlie
•The false hero is Madison Lee
• The helper is Jimmy BosleyThe character roles for women are changing in contemporary films from the males being the protagonists to the females.

TZVETAN TODOROV
•The storyline focuses two important rings. The rings are safe at first then… they get stolen then… they are returned to the wrong person who than steals them again finally the resolution, the rings are returned safely.
•The locations they end up such as the STRIP CLUB, BEACH, AND the PUB to get the rings are used to entertain and pleasure the audience. Men are shown throughout the film especially the scenes I’ve mentioned above like they are having entertained by the females.

Claude Lévi-Strauss
•In action films the main binary opposition is good vs. evil.
•In Charlie’s angels it is the angels vs. Seamus ‘o’ Grady
•This changes the role of women, especially inaction films as the hero’s in action films were males,however changing in contemporary films.In Charlie’s angels the hero’s are the three FEMALEAngels.

Relevance: Each theorist can be applied to 'Shaun of the Dead', The Propp characters appear in the film along with the binary opposition of Good Vs Evil (Humans Vs Zombies). However, the conventinal Todorov narrative structure is challanged

Jatinder's Blog
Auteurism or genre?
Auteurism may be seen as the same as genres but this point would be wrong. I found a section from a book "teach yourself film studies by Warren Buckland" which shows the difference between the two. It also shows that Auteurism is still significant as it gives the audience a different option to genre films.

"The genre film is mass-produced product of Hollywood film industry. Whereas the auteur approach to Hollywood cinema...privileges invention and personal creation, the study of genre privileges convention and collective meaning. Auteurism therefore emphasizes the uniqueness of a film, whereas the genre study emphasizes the similarities that exist between a group of films...
More accurately, auteurism identifies the common attributes that make an individual director's film unique...Auteurism groups together a small body of films according to their specific stylistic attributes, which are equated with the director's authorial signature."

Relevance: It clearly outlines the difference between auteur and genre within 2 short paragraphs.

Navdeep's Blog
More Media Terms
Post Modernism:'After the modern' generic variation in media texts and as a definition of cultural attitudes. They don't follow generic conventions or traditional narratives.This relates to my text, as my text is postmodern, it shows new and unique ideas representing women and challenges a lot of 'typical' conventions.

Relevance: Shaun of the Dead subverts conventional horror film endings "avoiding the usual "twist" that Hollywood is so fond of"

2006-11-08T18:22:00.000Z

SELF EVALUATION

Attainment - 1, i put loads of effort into this subject and the dept in general with the 'editing' of the school doc and what not.

Effort - 2, lately i haven’t been bothering much...but i'll pick it up again

Punctuality - 1, always get there on time and never missed a lesson (expect that time when all the art kids were on a trip woops)

Submission and quality of homework - 1, i always do my homework to my best standard.

Ability to work independently - 1, i can easily work independently especially with the coursework this year

Quality of writing - 2, understandable, scruffy notes :D

Organisation of Media folder - 2, everything’s in there, but some sheets aren’t hole-punched so they don’t go in...or if they do, its not in the right order

Oral contributions in class - 2,i haven't been as loud as last year (at least thats what i think)

Standard of Module 5 blog - 1, i give myself that because for the first few months i struggled with stupid blogspot, the pages used to take 10miuntes to load up : (ha! technology - 0, Jas - 1 woop!)

Standard of Module 6 blog - 1, i'm all up-to-date with that blog.

three targets/areas for improvement
1. Put in more effort in class
2. Do more stuff for independent study and the blog
3. um...sort out my folder ?? meh...it counts

2006-11-05T17:52:00.001Z

Blog Task 12
I think you complain just to hear yourself speak - Barbara

1968 - "the year of the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and the election of Richard Nixon, and with America mired in an unpopular and unwinnable war in Vietnam."*

Codes and Conventions

'Night...' follows most the codes and conventions of the horror genre. The film portrays the themes of:

Isolation – most of the film is set in an abandoned farm house in rural Pennsylvania. The house has a conventional basement

Chaos - with the break down of civilisation. The group in the house who are ‘surviving’ are ones who want to maintain humanity, and characters like Johnny conveys the people who turn into the zombies.

The Protagonist Ben - The lead role of Ben went to unknown African American stage actor Duane Jones. His performance depicted Ben as a "comparatively calm and resourceful Negro," according to one reviewer.[22] Casting Jones was potentially controversial. In the mid-twentieth century it was unusual for a black man to play the hero in a film that starred white actors, and commentators saw Romero's choice of Jones as significant. Romero, on the other hand, said that Jones "simply gave the best audition."[23]

Plot – Follows the Todorov structure to a certain extent. By the end all the zombies are dead, however the death of the protagonist doesn’t create a sense of complete resolution.
“Ben, the only survivor…stumbles out exhausted only to be shot by the authorities – an innocent black man shot by the forces of American law and order, in a telling image of its time.” - Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.*

Economical context: ‘Night’s…” financial backers was a local butcher

Social Context: 1960's youth revolt against parental values is conveyed when The Coopers young daughter Karen, feeds on her fathers corpse and then kills her mother with a cement trowel, after being transformed into one of the living dead.

Similarities with Shaun of the Dead
Both texts follows the codes and conventions of the horror genre. There are also smaller similarities that can be identified while watching the texts. Both texts:

-Use radio/TV to drive the narrative and explain the situation
-Use over the shoulder shots
-Have a group of people ho are ‘surviving’
-Have a character that has been bitten by the living dead
-Have a character named Barbara who is in a catatonic state and lost someone to the living dead

2006-10-25T16:04:00.000+01:00

Book Research (so far....)

Stam, Robert (2000): Film Theory an Introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

F.Dick, Bernard (2002): Anatomy of Film. Boston, USA: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Rubin, Martin (1999): Thrillers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Jones, Darryl (2002): Horror A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold Publishers.

Neale, Steve (2000): Genre and Hollywood. Fetter Lane, London: Routledge.

2006-10-24T18:08:00.000+01:00

Genre Theory
Genre theory is used in the study of films in order to facilitate the categorization of films. Genre is dependent on various factors such as story line, who the director is, what are the audience expectations.... In using genre theory we create a short cut in how we are to describe films.

E.g When looking at the horror film where we know everyone will die except one. The audience whom go to those films expect to see zombie, were wolves, werewolvess and more. They also expect certain content and a certain style of film making.

Audience
When marketing and studying cinema it is important to know who the intended audience are. We must take into account at what time the film was made and for which audience.

The time period
An important part of Genre theory is knowing at which period a film was made. This is particularly important when considering what technology was being used. With today's high speed films (shorter exposure times) films may be shot with very different lighting from those of twenty years ago. The rhythm and pacing of the film may have been altered with editing. Core values which would seem unimportant to us when watching certain films may be of prime importance to the people whom are contemporary to the film's.

Problems with Genre theory
If all films were exactly the same then genre theory would be easy to study and defining which type of film it is would be easy. Unfortunately though it is far more complicated than this. As we look and analyze various films we find that although they have similarities in other aspects they are very different. It creates the need for genre theory to continually re-define itself according to the technology, the audience, the political message among many other variables. What may have been typical of a genre at one time may evolve other time as the audience evolves.

This is useful for me as Genre theory "continually re-defines itself", this will allow me to see the different between contemporary and classic zombie films.
http://www.main-vision.com/richard/genre.shtml

2006-10-23T16:27:00.000+01:00

Blog Buddies

Jatinder (13C) - Tarantino and Film Authorship
A short summary: Jatinder's study is on Film Authorship and if it is stil important in Hollywood, she is looking at Kill Bill and Tarantino as an auteur.

Areas of overlap: Area of overlap would be the opposing argument of auteur which is genre. Also the work of Romero could be seen as auteur, like the work of Tarantino. Tarantino's
films would also follow codes and conventions of the genre he chooses.

What I have learnt: Genre and Auteur are seen as the same thing, however, auteur is becoming insignificant.

Sonal (13D) - Representation of Women changing in Slasher films
A short summary: Sonal is looking at the representation of women in slasher, paying particular attention to 'Creep'

Areas of overlap: Slasher is the sub-genre of Horror, both zombie films and slasher falls under this sub-genre. There is an overlap in audience, economical context and narrative. The media language is also an area where both our studies are similair.

What I have learnt: Critics assumed that horror was a genre for male viewers, sadistically watching the female victim.

2006-10-08T11:39:00.000+01:00

Binary Opposition: a term used by Claude Levi-Strauss as a part of his argument that narratives are structured around oppositional elements in human culture, for example good and evil, life and death, night and day.

Capitalism: an economic system in which the production and distribution of goods and services in society is organised via a free market for the purpose of maximising profits.

Consumerism: the economic system and variation of capitalism based around the compulsive consumption of goods and services within a framework of lifestyle marketing and advertising.

Ideology: a set of attitudes, beliefs and values held in common by a group of people and culturally reproduced within that community to sustain its particular way of life.

Left-wing: having socialist or communist political ideas that advocate change and are critical of the status quo in society.

Pastiche: a media text made up of pieces from other texts or of imitations of other styles, can be used positively as a deliberate homage to other works.

Political Correctness: the practise of challenging and altering language that could give offence, stereotype or exclude people because of their disability, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or political views.
It evolved from liberation movements in the USA in the 1970s, which challenged the injustices of discrimination.

Social Realism: the representation of characters and issues in film and television drama in such a way to raise serious underlying social and political issues.

2006-10-04T21:33:00.000+01:00

Self-Directed Research

Review - Zombie of Errors

http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml

Useful books & Useful books found from: http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/pdf/horror.pdf

A scene from my main text, linked with a qoute from the review

Useful Links

(i did that before it was set, so it counts!)

Simon Pegg interviews George A Romero

http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html

Other texts

Romero's Dead series

2006-10-04T19:28:00.000+01:00

Romero's Dead series
Diary of the Dead (Romero, pre-production)

Each film is laden with social commentary ranging from racism to consumerism. The films are not produced as direct follow-ups from one another. The films' only continuation is the epidemic of the living dead. They are different stories telling how different people react to the same phenomonen. There are no real happy endings to the films as each takes places in a world that has gotten worse since the last time we saw it, the number of zombies ever increasing and the fate of the small amount of the remaining living always in the balance.

Night of the Living Dead
Since the release, critics and film historians have seen Night of the Living Dead as a subversive film that critiques 1960s American society, international Cold War politics, and domestic racism.

Dawn of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead received much critical acclaim for, among other things, the subtext involving American consumerism and materialism, as well as comments on news media and racism.

Day of the Dead
Romero once again presented the theme that people failing to work together was more dangerous than the actual threat of zombies. It was internal feuding and a failure to cooperate which led to the mutiny and total breach of the underground base. The casual viewer might not realize that the zombies posed very little direct threat. The antagonism between the characters is what destroyed the base
Although the story is bleak, Romero inserted some humour in Day of the Dead. When the military base is being overrun by zombies, there is a clown zombie and a nun zombie among the crowd.

Land of the Dead
The similarities between the fireworks mesmerizing the zombies and the shock and awe tactics applied during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the movie's distinction between the rich and poor, those that live in Fiddler's Green and those that live in the slums, something he considered Romero's take on the rising gap between rich and poor in America

2006-10-04T19:07:00.000+01:00

Other texts
Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero
This grainy black-and-white chiller about flesh-eating zombies became a cult hit and its lean, graphic; no nonsense approach to horror influenced many future practitioners of the genre.

Dawn of the Dead (1979) George A. Romero
A sequel to Night of the Living Dead, mixed horror, satire and even social commentary as zombies attack four people trapped in a shopping mall
http://www.georgearomero.com/main.php

Land of the Dead (2005) George A. Romero
The living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/

28 Days Later (2002) Danny Boyle
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/

2006-10-01T16:17:00.000+01:00

Close textual analysis - Shaun’s Plan
"Yeaa boi!!!"

The scene I have chosen to analyse is part of the disequilibrium of the film (Todorov) and drives the narrative; the scene conveys a good example of comedy, genre, narrative, political context amongst others.

The scene begins with a quick close-up showing a white board with the sentences “Go round mums, Get Liz back, SORT LIFE OUT” this foreshadows the rest of the scene and the film. The scene also begins with a sense of comedy even though the matter is serious; Ed acts as the stock joker character and is the one who supplies most of the funny moments in the film through clumsiness or by making jokes/funny comments; this often irritates Shaun but amuses the audience.

The relationship between Shaun and Ed various throughout the film, Shaun is the dominant figure in their friendship and in this scene the body language of the two conveys this. Ed is sitting on a chair while Shaun is standing up and explaining the plan to him, Shaun is above Ed showing him to be bigger connoting that Shaun has more authority over Ed. The mise-en-scene shows Ed sitting in a messy living room, with a dead zombie on the floor connoting his lifestyle and also showing the ‘zombie’ aspect of the film.

There is much male dominance in the scene and there are connotations of patriarchy especially as Shaun comes up with several failed plans. The plans mainly consist of Ed and Shaun saving the two damsels in distress, Barbara (Shaun’s mum) and Liz (Shaun’s girlfriend). Shaun is conveyed as the hero, Ed acts as the donor and the helper, helping with the development of the plan and Liz is the princess (Propp). However, Shaun can also be seen as the anti-hero reluctant to save everyone and get rid of the zombies; his plan is to save Liz and his mum, get to a safe place and “wait till the whole thing blows over”. This also shows some political/social context; Shaun of the Dead was being written during the 9/11 attack and it affected the script slightly as they realised even in a social disturbance the little problems don’t go away. The fact that Shaun wants to “wait for the whole tinge to blow over” shows him wanting to avoid the social problem and wait for the status quo to return.

As they formulate the plan the editing technique convey the scene with clarity, Wright shows the development of the plan to the audience, along with the failed ideas, with imaginative flash-forwards, wipe-like editing and whooshing camerawork; such as zooming in/out. The montage of the plan is also the part of the whole scene where there is non-diegetic music; this gives the montage a sense of action and engages the audience. The fast paced editing is another technique used by Wright to engage the audience, as well as the realistic hand-held camerawork, flash-forwards and the montage. The flash-forwards create a break in the linear narrative, but it also foreshadows the rest of the film; also the hand-held camerawork reinforced the fact that the film was produced on a low budget. The formulating of the plan itself engages the audience, but also leaves no enigmas (Barthes); it involves the audience and allows them to see trial and error which adds to the comedy aspect. The audience are further involved as Shaun looks directly into the camera at the end of each flash-forward and winks at the audience, this allows the male audience to identify with Shaun as he acts as a hero and can also appeal to the female audience who find Simon Pegg attractive.

The conventional idea of isolation is also shown in the scene. Part of the plan is to hide out in the local pub, Winchester. Most horror/zombie films are set in an isolated place which has the essentials for survival, is big and empty and has a basement; the Winchester pub has all these conventions. However, Ed and Shaun see the pub as a safe place where they are familiar with and have knowledge of the exits and are able to stay with Liz and Barbara until the whole thing blows over.

The Scene (someone put Kaiser Chiefs over it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUwYtabecQ

2006-09-24T21:58:00.000+01:00

Social Context: Zombie films are often times too slow and brooding (28 Days Later), too lacking in all departments (Resident Evil) or, in recent years, have become bogged down in their social-political allegory (paging Mr. Romero) that really shouldn’t be there in the first place. Okay, we get it, we’re them, they’re us, we are the living dead shuffling off to our tombstone like office cubicles while we continue to buy things we don’t need and step on who ever gets in our way to the top.We get the social commentary, but its done as a send up in that it pokes fun more at the conventions of the social commentary in other zombie films and not at real life.
http://www.genrebusters.com/film/review_shaun.htm

Historical: 70s: George Romero examined the rise of the new consumer society in his 1978 zombie sequel, Dawn of the Dead;
Millennial horror: There was also something of a revival in British horror film production, with some of the more successful examples including 28 Days Later (2002), Dog Soldiers (2002), Shaun of the Dead (2004) and The Descent (2005), though in the case of the third, with the exception of some considerable gore at the end was more a horror-comedy than a horror film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#1980s

Economical: Budget : $4,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
$3,330,781 (USA) (26 September 2004) (607 Screens)
£1,603,410 (UK) (11 April 2004) (367 Screens)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/business

Political: Romero's zombies come partly out of the political turmoil of America in the late 1960s. Zombies became a metaphor for chaos, and an aggressive one.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949578716.html

'Dead' movies always reflected a certain something about society at the time: revolution with 'Night…'; the whole consumerist metaphor which is a brilliantly comic aspect of 'Dawn…'; and then with 'Day…' there's a sort of vivisection thing.

“September 11 happened when we were writing and it informed our writing process. We suddenly saw how people reacted in the event of massive social upheaval, and the way that the little problems in your life don't go away. You don't stop being frightened of spiders just because the world's blown up.” Simon Pegg http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html

2006-09-23T21:33:00.000+01:00

http://www.xmission.com/~tyranist/horror/
Has reviews of horror films

http://mediaknowall.com/alevel.html
http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/decades/1960s.html#NOTLD
Article on Night of the Living Dead

http://www.katpad.co.uk/media%20website%202000/genre.html
Covers ‘genre’

http://www.jahsonic.com/FilmGenre.html
http://www.jahsonic.com/HorrorCinema.html
Covers both genre and horror

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film
Horror genre

http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2720#id917
Link to more links

2006-09-20T18:26:00.000+01:00

American Trailer ^^

2006-09-20T18:12:00.000+01:00

Ealing Studios: a film studio established at Ealing, London, in 1931 most famous for series of low-budget, distinctly British comedies in the immediate post-war period.
‘Shaun of the Dead’ was produced in Ealing studios, this links with the institution. It reinforces the low-budget-ness of the film.

Feeding Frenzy: a term derived from the practise of fish or predator animals rushing to the smell of blood in order to partake of a kill.
Feeding frenzy also applies to zombies as they too rush to the smell of blood, or a person who is not yet dead.

Genre Theory: an explanation of the role played by genre in differentiating media texts and aligning audiences.
My question refers to the zombie genre and the genre theory will allow me to see the conventions used in the genre and audiences associated with it.

Horror: describes a film genre which aims to frighten the audience
Horror film narratives work on basic human fears: of the dark, of the alien and unknown, of death and the supernatural, of being alone, of other people, of insanity, of extreme violence, of sexual abuse.
George Romero’s films are considered to be of the horror genre and works on the basic human fear of death, being undead.

Hybrid: a cross between one film genre and another.
My main text is a hybrid of romance, comedy and zombie.

Intertextuality: the practise of deliberately including references to one text in the narrative of another, either as homage to the text referred to or as a device intended to engage the interest of the audience by appealing to their prior knowledge and experience of media texts.
Shaun of the Dead has intertextuality mainly with Romero’s Night, Dawn and Day of the living Dead. Such as 'Foree Electronics', Shaun's workplace, being a reference to Ken Foree, a star of Dawn of the Dead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead#References
The film uses intertextuality from Spaced as well as the obvious Romero trilogy.

Zombie Movie: a horror subgenre in which the living are plagued by armies of the living dead who usually survive by devouring the living
Both Shaun of the Dead and the Romero trilogy are all considered as zombie movies as they have the living dead.

2006-09-17T13:22:00.000+01:00

The Blog Comment Task

Harveen http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=33962213&postID=115834072456366702&r=ok

Prascilla http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=34180847&postID=115800943137543495&r=ok

Sawan http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=34213109&postID=115801545554547141&r=ok

Sonal http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=33534359&postID=115775756619306128&r=ok

this was well hard...i only got 4, better than nothing though!

2006-09-13T18:29:00.000+01:00

Some uself links that i've used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Dead_(1978_film)

http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/pdf/horror.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp

2006-09-12T20:32:00.000+01:00

Simon Pegg interviews George A Romero
The writer/star of 'Shaun of the Dead' discusses zombies with the daddy of the genre

1968's 'Night of the Living Dead' and sequels 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978) and 'Day of the Dead' (1985), George A Romero delivered plentiful gore and a bitingly satirical take on contemporary America. Among his devotees were Simon Pegg and his 'Spaced' director Edgar Wright, whose affectionate pastiche, 'Shaun of the Dead' (2004), led to friendship with Romero. The latest entry in George's own cycle, 'Land of the Dead', sees human survivors holed up in a swanky skyscraper, 'Fiddlers Green', surrounded by slums. Outside, the walking dead begin to close in…http://www.timeout.com/film/news/631.html

This interview mentions a lot about the wider context of Romero's films, looking particularly at the political context.

2006-09-12T18:48:00.000+01:00

“one of the movie's greatest scenes, Shaun and Ed go through Shaun's collection, deciding which albums to sacrifice. The Stone Roses? No. Prince's Batman soundtrack? Throw it.” http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/shaundead.shtml

2006-09-11T17:17:00.000+01:00

Representation
Shaun is represented as a stereotypical white working class male. He is single and is struggling in his relationship with girlfriend Liz. Shaun passes time in the local pub with his friend and flat mate Ed.

The character of Shaun is common and males in the audience can identify with him and his problems in life. Audiences of the opposite sex can also identify with girlfriend Liz or even Shaun as he is stuck in a dead end job.

Language and Form
The setting conforms to the zombie genre conventions as the pub is big, isolated and has the essentials for survival. However, this also mocks the zombie genre and reinforces the comedy aspects as the pub is the last place Liz wants to go, it’s the preferred location of Ed.

The soundtrack shifts between contrapuntal and parallel this works with the text. The contrapuntal lyrics emphasises the comedy genre. ‘The Specials’ – Ghost Town reinforces the zombie genre and the idea of survival in a big empty city.

Iconography of the zombie’s is pale faced, ripped clothes with a lot of blood. There is a phrase that is continuously used in the film to Shaun “You’ve got red on you”; the phrase reinforces the blood and gore of the zombie genre.

The camerawork of the film varies and engages the audience. The off-center composition allows more to fit onto the screen and doesn’t focus on the one character in the shot. The use of over-the-shoulder shots gives the audience the feeling that they are part of the situation and so does the handheld camerawork, as it makes the situation more realistic.

Narrative
The narrative of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follows the Todorov theory. It doesn’t follow the conventional Hollywood zombie ending, where the zombies die or the film is left open for a sequel. The audience is often directly involved as Shaun in one or two scenes’ directly looks at the camera. The handheld camerawork allows the audience to escape into the film as it makes it more realistic.

Audience can gain identification through characters, the audience can either see themselves as a character or have friends similar to characters in ‘Shaun of the Dead’. As the film is British there is a possible alienation from other regions as audiences are unable to under certain jokes.

Shaun begins as the anti-hero who is reluctant to go out and fight the zombies, but his friend Ed (Propp’s ‘helper’ character) tells him he needs to save his mother.

The music used is ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is often parallel to situations. The soundtrack features The Specials ‘Ghost Town’ this is used in the opening and gives the audience an insight to what the film is going to be about. In another scene as Liz, Ed and Shaun are beating a zombie with pool sticks a jukebox plays Queen ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, this can be seen as ironic as the lyrics to the song mocks the situation.

Genre
The text falls in to a hybrid of genres ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is known as a rom, zom, com. A romantic, zombie comedy.

The stock character of Ed, as the joker, allows the film to be comical. Shaun’s relationship with Liz is the romantic side to the film, there is also romance as Shaun is acting as the hero to save both his girlfriend and mother, this is the only reason he goes from the reluctant hero to protagonist of the film. The living dead, zombies, reinforces the ‘zom’ in the hybrid genre.

The iconic features of the zombie genre are firstly, the living un-dead. The zombie’s costumes are always ripped and they are shown to be pale with mutated faces and blood. These features allow the audience to identify the film as a film from the zombie genre. The general theme of the film is survival like many other zombie films.

Institution
‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a Universal Pictures production, the company is well known to produce films starring big American stars directed by even bigger directors like Peter Jackson. The company also produces big American films such as ‘Land of the Living Dead’ (2003).
However, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ stars British actors, Simon Pegg, and was directed by Edgar Wright.

Audience’s who are familiar with Wright, Pegg or even Nick Frost would expect the film to be funny as these actor’s are associated with comedies, Wright is associated with writing comedies.
‘Shaun of the Dead’ clashed with the release of the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2003) remake, due to the similarity of the names Universal pushed back the release by two weeks. The similar titles allow audiences to identify both films to be of a similar genre.

Values and Ideology
Zombie film ideologies are often the idea of surviving; ‘Shaun of the Dead’ also has the ideology but also has others. Family values are shown too as Shaun constantly reminds other characters that Phillip (Bill Nighy) is not his father, he is shown to dislike his step-dad reinforcing the “evil” step-parent stereotype. Most of the film is set in the Winchester pub as it is a safe place. This mocks society as Britain is known for drinking, especially amongst under-aged teenagers.

Media Audience
‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a film popular amongst fans of the TV Series ‘Spaced’ as it was written by Wright and has Pegg in it too. The target audience would be males, as the film is very male dominated and has the values of saving the female’s from the zombies. However, the audience wouldn’t be too big as it is a British film and doesn’t star big stars. The film would be read as a general mock towards Romero’s living dead films, but many people may not see it that way as they might not have seen any of Romero’s films.

2006-09-11T16:34:00.000+01:00

Useful books that i found at my local library
Film Theory An Introduction - Robert Stam

Anatomy of Film - Bernard F. Dick

Thrillers - Martin Rubin

Useful books found from http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/pdf/horror.pdf
The zombie that ate Pittsburgh: the films of George A. Romero - Paul R. Gagne

America Horror: essays on the modern American horror films The living and the undead: from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead - Gregory A. Waller

Dreadful pleasure: an anatomy of modern horror - James B. Twitchell

2006-09-03T17:13:00.000+01:00

M.I.G.R.A.I.N Analysis

Media Language
Over the shoulder shots
Zooms in/out
Pans
Use of reflections
Handheld camera work
Off center composition/framing
Music parallel/contrapuntal with situation.

Parallel => The Specials – Ghost Town
Contrapuntal => Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now

Institution
Universal Pictures
British Film

Genre
Romantic, Shaun has to save his relationship with Liz
Zombie, the zombie element
Comedy, Ed and Shaun’s relationship

Representation
White, working class – Shaun in a dead end job
Goes to the pub to unwind
Ethnic minorities – man who owns corner shop
Some female dominance – Ed and David fail to help Shaun where as he gets help from Liz and Dianne.

Audience
Fans of Pegg and Frost, Spaced
People who enjoy British comedies

Ideology/Values
Mock the mundane lifestyle; it’s a mindless routine (mindless like zombies)
Family values – Shaun has to save his girlfriend and mum.
Non-nuclear family, Shaun has a step-dad
Patriarchal – Shaun is the leader/hero

Narrative
Shaun needs to save his relationship with girlfriend Liz, without giving up his long time friend Ed. He has to see his mum and dodge the zombies too.

2006-08-28T22:56:00.000+01:00

Zombie of Errors
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Shaun of the Dead erupts with a magical zest, and resurrects the poor, shambling movie genre back into some semblance of life.

Shaun of the Dead gives us the improbable 29 year-old Londoner Shaun (Simon Pegg) as its hero.
Shaun lives with two flatmates, the responsible Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) and the sloth-like Ed (Nick Frost).
Stuck between the two, Shaun longs for the carefree bachelor life but doesn't want to lose his girlfriend. Liz (Kate Ashfield) wants to start doing more grown-up things, which includes leaving Ed behind.

The movie carefully and humorously sets up this essential conflict before springing the zombies on us. As in Romero's films, we understand completely who we're dealing with before the zombies come, so we can follow them ever more closely into battle. As confused and indecisive as he is in his normal life, Shaun turns out to be a natural leader during a crisis.

Shaun wakes up, hung over completely unaware of the copious dead bodies, blood and lurching zombies all over London. (He mistakes one for a homeless man.)
Once it occurs to Shaun and Ed what's going on, they formulate a plan. Gather up their loved ones and convene at the pub, where they can listen to music, eat crisps and drink until the whole thing blows over.

Meanwhile, through trial and error, they decide on an anti-zombie weapon of choice. One of their early attempts includes throwing LP records. In one of the movie's greatest scenes, Shaun and Ed go through Shaun's collection, deciding which albums to sacrifice. The Stone Roses? No. Prince's Batman soundtrack? Throw it.

Shaun of the Dead never stops being clever and inventive, as well as brisk and funny. They handle the "action" scenes with gorgeous clarity. A very funny sequence takes place just before Shaun and Ed devise their grand plan; they come up with a couple of failed ideas first, and Wright shows them to us in imaginative flash-forwards with whooshing camerawork and snappy editing.

Even more improbably, Wright gets in a few serious moments as the characters mourn for lost friends and loved ones, without tipping the film's balance.

The ending is spot-on, avoiding the usual "twist" that Hollywood is so fond of these days and settling instead for a couple of very funny codas. It could be a major cult discovery along the lines of Memento or Donnie Darko, but with Romero himself singing its praises, it deserves to be a phenomenon

2006-08-27T13:37:00.000+01:00

The Proposal

"Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?" Ed (Nick Frost)

How does British zombie film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ follow the codes and conventions of the zombie genre?
My independent study is a focus on the zombie genre. My main text is a hybrid of zombie and comedy, (rom zom com). The study will focus the conventions of the zombie genre, also how Shaun of the Dead subverts the classic zombie conventions.

Media Language: The shaky hand-held camerawork and natural lighting reinforced the low budget. Location and iconography subverts usual zombie films.

Institution: British film often made with a low-budget and a small institution. However, Shaun of the Dead was produced by Universal.

Genre: Romantic, zombie, comedy (rom zom com). How does Shaun of the Dead follow the conventions of this hybrid genre or the classic zombie genre?

Representation: The representation of a heroic protagonist, is Shaun really heroic?

Audience: Mainly male dominated audience as the protagonist is male. Does the film allow the male gaze? This challenges Laura Mulvey’s theory and conventional zombie films.

Ideology/Values: Patriarchy, as it is up to the male protagonist to save his family and friends against the zombies.

Narrative: There is a hybrid of romance and comedy that drives the narrative, as well as the zombie content.

Social Context: Mocks the binge drinking society as most of the film is based in a local pub.
Historical:
Economical: low budget film, like most British films
Political: George Romero bases his films around political issues during the time they are being produced.

Other texts: ‘Night of the Living Dead’ George A. Romero (1968)
‘Dawn of the Dead’ Romero (1978)/Zack Snyder (2004)
‘Land of the Dead’ Romero (2005)
‘28 Days Later’ Danny Boyle (2002)

Theory/Theorist: Todorov, often zombie are left open for sequels, Shaun of the Dead challenges this and conform to the Todorovian structure.
Laura Mulvey’s male gaze is challenged; the damsel in distress character is missing from the narrative.
Propp’s 8 character types can be seen in the characters, but also mocks it, driving the comedy aspects of the film.