Matthew Dalby

Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Breakdown of the Cinematography used.

In Shaun of the Dead (2004), the scene where Shaun and his friend Ed come face to face with a zombie is very useful to my research because it shows how the cinematography can create tension to the audience; which will be research that I will need to consider when I choose the cinematography that I will use in my introduction. I have broken down the scene from the film into each shot in order to pick out the camera angles:

Shot No.

Shot Used/Cinematography Used.

1.

Long Shot of Subject (Zombie) – tells the audience that there is eeriness about her because she has her back to them.

2.

Mid Shot /Two-Shot– to show Shaun and Ed’s confused facial expressions.3a.

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Long shot of Girl, Panning from Shaun’s right to left shoulder. ( Direction)3b.

End of Panning - between Shaun and Ed’s shoulders.4.

Mid Shot, to show their facial expressions changing.5.

Another long shot, to show that she is just swaying. This creates tension and the audience knows that something is wrong with her.

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6.

Mid Shot, to add further tension by showing their reactions. Ed then throws a stone at her.

7.

Mid Shot, slightly closer to the subject to show that she shows no reaction to the stone hitting her.

8.

Mid Shot, to show that Shaun is starting to get nervous about her behaviour.

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9.

The camera angle starts to create the feeling that she is about to show her face and the audience are anxious to find out why she is behaving like this.

10.

Close-Up, of Shaun’s reaction.11.

Close-Up, of Ed’s reaction.

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12.

Mid-shot, of her starting to turn towards them.13.

Over the Shoulder Shot, of Shaun and Ed to show their reaction to her turning around.14a.

Mid Shot, the audience are aware now that the girl looks slightly drunk and that what is yet to come (because she is a zombie) will start the post-apocalyptic genre of this film. Zooms in to show her face in more detail.

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14b.

Close-Up, position of shot after the zooming has finished.15a.

Mid shot, showing their response to her appearance. Zooms in to add drama because of their facial expressions of shock.

15b.

Close-Up, position of shot after zooming has finished.

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16.

Close-Up, showing part of her eye – which is white and so the audience can tell that she is a zombie.

17.

Close-Up, showing that they think that she is drunk and that she is just messing about – because of her staggering.

18.

Over the Shoulder Shot, of the girl to illustrate her acknowledgement of them.

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19.

Long Shot, of them laughing at her. Although it adds a humorous side to the situation, the audience know of her being a zombie and therefore adds tension because the audience will expect them to be incredibly shocked at why she really is acting like she is.

20a.

Long Shot, to show her starting to advance towards Shaun. Panning back across Shaun’s shoulders (from his left to right). (Direction )

20b.

Mid-Shot, position of shot after panning has finished.

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21.

22.

Similar positioning as previous shot of her, showing her getting closer.23.

A short shot to show their facial expressions slowly changing into a worried look; it makes the audience feel uncomfortable with her behaviour.

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24.

Close-Up of the girl pushing Shaun over. The tension rises for the audience because of the knowledge of danger being present.

25.

Over the Shoulder shot –in order to show Shaun being pushed to the floor.26.

The angle of this shot (slightly tilted downwards) enables the audience to gain the full view of his expression and feel more involved in the narrative.

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27.

The reason for breaking down and analysing this shot scene was to enable me to know of the different cinematography that can be used in order to create an eerie mood about the scene and generate tension just by the distance and angle of the shot. I can use some of the techniques (such as the panning over the shoulder of the persona) in my opening scene in order to build the tension and use the close-up shots as well as the long and mid-shots in order to pick out the characters expressions towards each other. This scene didn’t last for very long and included twenty-seven different shots – this amount of shots were used because the faster the pace of shots, the higher the tension created and keeps the audience interested in the narrative (which is a regular cinematography effect used by the director (Edgar Wright) of this film and also the film Hot Fuzz (2007).

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