Group Shaun of the Dead Close Reading

The first 4min of shaun of the dead.The opening scene starts off with music that sounds scary but has a twist of comedy so your not sure whats going to happen. The screen becomes blank and the music builds up and up like something interesting is going to happen, but you hear a bell ring and theres a medium close up of shaun looking bored and taking a sip of his beer. Hes in his own little world,just daydreaming so it builds up to nothing at all just a boring character who has no life. After the basic intro in the Winchester, the camera starts to play a ‘bouncy – horror’ type music. This music lets the audience realize the movie is a comedy. The continuation of the intro shows the audience the scenery of the town, so that they can get a general idea of the area.Liz starts to confront Shaun, he shifts his focus to her but still sits looking blankly and using minimal responses. Liz asks “do you see what I’m saying?” Shaun clearly hasn’t been paying attention and simply says “yeah”. Already in this first 40 seconds we have a good insight to Shaun’s life. He is just a simple guy who has problems in his life and would rather ignore them at the pub then solve them. The lighting of the scene is Bright in the for ground and dark in the back. This is used to just show what is needed and nothing extra in the background. The charactors faces are well light so you can see all of there expressions and manorisms, especially Shaun as he is the most important.
After the opening 'Bar scene' it cuts to the opening credits with this strange circusy type music playing. The camera pans across a supermarket showing the workers looking quite a lot like zombies the shot then changes to a view of a bus stop with several men texting on their phones in a uniformed way. The shot changes once more to a group of 'Hoodies' doing a strange dance in an alley then changes again to a view of Shaun's house where a young teen plays hackey with a soccer ball. The scene ends with Shaun's feet stumbling out of bed in a sluggish manner.

Shaun of the Dead Close Reading

The first 4min of shaun of the dead.
The opening scene starts off with music that sounds scary but has a twist of comedy so your not sure whats going to happen. The screen becomes blank and the music builds up and up like something interesting is going to happen, but you hear a bell ring and theres a medium close up of shaun looking bored and taking a sip of his beer. Hes in his own little world,just daydreaming so it builds up to nothing at all just a boring character who has no life. So you see shaun and his girlfriend talking about how their relationship is at, just going to the winchester every night. The expressions are still captured with a medium close-up, but they don't start off both in the same shot.
You hear the bell ring again and you can see on shauns table they have been there the whole night because there were beer glasses everywhere, which is shown by a medium shot next to his girlfriend. As they get closer talking to each other and ever so boring, theres a cut to a close-up of shaun and his girlfriend, but shows shuns best friend ed playing video games and commenting to himself how much he sucks every time shaun has a quick break from talking. From looking at eds clothes and the way he speaks and his body language no one likes him and he doesn't have a job. As we also listen in the bar its got that boring music which sets the scene for shaun. Humour is added when ed speaks in such rude comments like when he finishes his game.
Ed gets some money out which cuts to a close-up of the coins coming out of the machine, he then comes over to shaun and his girlfriend. This cuts to a high angle wide so you can see shaun, his girlfriend, people in the bar and shauns girlfriends friends sitting way over on another table trying to join in with the conversation because there so bored after what seems like forever.(this is shown as a wide shot with them sitting next to each other, which shows they must know each other quite well. Quick cut to a high angle of ed looking at shaun and his girlfriend, then a quick cut to a low wide angle from the table in between the glasses. Ed makes a rude comment " do any of you c**ts want a drink" towards shaun and his girlfriend with a high angle. This shows ed is very annoying. A medium shot looking at shaun again, then ed throws a packet of peanuts at his face, which makes a laugh, but not to ed as if he always does that. Shaun eats his peanuts with a depressed face trying to concentrate on what his girlfriend is saying. The surrounding sounds get weaker and shaun goes back into his own world again.

This scene is started the same and ended the same but with the shot coming out of his face at the start and going towards him at the end. The scene also starts and ends with shaun drifting off into his own world. Even though this starter scene is boring with comedy it actually tells you a lot about each character that spoke. From looking at their expressions body language and how they are dressed you can see how the characters each have their own unique personality's and styles. The scene also shows how boring, lazy and stupid shaun and ed are and how their relationships don;t work with people.

Shaun of the Dead Review

I just finished watching shaun of the dead at school for media studies and it was surprisingly quite funny! but it had too much bad language but I guess that made it funny and thats what the characters are meant to act like. Great actors! some of the funniest british comedian actors around which made it more exciting than the story. I found the story and movie alright, because its a take-off of dawn of the dead, a serious horror movie, but I still reckon the story could have been improved.
Dispite my little disappointment in the story I really found the music, shots and the way everything relates to the characters amazing, just the way everything is connected even though its incredibly stupid. I also found that this a very hard to achieve in such a funny movie which makes fun of a horror film. The way everything is put together so perfectly makes it one to watch and if you enjoy movies like this its worth watching but only if your really interested. I would give it a 5/10 so i liked it a little.
There is many emotion changes throughout the movie, like when shauns family and friends die which is sad but quickly changes to a funny remark or something that leads up to a part that you would never expect, it that fast!. Zombies in the film started early in the movie which made you think, what going to happen next, which give a sense of suspense but the music doesn't show so you expect something hilarious to happen.
What I like about shaun is that his life always resolves at the pub whether hes happy,sad or just trying to get away from zombies, thats how it like at the start and end. The music and sounds try to tell you something exciting might happen, but its just shauns friend ed playing video games and throwing a packet of peanuts at shauns face while shaun talks to his girlfriend. Although these guys don't seem exciting it gets better as the movie goes on and the more they get desperate for help.
Another part of the film is where they are , well ...yes back in the pub fighting zombies where they try come up with everything possible but end up doing the worst. Ed starts playing video games and they start fighting the bar man whos a zombie with pool sticks while the jutebox plays bar music, which makes it incredibly stupid but also very interesting.
I still would have to say that Hot Fuzz made by the same people is far better and far more funny and its 100% original so watch that then this.
This is my review and what I think but always watch the movie before you judge cause you might have a different opinion.

hey its kieran