18.10.2014
Dawn Of the Dead
Unlike Spiderman, the opening title sequence to Dawn of the Dead is a lot more complex as it doesn't only consist of music and a simple idea, but it has an over voice and lots of different frames within it.
The sequence beings with an image of birds flying out of some stress, the birds initially create a peaceful and calm environment, but the flying away could indicate that they are trying to get away from something.
Then some very eerie music kicks in the shot cuts to a black background with the words 'Universal Pictures presents' in the right hand corner. The text then appears to turn into streams of blood as Cooper moves onto the next short image of a group of people praying. From both the music and the blood the audience is able to tell that the film is probably going to be some sort of horror.
This idea is then further clarified as after the next bit of text there are sudden scary photos that pop onto the screen, supposedly trying to make the audience jump. After the title of the film comes and then turns into 'blood', there is a loud screen and then a voice over of a bunch of people asking questions such as 'is it a virus?' As the questions continue more and more shot clips continue to appear on the screen of, what we now presume could only be a 'zombie'.
As the sequence goes on, it suddenly cuts to quite upbeat music, completely juxtaposing the images, and short films that are appearing on the screen. These include things such as, news casts talking about the epidemic, shots of people screaming, and more images of the 'zombies'. One of the main images that repeats itself is an image of a cell mutating, thus suggesting how the 'virus' is spreading. Cooper has cleverly decided to add what could only be explained as the image of a TV cutting out between each of the short clips to show how everything is turning into chaos.
At the very end there is a clip of a news anchor reporting on what is going on, and then in th background we see army men get attacked by the 'zombies'. The screen then fades to black and with it the revelation 6:8 is being spoken, a religious addition to what has been going on in the rest of the sequence, people praying for some help, no hope.
Revelation 6:8
'And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.'