Textual Analysis of World War Z

In the world of filming, everything happens for a reason. The shots that are used in the film are used  to portray specific emotions and make the audience feel said emotions. 

for a quick look of how good editing is used in a zombie film, I watched the opening scene of World War Z to see how they portrayed the outbreak. I can see after watching the 6 minute shot that insanely close/fast editing was used to show the true chaos of the outbreak. Below I will add the opening scene and bullet point what is going on in this 6 minute clip to show just how action packed and how much editing has been done  just in this not so simple 6 minute clip.

• Starts with a tilt camera looking at the long traffic block in Philadelphia
• Sound bridge from end of tilt scene to Shot Reverse Shot scene in car
• Match on action with the children whispering to each other
• Shot Reverse Shot filmed from over the shoulder and from 4 different characters
• Shot of them talking from outside the car, looking through the windshield (hearing the sound of inside the car)
• Average Family playing a guessing game
• Shots showing the helicopter through the sun roof, the taxi pulling out of the lane, people running and Match On Action of BP turning on the radio
• Characters confused at whats going on moves with traffic
• See cop bike coming
• Match on Action of bike Hitting of the Side Mirror
• Same camera from original Tilt Scene shows the Cop Bike continuing down the road with sirens on
• Characters are confused and disgusted at the cop
• Shot Reverse Shot between BP and a taxi driver, emphasising that no-one (but the police) actually know what is going on.
• Explosion, makes character flinch
• Turns to look where it came from, scene cuts to the explosion down the road
• People Start screaming and running away
• Shaky Cam from a civilians point of view looking around, at the explosion and the people running and screaming (shows tension and that action is about to come)
• BP gets back into car as another Cop (on a bike) tells him to.
• Cop on bike says "Remain in your Veh-" then gets hit by a truck which continues to ram through all of the cars in front of it (You can hear the truck hit the cop on the bike as if the audio was captured outside even though you hear the cop through the glass as if you were in the inside)
• Main Characters are Mortified, The younger child is on the verge of crying and the Older one is scared
• BP follows the truck as it has paved a way through the traffic, action music starts
• Match On Action of the truck drivers boot stuck on accelerator
• Multiple types of shots used to show the truck crashing through cars and the Main Characters tailing behind it
• Tilt/Tracking camera follows the truck through the highway from above the traffic
• Over the Shoulder shot of a civilian recording the truck crashing through the traffic cowering behind a corner
• Scene swaps to inside the car, The younger child cries "I want my blanket" (midway through talking, over the shoulder shot used  to show BP's Expression as he follows the truck)
•  Camera swaps to be in the middle of the children and turns to the mother as she looks behind to say that it is packed away and they will get it as soon as possible
• Shot Switches to the statue watching the Truck collide with another large truck, falling over
• Scene swaps midway to a shot between the children and match on action of the child being even more scared crying for her blanket again. (shot between children shows the truck falling over from where it swapped in the previous scene
• Match on Action of the Older Child sitting on the floor of the back of the car rather than sitting in her seat
• Camera swaps to BP swerving (seen by him moving the steering wheel violently), cuts to a shot outside of the car seeing it swerving
• Fast cuts empathising that they are going fast.
• Cuts to inside the car of the Mother and BP asking the Older child to get back into her seat and do up her seat belt
• Insisting that she does it, collides with a moving Ambulance hitting them from the side
• Fast edits showing that they were hit hard
• Airbags inflate
• Ringing noise with more fast cuts between shots suggests it hurt the characters
• Music and every other sound stops, cannot hear the people screaming, only the ringing
• Hear the Characters inside the car ask each other if they are okay in the background of the ringing noise fading
• Cut to outside shot, still ringing but the civilians screaming and running can be heard again
• Shot sees the main characters get out of the car, still overwhelmed from the crash and the previous moments, Sirens can be heard
• Cops can be seen in between the civilians trying to calm the situation down
• Match On Action of a camper van stopping and the driver getting out to run away (noticed by BP)
• More shots of the civilians running away from above

At this point we are only 3 minutes and 37 seconds into the scene and this has all happened, This is just a quick bullet point list, not even going into detail what is fully happening. This just shows how much is actually in this scene, this scene is so in depth that it just shows the sporadic nature of the entire scene. This scene shows the true chaos of the situation.


One interesting fact I found out about this scene is that this was actually filmed in Glasgow to portray Philadelphia. This shows how film directors make one place seem like another because of the weather, the people on the scene and  how they use special effects to recreate the city. One more point to add is that the cars in the scene are all left hand drive just like America whereas Glasgow is Right Hand Drive.

I think that bullet pointing what is actually happening in the scene has truly helped me envision what it would take to make a scene like this, it would take weeks (Now I can understand why it takes so long for films to actually be edited). This has helped me take into consideration what it takes to make a chaotic scene just like this. Personally, for my opening scene I will not be adding a chaotic scene to the scale of this as I do not feel like it would fit my movie although I do like the sporadic nature of the scene itself, an idea I may take forward into my own opening scene if I can properly implement it.


Now I will go more in depth into my textual analysis, the genre,audience and the narrative  of the movie.


Genre And Audience

The Genre of the world war Z film?
After extensively binge watching  "World War Z", it is safe to say that "WWZ" Falls under many genres including:

• Action
• Horror
• Science Fiction
• Drama
• Adventure
• Zombie

I would say "World War Z" falls under these genres as it is a story set in the start of a zombie apocalypse where  Gerry Lane must travel the world to transport a young scientist who could possibly make a cure. He ends up dying and it is left down to Gerry Lane.

The film is based off of a novel that was released in 2006 A comment that has been noted on the site "RottenTomatoes" is that  the film is "uneven and diverges from the source book, but World War Z still brings smart, fast-moving thrills and a solid performance from Brad Pitt to the zombie genre. This was written before Films like "Zombieland" was released and before the hit zombie show "The Walking Dead". So the only inspiration for the book are the makes of "28 days later", "Dawn of the Dead","Evil Dead" and "Resident Evil".

A theme which I have found common in Zombie films/TV shows is the need to cure the zombie virus and to rebuild the world. The zombies found in "WWZ" definitely takes inspiration from the zombies in 28 days later as the type of zombie used in the film are the fast running, infected zombies.

There are many types of zombies found in the genre. The Generic Zombie is a person who has been killed and reanimated by a virus, they are usually aggressive and are seen to be extremely curious, examining light.

Another Zombie is the Runner Zombie. These are the bigger threat of the two because they, well, run. They are technically living infected but are still a form of zombies, something close to what we see in "WWZ"

As for the Audience, the target audience for a movie like this is generally for "older" audiences, I say this because most Zombie films are initially targeted for adults however World War Z was given a 15. I would like to point out that gore was not a major part of this movie, only being seen a few times in the movie (like when the young scientist shoots himself in the head because he slipped and squeezed the trigger). Due to this lack of gore in a zombie movie, I think this film caters for the older teenagers too, trying to pull a new generation of movie-goers to be enticed into the world of the zombie genre.


Narrative 

As for the narrative, the movie starts in a world where the zombie outbreak is about to show itself to the world. Gerry Lane, a former UN Investigator, finds himself traffic in Philadelphia,America. News of a weird case of "Rabies" spreading across Asian countries like Taiwan. Helicopters are seen flying over the traffic all in a specific direction. No one seems to know the true horror that is about to reach them just a few minutes later. It all starts with police driving between the traffic trying to get to a specific point when an explosion happens. Infected people run down the road killing and infecting everyone in their path causing the Main Character, Gerry lane, takes a caravan that has just been abandoned by its driver to distance themselves from the onslaught. They make there way to an apartment building where they are saved by the UN and taken aboard a military Vessel. Shortly after he is asked to transport a scientist to the outbreaks "Ground Zero" in the hopes to find a cure for the virus.

The Way this story plays out is great, it flows so well together although it does go down a path I do not want to do, the Film is driven about finding a cure for the virus whereas for my personal film, I would just be a survivor in the apocalypse. It is the route that would be the most realistic, at least for myself anyway.