Monday, 13 February 2017

Zombieland (2009)


INTRODUCTION

       Zombieland is a movie which released on year 2009. It actually is an American zombie horror film directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. This Zombieland film was a critical and commercial success, grossing more than $60.8 million in 17 days and surpassing the 2004 film “Dawn of the Dead” as the top grossing zombie film in the United States until World War Z in 2013.



THEORY TO BE DISCUSSED
         First of all, the main theory to be discussed is the Semantic Approach. The Semantic Approach brought out the meaning of the list of common traits and attitudes, characters, shows, locations, sets and so on which bringing very much the visual aspects of the film. In another word to describe the Semantic is the Visual. In fact, the semantic approach can be related to the mise-en-scene. Furthermore, the particulars which included in mise-en-scene are the locations or settings, makeup and costume, lighting and actor’s behavior and movement. As Zombieland film is a horror film, so the semantic approach theory is quite related to this film.


SYNOPSIS:
         The world’s surviving humans remain locked in an ongoing battle against the hungry undead after a virus turns more people into zombies. The four survivors who are Tallahassee and his companions Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock comply with a list of survival rules and zombie-killing strategies as they make their own way toward a rumored safe haven in Los Angeles. It focuses on how the survivors found the way to survive a world overrun by zombies. And the fear of survivors who afraid to be eaten by the zombies also a way that keep them alive.


ANALYSIS OF THIS FILM

1.   GENRE OF THIS FILM

  

           
          This Zombieland film actually is a horror film which counted as one of the major genres. The horror genre film have categorized into few sub genres which are the unnatural, the psychological and the massacre or slasher flicks. In fact, this Zombieland film is under the unnatural category due to this film was included the bodily mutilations form. Bodily mutilations form can be define as an injury that causes disfigurement or other important body part. In addition, there is one of the items which fall under the bodily mutilations such as blood suckers. As we know that the zombie can be called as the blood suckers. Furthermore, this Zombieland film is not only a horror film but it also added in a few genres such as the adventure and the comedy. As an example in this film, the world is full of zombies and the four survivors had gone through an adventure experience as they have to kill all the zombies to survive. And all along this Zombieland film, there are plenty of rules which created by Columbus to stay alive in the world that full of zombies such as rules 4# fasten your seatbelt, rules 2# double tap and so on are also bring out the comedy genre programme. When the horror, adventure and also the comedy genre were combined together in this film, it means that this film is a hybrids and genre mixing which make the film content and narrative more interesting.


2.   SEMANTIC APPROACH 

          As this Zombieland film, in order to bring out the zombies character, the bodily mutations and mutilations for example like the zombie’s make up really needed the makeup artist who are familiar with the zombie’s makeup techniques so that can make the zombie’s character look more real. Not only this, the lighting also need to adjust well so that it really can bring out the horror film feel towards the audiences. For example, from the beginning of this film, where the Columbus was in the public toilet, and the lighting inside the public toilet was not that bright as well so that can make the audiences feel scare in this kind of setting. This kind of lighting would actually provide a horror atmosphere. Furthermore, the behavior of the four survivors also changed as well. This is because they had gone through the zombies-killing journey and end up they became good friends. For instance, the Wichita and Little Rock (the both siblings) had lied to the Columbus and Tallahassee. The both siblings were confiscate the weapons and car of Columbus and Tallahassee and it make the both guy angry. But all along the journey, they met up and gone through all the zombies-killing experience, end up they became partners.


3.   DIEGETIC/ NON-DIEGETIC MATERIALS 

       Diegetic materials is a sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film such as the voices of characters, sounds made by objects in the story and so on (Carlsson, S.E. (n.d.)). In another word, we can said that diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film’s world. For instance, Columbus and Little Rock turn on the screen and watch the “Ghostbuster”. Whereas for the non-diegetic sound, it’s represented as coming from the source of the outside story space such as narrator’s commentary, mood music and so on (Carlsson, S.E. (n.d.)). For example, the Columbus did not really voice out his word but as like a narrator’s voice when he talk about the rules of stay live from being eat by zombies. This kind of sound was actually only heard by the audiences.


CONCLUSION 

     As a conclusion, semantic theory and other point as above mentioned somehow really do make the film become more interesting and also do play an important role in making film as well. I suggested that the future’s film should continue with this hybrid and genre mixing way so that the film will become more and more interesting and can attract lots of audiences. 


REFERENCE

Carlsson, S. E. (n.d.). Diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm     
 





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