Our opening explores the social groups of gender and age which were represented through the use of mise en scene, camerawork, editing and sound. We focussed our themes around our niche target audience of males and females aged 15-25 in order to have a greater appeal to them.

​

Through the use of mise en scene, we were able to show a clear difference between our characters. Firstly, through the use of costume and colours, we were able to portray the female characters as being weak and vulnerable. This was done through the use of colours such as pink and white which suggest purity and femininity.  However the use of darker colours in their clothing such as greys and blacks suggests that there is an element of inevitability that something is going to happen to them. The fact that their costumes consisted of very everyday items of clothing makes the characters more relatable to the target audience. In contrast, the male zombie antagonist is shown to be wearing all black, connoting mystery and danger. This also represents the male gender as being more sinister and threatening as he is the only antagonist, therefore making his character seem unapproachable and creating fear for the audience. We choose to have a male antagonist as after doing research into our genre and conducting audience research, we discovered this to be one of the conventions and something preferred by our target audience.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Another way in which differences in gender are shown is through the use of camerawork. The zombie antagonist is shot using pans when his character is first shown which make him appear stronger and more powerful due to the emphasis on his size and the fact that they are slightly low angle shots. This creates an uncomfortable feeling and means that the audience relate this feeling to the male gender, therefore making them feel the same way whenever the character reappears. The girls however are shot using mid shots when they are filming themselves. This emphasises their normality and does not give them any power, making them more vulnerable. It is also noticeable that we never give away the identity of the zombie. This creates an element of mystery as the audience feel distanced from his character. This also makes his character more powerful as it makes him unrecognisable, compared to the girls who always have their faces on camera.

​

Another camerawork technique which makes the girls appear powerless is through the use of the point of view shot as the zombie walks towards the girls. This makes the male zombie appear the more powerful character as at no point do we see exactly what the girls are seeing. This also presents males are more intelligent as he finds the girls before they find him and until he walks towards them, they are oblivious to the fact that he is there. As the zombie is much taller than the girls, the point of view shot also makes the girls look smaller and intimidated by the zombie.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Through the use of editing, we were able to create quick cuts between the girls and the zombie, suggesting that they are getting closer to each other. We were also able to give the girls more screen time, allowing the audience to build more of a connection with them and making later events in the film all the more tragic. By giving the girls more screen time, it meant that more of a normal atmosphere was created, portraying the girls as juvenile and innocent. This is then juxtaposed to the threat of the zombie suggesting that men are more dangerous than women.

​

The use of sound also allowed us to portray different representations of gender through the use of diegetic sound. We added in footsteps and birds to give more of a sense of realism and to emphasise the normality of the setting. We also included dialogue from the girls which again suggests normality but also seems to be reassuring as there doesn’t appear to be and danger approaching. In regards to the zombie, we added in heavy breathing in order to emphasise his character. This suggests to the audience that something is going to happen and makes the audience more fearful of the male character. By including this heavy breathing as background noise in the shots of the girls, this shows that the danger is approaching and makes them seem more at risk. It also emphasises their vulnerability as they appear to be oblivious to it at first before realising what is actually there. We were able to use this same concept after Jess has turned into a zombie by using diegetic sounds of a female zombie. We choose to do this to show the changing of her character and to emphasise that female characters can be just as dangerous.

​

The use of non-diegetic score in our montage creates a feeling of suspense and uncertainty as it is not clear what is going to happen next. When the shot of the young girl appears, the audience are left feeling stunned and confused as the character has not appeared before. We made a conscious decision to use a younger girl as it shows how the apocalypse is affecting everyone. Also, the fact that it is a child makes it even more tragic as children are usually represented as being innocent. The fact that there is no diegetic sound distances the audience from the character, making them feel unsure as they know so little about the character.

The way in which we explored the theme of age is by suggesting that the world is ruled by teens and children. At no point in our opening do we feature any older people. We decided to do this in order to have a greater appeal to our target audience as it meant that the characters would all be more relatable to them. The fact that there is no adult involvement could suggest that they have already been claimed by the apocalypse. This would also create more appeal to the younger audience as it suggests that young people are stronger, therefore empowering them.

​