Exploring title sequences in Dawn of the Dead

1. Exploring title sequences in Dawn of the Dead
Joshua Parkinson

2. How are the titles edited with music/sound/shot
types?
The film opens with ‘Universal Pictures presents’ in the bottom right hand corner of the
screen, it is in red bold font to possibly enforce the idea of blood being common in the film.
You can hear non-diegetic music playing, a sort of hum, this emits an early tension in only
the first few seconds of the opening. You then hear more noise, this time the sound of
squelching, it sounds like blood is pouring out of a wound. The audience then notices that
the Universal Pictures title is now being washed off as if it was blood, this links with the
squelching sound, once again, this hints to the audience that blood is going to be a strong
plot point in this film. The whole opening consists of a montage of different clips of disasters
occurring whether they're on news reports or what seems to be filmed on bystanders
cameras. The titles of people involved in the film are then intwined into this montage in the
same blood red font and then being washed off the screen, this technique of washing the
font off like it’s blood is there to enforce the fact of blood and gore is going to be common
throughout the duration of the film. It also leaves an unpleasant feeling in the audiences gut
since the effect of the blood washing off the screen doesn't look very pleasing to the eye.
After, the initial title of ‘Dawn of the Dead” is displayed on the screen, roughly 20 seconds
later an iconic Johnny Cash song rolls. It is a rather upbeat tune, this makes for an ironic rest
of the opening since, the montage is displaying death and disaster, yet a very happy, catchy
song is playing in the background as you hear peoples screams of death and despair.

3. How do the titles reflect the
narrative/themes/genre of the Film?
I believe the titles reflect the whole film in general perfectly, the whole
montage basically tells the audience what there in for before they
even watch the film. The sudden cuts to a zombie struggling in a
medical bed immediately tell the audience that this film is about some
sort of zombie apocalypse/disaster. Also the effect of the red font
washing off the screen imply that the film is a zombie film since the
colour obviously represents blood and possibly danger since red is a
colour normally associated with danger and zombies are seen as very
dangerous and lethal characters in films. The theme of violence is
also made apparent in the opening sequence, the montage playing
consists of lots of clips of aggressive looking rioters, this tells the
audience that the film will most likely contain a lot of violence since
there a couple of clips shown in the montage that demonstrate this
violence.

4. How is music and sound used in the film
opening?
Personally I think both the music and sound in the opening sequence to Dawn of
the Dead are great. The diegetic sound of the zombie making loud, sharp noises
such as the deafening screeches makes the audience feel uncomfortable. This is
because, unpleasant sounds make the audience feel out of their comfort zone
since they aren't very pleasing to the ear. These types of noises are very common
in zombie films, so the screeching is a genre signifier to the audience. The
soundtrack playing in the opening sequence is “The man comes around” by
Johnny Cash, despite the song being very upbeat and making the opening rather
ironic as I already mentioned. The song is actually rather dark in terms of the
lyrics, I don't fully understand what the song is about, but there are a couple of
lines which seem quite sinister for example “There's a man going around taking
names, and he decides who to free and who to blame, everybody won't be
treated all the same”. This particular line caught my eye, because it represents
the whole concept of zombies in a way and Dawn of the Dead is all about
zombies, some people will become infected and some won’t, very similar to that
one line in the Johnny Cash song.

5. What iconography is used and how is it used to
develop genre?
The iconography seen in the Dawn of the
Dead title sequence is that of every typical
zombie/horror film, lots of explosions and
tension shown in the form of violence from
the rioters in the montage. Also, there is a
large amount of blood and gore shown in
the title sequence, this plays a big part of
iconography since it is very common is
zombie/horror films.

6. How is the narrative established?
The audience can immediately assume that from just the title of the film
that it is going to be about death and most likely the rising of the dead
since the title has the world ‘dawn’ in it. The story isn't fully made clear
in the opening, but the audience can assume it is about zombies and a
possible disaster/apocalypse occurring due to the clips shown
throughout the montage of explosions and constant rioting. The
audience also gets an idea of the film being about disaster through the
news report that rolls about 10 seconds in the title sequence, it shows a
man of some sort of authority giving no answers to important questions
like “is the disease airborne”. This once again injects a feeling of
discomfort into the audience since it shows that disaster is imminent and
even the highest level of authority doesn't know what to except or how
to deal with it the disaster that is on their hands. If I had to sum up the
story in one sentence from just watching the title sequence it would be:
‘World is on the bridge of zombie apocalypse”.

7. Does the film opening contain enigma codes?
The title sequence contains a few enigma codes, such
as:
• What is this ‘disease’?
• Why are there rioters?
• Why is there so much carnage?
• Why are there zombies?
All of these enigma codes combined create questions in
the audiences head and give reason for the audience to
watch the entirety of the film.