Basic outline for Zombie Study

Zombies are a big topic, there are a lot of films to cover and a lot of themes and areas to explore so I am going to split it into weeks. I have also recently found a few useful academic texts, firstly "Generation Zombie: Essays on the living dead in modern culture" Edited by Stephanie Boluk and Wylie Lenz which seems to offer a large number of interesting essays, secondly "Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance." by Kyle Bishop and finally for now "Back from the Dead" by Kevin J Wetmore Jr which is a look at remakes of the classic Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero) as reflections of their times.

Some of the area I wish to cover are:

The history and origins of Zombie films.

The horror of Zombies.

How much money zombie films earn in relation to other films of the year.

Zombie's as consumers

Zombie films as reflections of their time

I cant think of much more right now but I'm going to start with the origins and history of Zombie films very soon.

Change of Topic!!

I had decided to be studying time travel films  but had not quite decided the angle or any specific films I wanted to look at. In the last two weeks I have been trying really hard to get enthusiastic about the research I have been dong but honestly none of it has excited me.

I have therefore decided to change my research project to something that I am currently more interested in. And like they often do, Zombies have infected this piece of work and shall be the topic of my research!

I have studied Zombie films before but in a limited way. In the past I looked at the social commentary within George A Romero's Zombie trilogy (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead). This time I intend to cover a lot of ground from the development of zombie movies, to unique approaches, to the way different forms of media use zombies. I am much more excited about this work and will be reading lots of material soon!

Week 1 Research begins!

We have finally begun Creative Project Realisation, I wasn't sure exactly what it would entail but today we got a full rundown of the course and the briefs we would have to complete. What exactly are we doing? We begin by researching a topic or theme that we are personally interested in with the aim to become a complete expert. Whilst doing this in our spare time we will also be doing group projects that will teach us the basics of almost every roll of production, from the physical filming side that we have experience in, to the after effects I know nothing about. This will give us the knowledge we need when at the end of the semester we write a short film informed by the teaching and do a 5 minute presentation on how we would get our short film through production. Sounds fun right? Yeah... the only question is, what should I research???

So at the moment I'm thinking Time Travel! I have done studies on Science Fiction before but thats one big genre, now I am thinking specifically about time travel, there is a vast wealth of material on Time travel including film, television, books, art, plays and even philosophy. So there are a lot of things based on or about time travel, thats one reason for doing it, another is my personal interest, its a wicked subject, confusing and mind boggling for sure but how different forms of media tackle the complications of time travel is just one of many interesting discussions about time travel I wish to consider and study with the aim of creating something unique and interesting at the end of the study.

Our group project has already begun, with the study being pre prepared as the Uncanny which nicely links into studies I have done before on Freud, Todorov and Horror so I think I know what roughly is being asked of us... In our 5 person group we have each come up with a short story within the parameters set (gushing blood, fire and the uncanny) and are meeting up next week to discuss who's idea to go with. My idea is that a scientist creates a clone who comes to life to kill and replace his creator, stabbing the scientiist in the throat the clone assumes control and completely removes his creators existence by burning his body to a crisp. Im not sure who's idea we will go with but mine fits all the parameters so its a possibility for sure.

All there is to do now is start researching!

(Image from http://i2.cdnds.net/12/15/618x330/movies_10_classic_time_travel_films_7.jpg The Terminator 1984 James Cameron)