Evaluation

Zombies are now appearing everywhere in main stream media however some of their finer aspects have been forgotten and their use as a political tool to make statements is all but forgotten as Hollywood blockbusters take over the Zombie genre. Despite its money and power Hollywood  doesn't control all of the Zombie media, Zombies have always been popular with independent film makers using low budgets to attack a fun and playful genre. It all began with one of my favourite films Night of the Living Dead (1968 George A Romero (1)) which has inspired many films over many years and has birthed the modern zombie movie. However the genre has become stale in the past dying out in the 90's specifically. However the zombie has re emerged in his paper Dead Man Still Walking: A Critical Investigation Into the Rise and Fall...and Rise of Zombie Cinema (2) Kyle Bishop attributes this to survivalist similarities in zombie films being similar to natural disasters and terrorism. Bishop's essay on Zombie's re emergence makes a strong argument for the importance and relevance of zombie films and convinced me that they are still worth making if a fresh angle can be found.

One of the biggest questions I came across whilst researching zombies is "what do zombies represent?" The answer seems to be pretty much anything, and it really varies depending on the film itself. The "Godfather" of the zombie film George Romero has said in interviews "to me, the zombies have always just been zombies" (3) so maybe they are not always encoded representations but the infected, dirty mass is always decoded as the different, the other, whether it be the poor, the black, the Vietnamese or women. There are plenty of interesting representations but to me and it seems Romero, the interesting thing about zombie films is the way the humans act in crisis. However the problem with the survivors in zombie films is that they are the protestation and they are the heroes, the white knights saving the world, to me a more interesting direction for zombie films is to make a Zombie the hero. This relieves the spectator of the need to identify with the survivors and vilify the zombies therefore seeing the humans as evil murderers.

This idea was inspired by two main films and influenced by many, of course the first film maker to view the zombie as a sympathetic character was George A Romero himself in Day of the Dead (1985 Romero (4)). In this film one zombie, Bub, is being taught to remember his humanity, to read and listen to music as he once did. Professor Logan is his teacher and he gives him parts of humans as positive re enforcement however when the antagonist of the film, the totalitarian military dictator Captain Rhodes, finds out he kills Professor Logan. In retaliation when the zombies break out Bub shoots Captain Rhodes and leaves him to be eaten. Romero uses a few techniques to make Bub a sympathetic character, firstly he suggests that he remembers and is diffrent to other zombies, he is unique, apart from the mass. Then he has Bub act out of emotion, this is shown by his use of a gun rather than him eating Rhodes, he does is not for food but for revenge. Finally he has Bub defeat the overall antagonist of the film further pushing him towards being the hero of the film. Romero plays with the idea of sympathetic zombies again in Land of the Dead (2005 Romero (5)) in which the zombies have a leader as do the rebellious humans. In this film the villain is again a dictatorship however it is built on a corrupt capitalism on a protected island, in the end the leader of the rebel and the leader of the zombies share a look and settle differences deciding to coexist rather than fight. Whilst these zombies are not particularly sympathetic they definitely aren't evil, they are just another group of "different" people. In Romero's most recent zombie film Survival of the Dead (2009 Romero (6)) tackles the idea that killing zombies could be wrong as in the future zombieism could be cured, as well as the idea that if forced zombies will eat something other than humans.

The other main inspiration was Colin (Marc Price (7)) which centres around a zombie named Colin. Obviously the film is from his point of view and is therefore a massive inspiration however one of the main techniques it uses to get the audience to sympathise is showing him in his human form and this is something I would rather not do. It does however follow the conventions of Day of the Dead by showing him as different to other zombies, he also doesn't kill humans, he merely eats those that are dying. Finally he remembers his humanity in some subtle ways. From Colin and Day of the Dead some clear conventions are shown and if used and repeated I believe it is possible to make a heroic identifiable zombie. I searched through the internet to find other zombie films that feature zombie heroes and came across the comical parody Fido (2006 Andrew Currie(8)) which also follows many of the conventions set by Day of the Dead as well as comically following conventions of animal films such as Lassie in Lassie Comes Home (1943 Fred M. Wilcox (9)) to make Fido the zombie seem like a loving companion and father figure.

I then began to plan my actual film and which sequence I would show, I wanted to pick a specifically important scene and the one I decided on is an essential turning point of the film and possibly the final scene. I thought an extremely simple but unused idea or a zombie film or a scene within one would be the question "what if a zombie doesn't want to eat a particular person?" Through this question and the conventions I have recognised throughout the other zombie films I have seen that relate to my own I crafted my proposal for my scene along with a rough plot for a full film. After writing this and discussing it, it seemed obvious that my film hinges on identification and it would therefore be a useful exercise to look back at Laura Mulvey seminal text "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (10). I wanted to read Mulvey's essay to both find new themes to write into my film and to find ways of increasing the identification with Andy, my zombie, made by the audience. Although I struggled to find much to help with the identification side of things, as it seems I naturally wrote most of that in, I did find some interesting themes to inlay about the gaze. The most interesting thing I found was Mulvey's statement about Hitchcock whom she said "uses the process of identification normally associated with ideological correctness and the recognition of established morality and shows up its perverted side." What I wish to do fits this in some ways, firstly I am showing the perverted side of those who the audience would normally identify with, the survivors. Secondly I am showing an internal struggle through Andy as he decides whether to eat Sarah or not the audience clearly will him not to as they wish him to be the hero however the struggle mimics that of the audience as he fails to resist this inevitably upsets the audience and shows the darker side of identification. There is also the morale question of whether I should use Sarah or not, she will clearly be an object of "scopophillia" and the metaphor of hunger and sexual lust isn't particularly difficult to make. Despite the fact that some may see the use of her character as a tool to make the audience identify with Andy as ultimately objectifying her I personally see it as a story telling technique not a political statement. I am strongly aware of the possibility to use the zombie film as a feminist statement as Stephen Harper believes Romero does as explained in "They're US": Representations of Women in George Romero's 'Living Dead' Series"(11) and I plan on replicating one of the shots most talked about in this article. The shot in question is the female character of Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1976 Romero (12)) sits on the floor staring at a zombie on the opposite side of the glass to her. This shows many things specifically in Dawn of the Dead it links to the heroines pregnancy as well as consumerism and feminism. In my film it will serve both thematic and narrative purposes by strengthening the relationship between Andy and Sarah and hinting at subtexts about patriarchal male society and zombies possibly being a representation of oppressed women.

Throughout the workshops I have learned a great many things to help me through the process of planning, shooting and post production. One of the most important things that came out of our production lessons and from our overall process was the importance of everyone involved understanding the basic feeling and aims of the film. Although this seems obvious as an amateur film maker it isnt something I had strictly considered before however in the future I will ensure that everyone involved in the process has a good idea of what the finished product should be. I also learned a lot about planning productions, whilst I wan't the production manager on my shoot I saw a lot of ways it could have been improved and will in the future make sure all shoots are carefully planned. Specifically the number of people on set is to be kept a minimum to reduce confusion, to do this I will ensure that all of my shoots there are areas for non essential crew to stay. One of the most surprising things I learned was how easy it is to make a realistic looking set, whilst the majority of my film will be shot outside I will consider any inside shots being done on sets as they are easy to manipulate and light whilst being affordable and dress-able.

Throughout the course I have also learned a lot about visual special effects, both practical effects and computer generated. For the first time ever I used a green screen, Maya, and Adobe After Effects. These tools are extremely useful for creating fantastic elements though a long process rather than an expensive process. In my proposal I have mentioned a few effects firstly zombies feasting, this is something I have plated with before and seems to be fairly easy to do in a practical manner with cooked animal parts and strawberry sauce, I think using computer effects for this would be over complicated. However computer effects will be perfect for my other visual effect, gunshots. I have not experimented with gunshots on Maya or After Effects before but have looked online at some helpful tutorials and am sure that with some practice a believable effect would be achievable. Another visual I am interested in exploring through the use of green screens or green socks is the removal of zombies limbs, I think that with a locked off shot and a considered simple background the effect is easily achievable and worth experimenting with as it has become a zombie convention.

I believe that my proposal is well thought out and placed within the context of my research which shows the gap in the market my film has the potential to fill. I have also shown well that I have considered the deeper meanings within my proposal and have read texts that relate to them. My learning throughout the module has helped both the planning of my proposal and the planning for actually filming. The ideas and concepts for the use of computer generated effects would not have been possible without the sessions which have informed my visual ideas. I hope in the future to be able to produce this sort of film with considered background and planning and carefully informed narratives.


1. Night of the Living Dead, Dir. Romero G., 1968, USA Image Ten, Laurel Group

2. Explaining the Zombie Renaissance: Dead Man Still Walking: A Critical Investigation Into the Rise and Fall...and Rise of Zombie Cinema p17-25, Bishop Kyle, 2009, The University of Arizona

3. Eric Spitznagel. (2010). George A. Romero: "Who Says Zombies Eat Brains?". Available: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/05/george-romero. Last accessed 20/12/12.
4. Day of the Dead, Dir. Romero G., 1985, USA.  Laurel Entertainment Inc.

5. Land of the Dead, Dir. Romero G., 2005, USA.  Universal Pictures.

6. Survival of the Dead, Dir. Romero G., 2009, USA  Blank of the Dead Productions

7. Colin Dir. Price M., 2008, UK. Nowhere Fast Productions

8. Fido Dir. Currie A., 2006, Canada,  Lions Gate Films

9. Lassie Comes Home Dir. Wilcox F., 1943, USA,  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

10. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (1975) Mulvey L. Originally Published - Screen 16.3 Autumn 1975 pp. 6-18. Available http://imlportfolio.usc.edu/ctcs505/mulveyVisualPleasureNarrativeCinema.pdf) Last accessed 15.12.12

11. Stephen Harper. (). "They’re Us": Representations of Women in George Romero’s ‘Living Dead’ Series. Available: http://intensities.org/Essays/Harper.pdf. Last accessed 20/12/12.

12. Dawn Of the Dead Dir. Romero G., 1978, USA, Laurel Group