Colin (2008 Marc Price)

Colin is a low budget indie film by film tutor Marc Price about a zombie called Colin and his stumbling. Reportedly made on only £57 Colin has a few production issues such as the occasional issue with exposure and white balance but in general it is beautifully shot. It is commendable for making the post outbreak world feel so real on such a small budget, you really feel when watching it that the whole of the town and country has been infected and that is a difficult thing to achieve without too many wides. Even more spectacular than the blocking and shots is the story, one that is emotional, well paced and ultimately uplifting?

The film begins with Colin as a human, an important decision as it means the audience can identify with him a little before he becomes a zombie. The opening is a little overexposed as I have previously said but as a camera user I understand why as the shot moves from a dark doorway to a window, I think despite the exposure its the right shot to use, the tracking around as Colin walks past and the close up on the hammer actually brilliantly set the tone for the whole film as far as pacing, shooting and emotion are concerned. Our hero isn't to be a human for long however, Colin has already been bitten giving him a nasty wound on his arm, again this makes you sympathise as an audience member however the slightly cheesey and low quality blood mix virus thing isn't needed. After a brief but amusing battle with his house mate Colin is tired and dying, we see him worsen, get sicker and sicker until his death.

We all know thats not the end though as Colin turns into a Zombie, his rigor mortis breaking fingers crack as he wakes up from death. As an audience we pretty much see him turn, he is under coats I would imagine this little joke was added to lighten Colin's death and in lew of the money needed to do a visual transformation but we basically watch him change and the audience in a way turn with him. We don't get to see his face for a while, an important decision  it makes the audience question how disfigured he will be after his transformation. The first time we do see his face is in a reflection, as Colin sees his face, curious, staring, we see that he isn't that different.

Colin spends his first night as a zombie comically trying to escape his front room, fooled by a door (a long running joke through the film) the transition between night and day is wickedly used and Alistair Kirton's performance as an angry Colin is perfect as he steps back, slips and inadvertently falls out of a window thus escaping the room. He clearly has know idea where to go as he pops up into frame and looks around him with a brilliantly confused expression, this again gets us to like Colin, who as he has only just become a zombie, isn't very good at being a zombie, he isn't scary or a murderer he doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

The next collection of shots, whilst setting the desolate scene of the world show again that Colin isn't all that viscous, firstly he ponders over a yellow lego piece. There are two possibly significant things about this, the first being a link to childhood and the idea that zombie-nes is a regression in the mind, and secondly that the piece is yellow, a reoccurring colour of importance to Colin in the film. He is then knocked to the ground by survivors before being denied a meal by an angry looking female zombie. When Colin finally does get to eat he doesn't actually kill the man he eats, no Colin's victim has fallen from a roof and is dying as Colin begins to eat. Despite his meal finding and the horrific nature of eating humans the guy Colin gets is already on his way out so we don't feel bad for the guy, its not like Colin hunted him down, so Colin is furthered into the audiences hearts once again.

The next slightly comical section makes the audience question how much of his past life Colin remembers, as he pulls off a guys (a guy that is being eaten by someone else so Colin still isnt a killer) ear to eat and ends up with his headphones and mp3 player. The Unfilmable Life of Terry Gilliam is playing on the headphones and Colin listens happily and even picks the headphones back up after his next meal. Obviously the Colin liking music makes the audience smile, the idea that he enjoys something that isnt eating people or remembers something from before give the audience some sort of hope and satisfaction. So when the batteries die and Colin gets mad it is almost impossible not to sympathise with poor Colin.

Another important factor in the likeability of Colin is how the remaining survivors act towards him, this is shown in the next scene where two survivors are looking for zombies to loot and spot Colin's nice shoes. The idea that thieves steal from zombies is brilliant and the way they pin down Colin seems cruel and brutal. However Colin's sister is around and saves Colin from getting cold feet but unfortunately gets bitten in the process. This is the first bit of true back story we get for Colin, we now know that he has a sister that survived, through her the audience can empathise and see the tragedy of Colin becoming a zombie, even zombies have families!

The soundtrack to this film is absolute brilliant and highlights the desolation and isolation in the next section in which Colin simply wonders around, past survivors and buildings, chasing pigeons and just being a nice zombie in general. One of my favourite shots is a wide of Colin who bumbles across the shot before someone runs past him causing him to walk all the way across the screen again who finally decides he isnt going to catch up and turns again to go the way he was. The final of the cutaway style shots of Colin wondering is of him looking up at a road sign that points two ways, this could signify loads, but with its recurrence later the it mainly serves as a plot device.

Colin stumbles across a house under siege (a Romero reference for sure as the upstairs room in the house has a sign saying George's room) and with a video camera an inset narrative of "my awesome zombie movie" can be and is shown. This nice little section seems to show some nice special effects whilst parodying classic horror with its token black and final escaping female. A female which is clad in yellow! Colin follows her to the next location, a dark creepy cellar of a sadistic psycho who cuts up zombies and takes photos, where does he keep these experiments? The cellar! I like that this section shows that zombies aren't the worst things in an outbreak of the virus, it also gives some real creeps a chance to do the kind of things they have always wanted to and sometimes those people are the real monsters, not Colin. It is funny however that Colin doesn't actually come to the rescue of the girl as she is strangled to death but just wonders past, out of the cellar and back into the wider world. This scene basically just shows that not only is Colin not evil but the bad things he does aren't as bad as the things humans do in context, well some of them.

The next scene is one of the biggest plot points as Colin is kidnapped, at first we don't see who by, this bit is very carefully filmed to make us experience the kidnapping in the same way Colin does, with confusion and terror. An absolutely amazing tracking shot takes us into the bathroom Colin is tied up in and through a blood splattered mirror reveals his captor, his sister. Colin is probably his most angriest in this scene, the sheer emotion of the scene between Colin and his sister whilst she tries to make him remember her is brilliant  personally it made me feel sorry for Linda as she is going to become a zombie but more so it made me feel sorry for Colin as we can clearly see how much he has lost since becoming a zombie. The photographs he carries with him show how much he did once care and the shots of the empty bathroom, dripping tap, dangling shoelace (that Colin was tied up with) are the most cinematic of the film and have a sorrowful feeling of loss about them. We next follow Colin in a Hessian bag all the way to his old home and to his mother, who Linda is convinced he will remember. The viewpoint of Colin is the viewpoint of the audience for this whole section from the bag to the kitchen which through glass Colin can see his family, separated from him. His bangs on the glass as he tries to get to them are clearly because he wants to eat them... but visually it is heartbreaking to see him banging on the window, trying to get to all that he has lost, his family and his humanity. The shot is beautifully framed as it ends with him slowly tapping away at the window his arm framed to hug his mother who stands at the window. Also evident at this point is the boyfriend of his sister who clearly dislikes him and is violent towards him, fair enough Colin did bite his girlfriend but in general we as an audience also dislike him. Colin spends the night brainlessly staring at a tv, a quick comment on society?

Colin is no longer alone, his sister is also a zombie, thrown into the room with him and they are hidden behind newspaper articles taped to the windows by their mother. A nice way of getting across some exposition in a highly emotional scene. One might think they are trapped in the house, however Colin's sister has the brain and motor control Colin lacks and opens the doors for him, letting him stumble down the step and back out in the open. Upsettingly Zombies recognise each other even less than zombies recognise humans and the two go their separate ways.

Our final group of survivors, an aggressive mob like group burst onto scene with an explosive, knocking Colin and his fellow horde of zombies down, the ensuing carnage is a little confusing but bloody for sure. The leader of the gang is clear, a hard, solemn looking man wielding a catapult with razor blade ammo, as the chaos of the battle continues he descends on Colin, pulling out a hammer not dissimilar to the hammer Colin once used. Colin is seemingly killed and the group is left to deal with the clean up of the battle, when asked what to do about the people that have been bitten, the leader harshly but simply replies "deal with it". This dark and gritty group of survivors are largely emotionless or just scared (depending on which group member) and whilst they are not demonised their brutal gang killing of those that have been bitten again goes to show that zombies aren't the only threat. Not to mention THEY KILLED COLIN!

Actually they didn't, I don't know how but Colin managed to survive with a half blown off face, and he travels though picturesque snow to a house and inside that house to a sign, yes that very same road sign at which point the story jumps back in time to when Colin was still a human. He berates the girl and owner of the house Laura for leaving the door open ironically saying "if you leave it open one of those thnigs can get in here". They fight off a zombie that was in the upstairs bathroom together but Laura gets bitten, you see her collect some photo's some of which Colin has in the future, and her ring tone is the very same song Colin was listening too as a zombie on the headphones. It is a little unclear whether this was Colin's girlfriend or just a survivor he came across but the YELLOW wearing Laura signifies a lot of the things Colin has pondered over as a zombie. He emotionally holds her as she dies, as she wakes up and after getting bitten holds her down and kills her. This sequence is brilliantly shot and acted and brings a tear to the eye. As he covers her face with her hair the times switch between zombie and non zombie Colin and we see zombie Colin knelt beside the body of Laura, perhaps that was where he was trying to get to the whole time, who knows but you definitely feel there is a good reason he has come here and that he does remember something. To me that is an uplifting end to Zombie Colin's story and as for living Colin, we see him walk back home and as the camera pans up we see his house mate in the window and the circular narrative of Colin is nicely wrapped up.

Colin is an absolutely brilliant film, it manages to get the audience to empathise with Colin and really experience a day in the life of a zombie. This could be boring and slow but its not, its paced perfectly and given enough of a plot to make it truly interesting not only that but its so cleverly written there is character development in Colin without making him some kind of super zombie. Colin follows many zombie conventions but looks at them from the other side of the coin, analysing what it is like to be a zombie, it is an intelligent and sympathetic look at the monsters we think we know so well. The only thing I personally would like to do differently with my own film is to cut out any sections in which we see the zombie before they are infected, I think it will be more of a challenge to get the audience to identify with the character without seeing him as a relatable human

Maya Tutorial

Today we used Maya and much like After effects it is massive and a little overwhelming!  You can practically make whole animated movies on the program it is that immense, which makes it quite difficult to navigate and know what will effect the animation in the way you want it.

The easiest thing we did and I think the only thing I could confidently do again is to change the menu to polygons, make a primitive polygon and maneuver it using the R, W and E keys.We also looked at rendering, saving using fluid containers to create fire and explosions and all sorts of variations but if I wanted to do any of those things again I think looking at online tutorials would be my best bet, my notes make no sense. Again what the session has shown me are the possibilities and the tools that are at our disposal, with the use of animation there are a lot of new creative things that I could do that I am itching to try out and write into scripts.

Fido (2006 Andrew Currie)

Fido is a fantastically funny zombie comedy that is set in suburban America (or Canada, its a Canadian film) set in an alternate 50's in which the humans won the zombie wars and enslave zombies with domestication collars. I didn't expect comedy at all, Fido was not what I was expecting but I was pleasantly surprised.

The film opens with a news informmercial with footage not unlike Night of the Living Dead (1968 Romro) however it quickly deviates, educating the audience in the universe of the film in which radiation created zombies and the founder of omnipotent Zomcon Dr Geiger (which I hope is a reference to H R Giger) created domestication collar's to enslave them. The oversaturated colour palette and white picket fences of the setting immediately signify the American dream and the idealised suburban America that comes along with it. This is a strong theme throughout the film and has many signifiers including the typical atomic family.

The child of the atomic family is our main character, Timmy, a young "weird" boy, bullied by Zomcon cadets and shunned by his parents. As he travels home one of many funny subtle zombie situations occurs, its as simple as a zombie being a lollipop man with a "slow" sign.

Also evident is a subtext of slavery and racism, there is no attempt to hide it, Timmy's mother comes out with some brilliant lines such as "Now we're not the only ones on the street without one" which clearly show the ownership and possession of zombies and how they are a commodity, an accessory to signify wealth and status much like black slaves would have been in America in the 1800's.

The basic storyline of the film is about a typical 50's American atomic family complete with emotional repression and now a zombie! The father is specifically written as a slight antagonist, this leaves the real role of a father open. He is afraid of zombies, god forbid, and dislikes the new family slave/ pet who they chain in the garden. He openly shocks the zombie with a remote, for negative re-enforcement and for fun, his fear turns into anger in a classic display of male emotional repression. This is again apparent in the multiple times he says things like "why are we talking about this? I thought we didn't need to talk about this!". His treatment of his son is awful, funny and over the top, so when the Zomcon bullies attack Timmy again his pet zombie saves him and begins to fill the space of father for Timmy giving his "son" the game of catch he wanted. Well almost, he's not very good. It is at this point he gets a name, I think its extremely important for the audience to have a name for the zombie as it gives him an identity and the name Fido (much like a dogs name) removes element of horror from his character.

Another important factor in the audiences sympathy for Fido is that he remembers what he was before, at least a little. When his collar malfunctions Timmy takes him to Mr Theopolis an ex Zomcon scientist with a questionable relationship with his zombie Tammy, who fixes his collar thus quenching his hunger, this means he wont get taken away. When there Fido grabs a cigarette and shows that he sort of remembers how to smoke, this shows he isn't all gone, he isnt a complete monster.

The next big step for Fido is to win the mother of the family over to his side, again this doesn't take too much effort as the relationship between Timmy's mother and father isn't exactly loving and emotional, its barely even there. The father doesn't even notice his wife is pregnant and they clearly sleep in separate beds, and so when Fido shows emotion by smelling Timmy's mothers perfume she is naturally flattered, it is of course the animalistic part of humans that remain but perhaps thats a thought better left for Mr Theopolis. Timmy and his mothers support of Zombies and Fido is cemented when at a funeral, many of which Timmy's father frequents to his pleasure, Timmy's mother announces to him that when they die "Timmy and I are going Zombie". A simple line that shows the main protagonists are on the side of Fido and the audience should be too, funerals after all are only liked by the cruel and weird father and nobody wants to be on his side.

The emotional high point of the film is on the way, as Timmy and Fido are out playing he is captured by the Zomcon cadet bullies who plan to kill Fido and act as though they saved Timmy from Fido and caught the Zombie that ate Mrs Henderson and sparked a small outbreak. It inevitably goes wrong as one of the cadets shoots the other and Fido attacks the final bully. Fido cant untie Timmy, his fingers aren't dexterous enough so he goes to get Timmy's mother in a hilarious parallel to Lassie as his mother asks "Where is Timmy?" and after being lead the correct way remarks "You wonderful crazy wonderful zombie". This act of complete heroism is a little inrealistic for a classic zombie but what a hero it makes of Fido, if the audience aren't on his side by now they never will be. Fido is definitely on Timmy's mothers side, when her husband refuses to relax and dance with her she dances with Fido instead, establishing a personal, maybe romantic relationship with Fido and Timmy's mother.

This is followed by Fido being taken away for eating Mrs Henderson returning the families life to normal. Timmy's father attempts to fix the relationship with his son by giving him a gun, bfore the legal carrying age of 12 and in an emotionally stunted scene explains "You have to get over feelings. being alive is what counts". Timmy inevitably goes back to save his surrogate father Fido from a Zomcom factory with the help of Mr Theopolis. He is followed by his parents and all carnage ensues as a breakout occurs. The real antagonist of the film Mr Bottoms is a security man, a big wig in the Zomcon company and a Zombie war hero, the strong figure head style man of the 40's, a symbol of power and oppression, and he is there to stop Timmy rescuing Fido. For his disobedience Mr Bottom locks Timmy out of the fence that keeps everyone safe, and into the "wild zone" where zombies roam free. At this point the Timmys fathers want the same thing, his actual father has taken control he enlightening tells his wife "Im a good father, my father tried to eat me, I nevr tried to eat Timmy" and when she asks for the gun, as she has proven she is gun competent he says "no U want to, I am a good father". Teaming up with Fido he saves Timmy but Timmy's father and Mr Bottom die.

The film ends with Timmy's fathers funeral, his mother happily points out "its what he wanted" before settling into family life with Fido. Finally even Mr Bottom turns into a zombie which his daughter is "just calling him daddy", even the worst of fathers and the most strict of people can be nice once zombified.

Whilst Fido wasn't what I was expecting I thoroughly enjoyed it, the spoofing of traditional idealogical America with zombie inserts is genius and the performance Billy Connoly gives as Fido is inspiring. Fido is a different genre to most zombie films but the character development or at least the audience development from thinking of zombies as brainless slaves to characters and is a narrative I would love to emulate.

Audience reception of Zombies

Some of the more interesting and convention breaking zombie films in the past have addressed the idea that Zombies aren't all that evil and focus on trying to get the audience to empathise with sympathetic zombies. This is done by Romero in films as early as Day of the Dead (1985) with Professor Logan's learned child Bub, who's ability to learn and to follow orders shows that he is something more than what we expect from a normal zombie. Despite the awful human flesh positive re-enforcement Logan uses to teach Bub the audience  ultimately root for him as he acts out in revenge against Captain Rhodes the antagonist of the film who has killed Bub's mentor and surrogate father Professor Logan.

It is done more solidly and as the whole point of the film in Colin and in Fido and although I have yet to see both films I love Colin and think that the angle of trying to get sympathy for zombies is an excellent twist in the zombie convention and an interesting way to go.

Obviously it is Romero's style of zombie that is usually sympathised with, I can't imagine anyone sympathising with the rage filled monsters of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later or Paul Andersons zombies in the early Resident Evil. In these films the emphasis is on horror, fear and action, not the characters or the zombies, they are generally just cannon fodder to shoot at, things for characters to get chased by or bodies to make the audience jump. These are clearly easy options and an audiences first reaction to a zombie is always fear. This may be because zombies are us after our death, they are literally the physical representation of our death. Not only that but they can kill so easily, not just kill but turn you into one of them. Another factor that has increased with time is the level of gore, some zombies look so awful that the initial response is shock and disgust. Their bestial nature, forever hungry, simple and animalistic is another route of the audiences fear, it represents a move backwards down the evolutionary ladder to something less capable. Finally their hunger for flesh is truly horrifying, their is nothing scarier than something wanting to do such an unnatural act as eating you, turning you into prey for them to devour.

The fact that with clever storytelling and filmmaking all of these natural responses can be combated to make the audience empathise with the zombies in such a way that the hero can become the protagonist. Another important factor in doing this is presenting the audience with an antagonist to counter the 'heroic' zombie such as Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead. I find this role reversal fascinating and worth exploring as a topic for my own film as it involves clever manipulation of the audience. I think making this kind of story would be a fun and interesting challenge and I am looking forward to watching and analysing some other films that do the same.

Night of the Living Dead (1968 George A Romero)

Night of the Living Dead is simply THE classic zombie movie, it is undoubtedly the film that sparked the modern zombie genre. Inspired the siege of the house in Richard Matheson's vampire novel I Am Legend, George A Romero created his own house siege in Night with the stars being surrounded by ghoulish humans back from the dead and hungry for human flesh, these ghouls were later identified by the press as Zombies and that is what they became. Night is a story all about power, made in the 60's a time of cultural fear and anger over the Vietnam War the comparison between the ghouls and 'gooks', Vietnamese, isn't difficult to see but its not the only reading to be made. Romero himself says

"To me, the zombies have always just been zombies. They've always been a cigar. When I first made Night of the Living Dead, it got analysed and over analysed way out of proportion. The zombies were written about as if they represented Nixon’s Silent Majority or whatever. But I never thought about it that way. My stories are about humans and how they react, or fail to react, or react stupidly. I'm pointing the finger at us, not at the zombies. I try to respect and sympathize with the zombies as much as possible."

So maybe Zombie's aren't an encoded metaphor for anything and more a simple plot device however that doesn't stop anyone from decoding many messages from the film. It seems however that it is the humans that need to be analysed and read into arguments of race, family and gender are clear.

The film opens with a clear American flag, a simple signifier that the characters in the film, along with the zombies, represent all of America which gives significance to the first conversation. Barbra and her brother discuss why they bother driving down to the cemetery in the town they used to live to plant a wreath on the grave of their father about whom Johnny remarks coldly  "I don't even remember what the guy looked like". This clear breakdown of the atomic family is representative of the time in which traditional values were disintegrating and foreshadows the later scene in which Karen Cooper kills her parents in an even more extreme signifier. Another of the traditional values to be attacked in this first scene is the church, when Johnny sees Barbra praying  he simply says in a dismissing tone "Come on church was this morning". After Johnny is attacked Barbra begins to flee in a hysteric manner thus displaying her generally passive and pathetic character that could be accused of being a typical horror female. There is a lot of evidence against this however specifically in Stephen Harpers "They are us" Representations of women in George Romero's Living Dead Series" in which Harper excuses Barbra's character as either an attack on how patriarchal society makes women or a satirical comment on typical horror heroines.

As Barbra escapes one stumbling Boris Karloff esque zombie into thee refuge of an abandoned house that becomes the main set and the victim of the aforementioned siege. The lighting within the house is spectacular, the black and white visuals are lit in moody squares as if through the windows, the spooky effect is perfect and haunting. A few random shots of animal heads frighten Barbra further showing her hysteria and possibly referencing Hitchock's Psycho from 1960 furthering the possibility that Romero is mocking classic horror/ thriller females.

Barbra is saved however by the main hero of the film, Ben an African American man who stamps his authority on the situation and kills zombies left right and centre. Although Ben was never written as a black character he is one of the first back leads in film that don't have a romantic partner and his presence alludes to the ever present zombie theme of racism. Ben's later death is a harrowing experience and Romero himself has said that it isn't a reference to Martin Luther King's assassination but when he was transporting the film to the studio to be printed he heard of MLK's assassination and thought there was a creepy parallel. Ben's character takes control and boards up the house before telling Barbra and the audience his story which is amazingly delivered and evokes fear and empathy in the audience.

The reliance of our survivors on the media becomes apparent as they perch by the radio which imparts small gems of knowledge calling the zombie outbreak an "explosion of mass homicide  in which victims are "partially eaten by their attackers". Even Ben is reliant on some greater force as he believes that if they survive long enough "someone is bound to come and get us" thus highlighting the public's reliance on government to save them from situations of danger. Whether Romero sees this as positive or negative is unclear as when people do come to help they do the exact opposite and kill Ben. Romero has said in commentary on his other films that he thinks its funny that if this ever happened it would only be the government and the red necks that would be able to defend themselves, an interesting if not frightening idea.

The arrival of more zombies outside the house is clear as they stumble along eating bugs and bark to delay their hunger. Clearly seen in the foreground is a naked female zombie, this goes some way towards supporting the argument that Night is a feminist film as the woman is in no way sexualised but just there wondering round like the others. With the arrival of more zombies comes the arrival of Harry, Tom and Judy from the cellar down below, after hearing the noioses and hiding they finally decided to find out what was going on, finding Ben and beginning the ever present power struggle between Ben and Harry, Black and White. Ben never falters simply saying "go back down into the cellar, you can be boss down there."

The breakdown of the modern family is contained in the cellar, within the family of the Coopers, father Harry, mother Helen and ill daughter Karen are hiding out in a hope to survive. They however are not happy as Helen states "We may not enjoy living together, but dying together isn't going to solve anything" and ironic foreshadowing again of their soon to be death. Again the television and media leads them astray or at very least leads them as the Vietnam like footage of search and destroy missions tells them that their best chance is to get to a refugee centre. Whether it is right or not Ben is willing to do it because "the television says its the right thing to do" Ben saying "television" not scientist or government official is extremely important as it shows that he doesn't so much believe the specialist as he does the media that control his actions.

Ben's plot to save them by fuelling the fire fails and the young love of Tom and Judy fails and dies with is, a pessimistic statement about relationships and sacrifice. Harry sees this as a chance to overtake Ben, he believes he has gone too far and when Ben drops his gun to deal with a Zombie it is snatched by Harry. He however doesn't have the guts to shoot Ben who wrestles the gun from him and shoots him. Its every man for himself as the Zombies break the house down, the women however band together as Barbra finally starts to be productive. Her heroism is shortlived however as Johnny arrives at the house and pulls her into the horde.

Meanwhile Ben retreats into the basement where Karen has been eating her father and stabbed her mother to death in a horrifying scene. The trowel scene is brilliant, the slanted lighting  canted camera and screeching soundtrack all make for a horrifying death, all the more scary for the corrupted innocence of the young girl Karen Cooper, who destroys the atomic family completely.

Ben does survive the onslaught by killing the Coopers and hiding in the basement as per Harry's original suggestion. However as he steps into the light in the morning he is killed by a search and destroy squad who believe he is a zombie, this scene bares a stark resemblance to lynch mobs of the time. In the following photo montage Ben is grabbed with hooked poles and thrown on the fire as one of the gang simply say "thats another one for the fire". Exactly what Romero is trying to say with Night isnt perfectly clear, there are a lot of motifs and a lot that can be re read into the film but at its heart the horror and fear are clear and the anti government possibly nihilistic sentiments are clear.

Whether you see Night as a political statement or just as a good scare one thing is perfectly clear, it is a masterpiece!

"They're US": Representations of Women in George Romero's 'Living Dead' Series by Stephen Harper

"They're US": Representations of Women in George Romero's 'Living Dead' Series is an essay by Stephen Harper which analyses the feminist views on the Living Dead series. The essay itself is well written, well informed and well evidenced, concluding in a persuading argument for Romero as a feminist film maker. Not only does this persuade readers that Romero is a feminist film maker but that he has represented women in not just binary passive/ active or positive/ negative but questions "the ability of binary categories of gender to comprehend the fluidity and diversity of images of women."

In Night of the Living Dead (1968) his representations of women are as passive, inactive characters who do little to help the cause. Whilst that would seem incredibly negative Harper flips this around in a few ways. The strongest proof for Night as a feminist text is the argument that the females passivity is the fault of the overly aggressive patriarchal males who force them down, thus making Night not a critique of weak women but a critique of patriarchal society. This is evidenced first by Johnny's playful teasing "They're coming to get you Barbra" which Harper argues is not a reference to the zombies but "playfully foreshadows the aggression of all the men at various points in the film.". The other main piece of evidence is a piece of speech from Tom who says "if all three of us were working together" things would be easier, Harper points out the important people Tom is talking about are the three male characters. This is a little weaker in my mind as it is Tom is trying to force Ben and Mr Cooper to get along, the women aren't involved in the conversation, however maybe the point is that they should be involved. The final evidence for a feminist reading of Night is the character of Mr Cooper who is an extreme stereotype of a controlling patriarchal male, however his constant fight for control is evident and it is worth noting the young female character fights back against him finally devouring his body. Harper argues it is Mr Coopers "authoritarian personality" that epitomises the male oppression within Night and excuses the female characters passive behaviour. Finally another possibility is that "Night  might be read as a satirical comment on traditional representations of women in horror cinema" this is definitely a possibility when you consider the satirical content of Dawn of the Dead (1978).

Harper than moves over to an analysis of Dawn of the Dead (1978) in which the heroine is much more active but not an opposite to the passive feminine character of Barbra. Fran is a more complex character she is a professional in her field and is a strong character who is "consummately articulate and aware of the men's sexist assumptions about her". She is also pregnant and feminine and often takes on typical gender rolls such as nursing, home making and mothering. There are two specific scenes Harper analyses one being the scene in which Fran sits opposite a zombie, a pane of glass separating them and the other a scene in which she succumbs to capitalist desires making herself up with expensive lipstick and mascara. The first scene, with the 'softball zombie' shows Fran's "commendable sensitivity  as she sees it as both her unborn child and identifies with is an oppressed and forgotten woman. The second scene sees Fran as a "mannequin" who "applies her lipstick" and "adopts the vacant gaze of the stereotypical consumer". Whilst it would be easy to read this scene as an anti-feminist scene showing a woman steeped in capitalism, make up and stereotype that is only what is on the very basic surface. A closer reading of the scene shows that "Romero refrains from criticising Fran for her participation in the makeup ritual and focuses instead on the social pressures that work to turn intelligent women into consuming mannequins." Harper concludes this section by fairly summing Dawn up as a film in which Romero "critically examines the many possible images of femininity available to women in the 1970's"

Day of the Dead (1984) and the remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990) written by Romero and directed by make up artist guru Tom Savini. In Day, Sarah is the most active female of the series, she flips the roles of Night as she acts as "protector for her emotionally shattered partner". Haper notes that Day offers the clearest parallel between humans and zombies through Professor Logan and Captain Rhodes; "Professor Logan's objective is to 'condition and control' these unruly creatures, just as Captain Rhodes seeks to control (both professionally and sexually) the ungovernable Sarah". The main point of Day is a continuation of the theme in Dawn that Sarah is a strong and active female that "also acts in a caring stereotypically motherly fashion towards her partner". Harper's analysis of the remake of Night is interesting however I don't personally count it as one in the series. Harper sums Night up as a representation of the limitations of feminism as well as a visual parallel of the differences between women in the 60's and in the 90's.

Harper sums the whole series up as positive towards women and as feminist texts that don't just show women as active and passive. The development of women in the films is clear and the fact that Romero has managed not to fall into the pit holes of strong sexist action heroes and over sexualisation is commendable. When I personally analyse Romero's thee most recent zombie films I will keep this article in mind and see if Romero has continued to fight for feminist values.

Adobe after effects CS6 tutorial 1

I have never used Adobe after effects in my life, nor have I used any other effect program, the most advanced effects I have used are on final cut and Windows movie maker, so this tutorial was a massive learning curve for me. The interface is pretty simple and easy to get used to so I felt pretty comfortable with it by the end of the lesson, the possibilities however are overwhelming, there are literally hundreds of things that you could do with that program!

In this tutorial we focused on Keying, removing the green from greenscreen shots. We did this in two ways, first with the Linear Colour key. This method was pretty complicated, there were a lot of variables to play around with and alter to get better or different effects. We also added a Spill Suppressor and a Matte Colour Choker to the Linear Colour Key footage to reduce the green reflection and smooth the edges. Personally I couldn't get any particularly good results from this method, everything seemed to be a little grey and I couldn't get rid of some of the background without taking away the white dress of the actress. This highlighted the importance of lighting the greenscreen flatly as the difficult parts were those that had been lit too brightly and were near props.

Another important learning point was that it helps a lot to know the background you will be adding to the footage, and to have different angles and distance shots of the background so that when you add them in you have a lot to work with. I noticed it is also important to make sure you get the head and feet (the top and bottom) of your characters on shot when working on the greenscreen wide, if you dont do this you ahve less freedom when positioning your characters on the background.

The second method we used to remove the green was Keylight. We didn't have time to compare methods on one piece of footage so I can't tell perfectly how they compared but personally it seemed like Keylight was far superior in its result. On the downside however there was less user input, I can see that being a problem as it means the user has less control. The scond piece of footage we used was the mirror from our very own shoot, the wish was to get a twisted reflection in the mirror and then have the girl and reflection to touch the mirror, causing it to ripple. This was a little tricky because of the speed at which she raises her arm to touch the mirror. With a more carefully directed shoot I think this would have been avoided but still I think the problem is resolvable with manipulation of time in the edit. I would prefer to do that time editing in a different program however because of the rendering time involved in After effects. Once I have edited the scene together I am going to try and add the effects again.

We used key frames and motion to effect the mirror scene and the ripples, using key frames is something I have done in final cut so this was quite familiar, it just took a while to adapt to the different layout.

I have learned loads about after effects! I am really looking forward to having more fun with it. I still however when possible prefer to use practical effects, its just a personal matter of opinion, I have always said if it can be done without a computer program then thats the way it should be done. That being said, after effects does open up a lot of affordable opportunities, my imagination is running wild!