Zombieland - Review

Last week was the week 3 of me for taking the Film Studies subject in my university life. On the lecture class, Mr Joe discussed about film editing with us. Why do we edit film? It is because editing is economical, which allow us to control the production. We do not have to shoot in order according to the storyboard. We do not need to shoot per scene, but can shoot per venue. For example, we are shooting of two couple walking in a garden and we have to shoot another flashback scene of them in the same venue on 10 years ago. We can shoot both present and flashback in a same day with different outfits. Editing allows us to manipulate space and time such as creating 3D visuals on 2D plane. We can't place our character on a white wall because it is too flat and nothing behind the character to create the 3D visual to show the character is in front of something or where the character's position is in the set.

In term of manipulated space in editing, it allows us the character to 'appear' in a place with shooting at the certain place. For example, we need to show people are working in the office at KLCC but we do not have the budget to shoot at KLCC. So we can shoot an establishing shot of KLCC then cut to another interior. This is the simplest way to do it.

Furthermore, we also learned film genre. Genre is a way to categorize film. There are two main components in genre, Semantic and Syntactic. Semantic approach is the visual aspect of the film such as characters, locations and etc. Syntactic approach is the thematic aspect of the film such as conversation between character, situation, narrative and etc. Genre analysis must only be made by combining both components. Syntactic must be supported by Semantic. More over, there are 3 conditions of genre. The first condition is a film of certain genre must have the universal samantic and syntactic of the genre. For example, every action films must have chasing scene. The second condition is match with the audience expectation, because every audiences have their expectation towards the film they are going to watch. The last condition is innovative, create something new but keep the old conventions.

In the tutorial class, Mr Joe showed us Zombieland last week. This is a film that was produced in 2009 and directed by Ruben Fleischer. From the title of the film, we already expected it is a zombie survival film.

This film contains various type of genre. First I will discuss about the expected type of genre, horror. As we know, every zombie films can't run away from horror because zombie film is belong to the 'unnatural' type horror film, same as ghost and vampire film. The unnatural horror film will show the irrational forces of chaos or horror invariably terrorrizes and end with normalcy and victory over the monstrous. It will show the audience what is normalcy at first, then the terror comes and back to normalcy in the end. For example, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) was a otaku who was playing his video game in the beginning of the film then a girl went to his house for hideout. They slept on the couch and he saw the girl turned into zombie after he woke up. This is when the terror comes.

Besides, this film shows treat to normalcy, which means the external force that threaten the civilians. The most obvious are the zombies who were caused by mad cow decease. The mad cow decease is the treat to normalcy. The film also shows bodily mutations, which can be seen on the zombies who were turned from human because of mad cow decease.

Moreover, this is also a comedy film because it brings a lot of laughs to the audience. Some parts of the film contain slapstick such as when Columbus falls from the bike and he shoots Bill Murray when he think he is a real zombie.

This film also contains parody, The Ghostbusters. Tallahassee keep looking for Springies is an idea that came from the original Ghostbusters movie. One part of the film that obviously shows the parody of the Ghostbusters is the chandelier scene, where Tallahassee wears the real ghostbuster uniform and Bill Murray takes a vacuum cleaner to pretend it as ghost vacuum.

Romance is also one of the genre that appears in the film. Columbus and Wichita have the romance in the film as they meet each other in a supermarket and Wichita tricks him and Tallahassee. This is when the conflict starts between them. Then they fall for each other through all the conflict and be together in the end.

Sci-Fi is another genre that appears in the film as it shows the projection of our worst fears in the future. Sci-Fi is a film genre that shows science is being misplaced. The example in this film is the mad cow decease that makes people turn into zombies. It also shows the extinction of human race and apocalypse which are the prediction of the possibility of our future.

This movie contains a lot of components of action film too such as Tallahassee who looks like a typical action hero, the one man army. Columbus who is a nerd but strategising, the accidental hero. Wichita who is quick, smart, pretty but not using her sexuality, the femme fatale. Little Rock is a young girl who is brave, smart and not afraid to learn. All of them play an important role in the action of the film. The thing that must be shown in an action film is the chase scene. For example, the parking lot where two zombies chase Columbus on the parking lot and he keep running away from them. Another chase scene happens in Pacific Playland where Wichita switches on the light of the playland then attracted all the zombies around it which cause them surrounded by the zombies. The keep running away from the zombies then get on the drop tower ride.

Last but not least, Zombieland is also a road film because it shows the characters travel from point A to point B. For example, Wichita and Little Rock head to Pacific Playland from the supermarket. Road film also contains part of bonding when struck in a way of transportation, either vehicles or just walk. In the film, there is one part when they are taking turns to drive, talking and playing with each other.