Shaun of the Dead Trailer Analysis

• From just the title and the first few seconds of the trailer, there is an obvious pastiche of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ signifying the film’s postmodern elements. Additionaly there is not much reality being portrayed, this depicts Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality- particularly with the idea of zombies.

• The trailer begins with a serious edge to it, with a voice over and quick flashes of news reporters. There is diegetic sound of the reporters talking and a high pitched sound in the background, making it seem horror like.

• In between the news reporters there are quick long shots of the zombies and some of people giving an insight to the narrative.

• There is use of depth of field with an image of an ambulance from the inside of car; the car obstructing the view may suggest a sense of safety.

• When we meet the two characters, we realise the genre is also a comedy as they react to the zombie in a humerous way. This is a mid shot with a slow zoom focusing on them.

• The zombie shot maybe implicates Levi’s Binary opposition theory, where there is a clear shot of the door, juxtaposed with the next shot where it is of Ed and Shaun, in the house fearing back. This indicates freedom and entrapment.
  
  • This is followed with a range of quick shots, the quick shots can connote action.
  
  • There is then a reaction shot of Shaun and his girlfriend which zooms in to their faces at the point when Ed’s phone rings indicating the comedy side, the colour lightens and darkens, which appears to happen in quite a few shots, where it almost looks as if it is a camera flash, this may connote they are under watch, hence the zombies.
  
  • The rule of three is then indicated when Ed and Shaun are looking through the records, the zombies in the foreground, and them in the background of the frame and scenery in the background.
  
  • This trailer relates to Vladmir Propp’s character type theory, where there is the villain, the zombies, the hero, which is Shaun, and his helper being Ed. Shaun is particularly indicated as the hero in this trailer, when there is a low shot, where he is tall over the camera position, indicating his superiority, furthermore there are a few tracking/ action shots of him killing the zombies.
  
  

• The trailer is in a non linear format, this is indicated with the different shot types and different scenes continued with another shot breaking them up.

• There is shot of Shaun looking out of a letter box, which again indicates entrapment.



• There are reaction shots of the characters involved in problems, indicating, Propp’s function theory of there being a ‘’complication’’ in the story line.

• The end of the trailer signifies the comedy aspect again, where there is a change in the action music, to more uplifting music, which is also intertextual as the music is also in the film.

• There is then a black background with the ‘Shaun of the Dead’ title in a distorted font followed by ‘coming soon’.

• At the bottom of the shot, there’s then the distribution signs and logos, which we must ensure to add to our trailer as it gives it a veri-similitude edge.