Napoleon Dynamite

This shot of a student’s card at ‘Preston High’ introduces the name of the film, with a picture of Napoleon on the front.  This immediately reveals to the audience it is about a student in an American High School, and most likely a young persons film. The plain background helps makes the card the focus of attention.

This shot from the opening credits of Napoleon Dynamite shows the casting by Jory Weitz on a library card to take out books. This book was opened by someones hand, then the card lifted to the camera lens. Library books are associated with learning and being studious, but the title reads, ‘Bigfoot and Me’, which indicates the person reading it may be a little odd.

This next shot shows a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the jelly spelling out one of the actresses’ name. The banana and brown paper bag indicates it is someone’s lunch, and because of the previous shots the audience gather it is a student. It is also very American.

This shot shows a bubble gum packet with the name of the editor on. the brown carpet in the background is rather old fashioned, giving the idea the person who’s gum this is, isn’t the most stylish of people. Bubble gum is also quite childish, giving the impression of immaturity to the character.

Zombieland

The film opens showing an American flag on the side of an upturned car, and the imprecise non-digetic American national anthem playing. The background is blurred, focusing on the flag. The camera suddenly spins around so it is filming the correct way up, and the audience realises that it was upside down in the first place, creating a confused atmosphere.

The use of a classic font for the rules helps encourage the film as a comedy rather than horror.  The titles are incorporated into the film, so it looks like they were actually in the film instead of on the screen.  Jessie Einsenberg talks through the rules of surviving the zombie apocalypse, again keeping the film as a comedy rather than horror.

This shot of the world covered in fire depicts the situation on a wide scale. It influences the audience into believing the situation is one of despair and destruction, due to the fire and explosions across the whole planet, indicating no where is safe.

This shot shows the transition between cuts, they have used the film to fade out and dissolve into the next shot. This is good because at this point in the film, it is in slow motion, so regular fast cuts would not fit with the slow motion and slow music.