Shaun Of The Dead- Narrative Structure and Genre
Essentially, the first half of the film takes place in the genre of a romantic comedy- the only hint of what's to come is the sound references through film form to the zombie horror genre.
In the opening scene the equilibrium of the rom-com genre is set up perfectly- a romantic standstill. The scene explains Shaun's problems to be: he needs to grow up and mature a little bit for Liz, mend his relationship with his step-father and finally find a solution to ensure Davs and Diane as well as Ed are no longer stuck in the middle of his relationship.
The scene opens with a long mid-shot of Shaun smoking in a pub as relaxed diegetic music plays and the camera slowly zooms outwards, establishing our protagonist as well as the setting through the British iconography of the location- an english pub. One of Shaun's problems is explicitly stated from the offset by Liz. Although we go on to have allegiance for Ed in a way we agree with Liz. She states "it's not that i don't like you Ed" as the camera rapidly pans to him as the slots machine utilises it's diegetic sound for comic effect. The next frame, as the conversation unfolds, both Shaun and Liz are framed together in a mid-shot ; sitting facing one another, yet Ed is framed directly in between them and metaphorically in between their relationship. Edgar wright manages to get in an inappropriate and childish joke, of course delivered by Ed, before Liz claims she wants to spend more time with Shaun alone.
As the conversation continues, Shuan struggles to understand Liz after she uses the word "exacerbate", yet we see later on that Shaun uses this whilst taking with Ed in the zombie genre. This demonstrates how Shaun has in fact grown up and matured as well as portraying Wright's tendency to repeat scenes and lines in the different genres to highlight change.
Shaun finally responds to Liz by saying it's not that he doesn't like her roommates Davs and Diane, and then addresses them directly as the camera once again rapidly pans towards them as the camera cuts. Shaun and Liz are still framed together, sitting facing one another yet this time Davs and Diane are framed right in the middle of them, demonstrating another issue posed to Shaun's relationship with Liz. Shaun goes on to explain he does in fact want to spend alone time with Liz but Ed doesn't have many friends. At this time Ed interrupts with an inappropriate "can I get any of you cunts a drink?", clearly worsening the situation and highlighting Ed's childishness which is in a sense, holding Shaun back from being the right man for Liz. Just as Shaun is about to attempt to speak to Liz and make an attempt to fix things, Davs interrupts, setting him up as Ed's binary opposite. Davs and Diane go on to suggest very middle-class solutions like going to the theatre or a nice restaurant as opposed to Ed's ideal of sitting in the Winchester.
Finally Shaun's relationship with his step-father is introduced. As Liz reveals she hasn't met Shaun's mum yet which is seen as an essential step in any relationship, Davs intrudes by asking "don't you get along with your mum Shaun" as he reveals "no it's not that I don't get along with her...". After an inappropriate mum joke obviously made by Ed, the conversation becomes overwhelming for Shaun as a result of all the input from Davs and Diane. By this time, the non-diegetic music that was at a low volume in the background has stopped altogether as Shaun attempts to conclude the conversation once and for all. His solution appeals to Liz's middle class ideal of "living life"- booking a fancy restaurant "that does all the fish". He promises rather insincerely to change. Liz asks "really Shaun?" and the long zoom inwards as Shaun gulps down his pint and nods his head yes as the non-diegetic music begins again suggests otherwise. The zoning out of conversation demonstrated through performance and the dirtied sounding non-diegetic music definitely confirms this.
To summarise Shaun's problems- he needs to sort his life out. The equilibrium at the beginning of the Rom-com is: Shaun's relationship is on thin ice yet the issues that Liz discusses doesn't seem to bother him that much. The audience knows this as he doesn't really listen to her when she speaks; instead he focuses more on trying not to chew too loudly in order to appear to be listening and often zones out of the conversation. Furthermore Ed, who represent the childish side of Shaun is conflicted between Davs and Diane who represent the overly middle-class version of Liz who is longing for these questionable ideals. Both these binary opposites of Ed Vs Diane and Davs seem to also be standing in the way of the relationship at stake. Finally Shaun appears to have underlying family issues that need to be resolved.
In terms of the equilibrium for the zombie horror genre, it's very subtle at the beginning. As mentioned the non-diegetic sound at the very beginning is a very subtle intertextual hint, additionally the introduction and title scene with the mindless people is now dropping a more visual hint. Furthermore it can be inferred that this suggests we're not far off as a society from embodying these zombies. Additionally when Shaun enters the next scene he slowly stumbles towards the camera like a zombie; groaning like one too. The camera slowly pans upwards to reveal he's just yawning. However the equilibrium is mostly setting up scenes which will be later mirrored like the bathroom scene which Pete or when the camera dolly pans in shop scene.This helps to introduce genre conventions in the bathroom scene, heavily foreshadows, invites us to contrast both scenes in both genres and finally, specifically with the bathrooms scene, the audience is already clued in to what's going to happen; it's very efficient storytelling.
The disruption of the rom-com genre narratively comes first. It begins when Shaun fails to book the "restaurant that does the fish" and ends when Liz subsequently breaks up with him, yet while this is happening the hints and references to the zombie outbreak are becoming more and more explicit; newspapers covering a "new super flu", someone passing out at the bus stop, Shuan's co-workers feeling "under the weather", police reports and the news on television indicating that clearly there is something going on, and finally a presumed zombie on screen., devouring a pigeon. Even film form, such as sound and cinematography, by this stage is becoming more eerie- fitting the mould of a zombie horror rather than a rom-com, yet at this stage both genre's seem to be intermingled with each other as the movie slowly transitions genre.
within the breakup scene there are many repeated lines and sequences, for example Shaun failing to climb up to the window int he rom-com but doing it successfully in the zombie horror. Although the rom-com section adheres to the genre convention of the disruption being a break-up, we can tell there's still hope for the relationship as Shaun and Liz are framed very close together when Liz breaks up with him.
moving onto the next stage- the disruption within the zombie horror genre. Wright utilises dramatic irony to the full extent here. There are multiple explicit zombies on the screen before Shaun notices anything- two at The Winchester the night he is broken up with and countless in the mirrored shop scene the next morning. Shaun is still clearly fixated on his problems from the rom-com genre, for example when this time in the shop instead or reaching for the regular coke he reaches for the diet, employing he is in fact making an effort to change for Liz. Meanwhile the audience and the rest of the world around him have moved on to much bigger problems as he remains oblivious.
The scene with Mary in the back garden is the moment the film fully transitions and Shaun becomes aware of the genre conventional disruption- a zombie outbreak. However even in this scene Shaun doesn't realise until the very last moment. Through an over-the-shoulder shot the girl is seen facing away as Shaun and Ed attempt to get her attention by throwing rocks at her. She slowly begins to turn around as non-diegetic eerie music plays and we think Shaun is finally about to realise, yet then he claims "she's so drunk" in disbelief. The girl attacks Shaun and even when she's lying on him trying to eat him, he's still talking to her like she's human. After She's been impaled and has a gaping hole in her body, we receive a shot of Shaun's face in utter disbelief through it. The penny has finally dropped. After playing around with traditional genre conventions- taking a ridiculous amount of time to run into the house and shed to find things to throw at it because of how slow the zombies are, we hear out first repeated line in the zombie genre "you've got a bit of red on you". The disruption stage has now been fully established.
As the film progresses both genre's begin to interrelate and affect one another. The disruption of the zombie horror seems to be ameliorating the disruption of the rom-com. For example, through many repeated scenes, Sean manages to climb up the window into Liz's apartment, he demonstrates leadership skills and assertiveness; he takes action. Additionally his mends his relationship with his step dad, effectively after he's been killed by zombies. Here it can be seen that Wright once again plays with genre conventions- Shaun's step-dad asks for the music to be turned down before he's been zombified and once again when he's been locked in the car afterwards the first thing he does is turn down the last music. Wright adheres to the genre convention of zombies still having a cognisant part of their brain that makes them still them.
In terms of the equilibrium for the zombie horror genre, it's very subtle at the beginning. As mentioned the non-diegetic sound at the very beginning is a very subtle intertextual hint, additionally the introduction and title scene with the mindless people is now dropping a more visual hint. Furthermore it can be inferred that this suggests we're not far off as a society from embodying these zombies. Additionally when Shaun enters the next scene he slowly stumbles towards the camera like a zombie; groaning like one too. The camera slowly pans upwards to reveal he's just yawning. However the equilibrium is mostly setting up scenes which will be later mirrored like the bathroom scene which Pete or when the camera dolly pans in shop scene.This helps to introduce genre conventions in the bathroom scene, heavily foreshadows, invites us to contrast both scenes in both genres and finally, specifically with the bathrooms scene, the audience is already clued in to what's going to happen; it's very efficient storytelling.
The disruption of the rom-com genre narratively comes first. It begins when Shaun fails to book the "restaurant that does the fish" and ends when Liz subsequently breaks up with him, yet while this is happening the hints and references to the zombie outbreak are becoming more and more explicit; newspapers covering a "new super flu", someone passing out at the bus stop, Shuan's co-workers feeling "under the weather", police reports and the news on television indicating that clearly there is something going on, and finally a presumed zombie on screen., devouring a pigeon. Even film form, such as sound and cinematography, by this stage is becoming more eerie- fitting the mould of a zombie horror rather than a rom-com, yet at this stage both genre's seem to be intermingled with each other as the movie slowly transitions genre.
within the breakup scene there are many repeated lines and sequences, for example Shaun failing to climb up to the window int he rom-com but doing it successfully in the zombie horror. Although the rom-com section adheres to the genre convention of the disruption being a break-up, we can tell there's still hope for the relationship as Shaun and Liz are framed very close together when Liz breaks up with him.
moving onto the next stage- the disruption within the zombie horror genre. Wright utilises dramatic irony to the full extent here. There are multiple explicit zombies on the screen before Shaun notices anything- two at The Winchester the night he is broken up with and countless in the mirrored shop scene the next morning. Shaun is still clearly fixated on his problems from the rom-com genre, for example when this time in the shop instead or reaching for the regular coke he reaches for the diet, employing he is in fact making an effort to change for Liz. Meanwhile the audience and the rest of the world around him have moved on to much bigger problems as he remains oblivious.
The scene with Mary in the back garden is the moment the film fully transitions and Shaun becomes aware of the genre conventional disruption- a zombie outbreak. However even in this scene Shaun doesn't realise until the very last moment. Through an over-the-shoulder shot the girl is seen facing away as Shaun and Ed attempt to get her attention by throwing rocks at her. She slowly begins to turn around as non-diegetic eerie music plays and we think Shaun is finally about to realise, yet then he claims "she's so drunk" in disbelief. The girl attacks Shaun and even when she's lying on him trying to eat him, he's still talking to her like she's human. After She's been impaled and has a gaping hole in her body, we receive a shot of Shaun's face in utter disbelief through it. The penny has finally dropped. After playing around with traditional genre conventions- taking a ridiculous amount of time to run into the house and shed to find things to throw at it because of how slow the zombies are, we hear out first repeated line in the zombie genre "you've got a bit of red on you". The disruption stage has now been fully established.
As the film progresses both genre's begin to interrelate and affect one another. The disruption of the zombie horror seems to be ameliorating the disruption of the rom-com. For example, through many repeated scenes, Sean manages to climb up the window into Liz's apartment, he demonstrates leadership skills and assertiveness; he takes action. Additionally his mends his relationship with his step dad, effectively after he's been killed by zombies. Here it can be seen that Wright once again plays with genre conventions- Shaun's step-dad asks for the music to be turned down before he's been zombified and once again when he's been locked in the car afterwards the first thing he does is turn down the last music. Wright adheres to the genre convention of zombies still having a cognisant part of their brain that makes them still them.
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