Kyle Cooper - demo reel

After watching Kyle Cooper's demo reel, there were many things that attracted my attention, one of which was a clip from the opening sequence of Dawn of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder. The opening title sequence is one of Cooper's famous pieces for it's originality and effect.

One of the reasons the clip stood out to me was because of the font. The font was a rich, vibrant red which evidently linked to the connotations of red such as blood, danger, threat, etc which was seen in the opening sequence. The font was in capitals and was defined which made it attract as it was difficult to ignore. The font disappeared off the screen into the next shot as if it were trickling blood. I thought this was an original editing effect as it merged cleverly with the film as it linked with bloodshed, which is seen in the film.

At the beginning, there was an underlying, dark, horn sound which seemed threatening as it reminded me of a warning. Following this, there were muffled screeching and screaming sounds which evidently presented threat, therefore illustrating to the viewer early on that the film is going to be tense and frightening. There were also rumbles of thunder which again furthered the threat of the upcoming content. Then as the opening title sequence goes on, there are questions being asked to someone in authority. The talk of a virus or illness tells us that the thing that is causing this trouble can be caught by anyone, which makes the danger more realistic and threatening as it is inescapable. However, Cooper cleverly in the script repeatedly has 'I don't know' so not too much is given away right then, which keeps the audience interested as they want to find out what is happening. In the background of this, the audience can hear a heart monitor with a long beep which is often associated with someone being dead, which could link to when they say they do not know whether these 'things' are alive or dead. For the rest of the sequence, an uplifting guitar song is played over the many shots which could be seen as a contrast to all the things going wrong in the videos.

The camera shots are all taken as if it were being documented or filmed for the news. This makes the opening more realistic as it seems to be more relatable through the use of a news broadcast. There are many close ups of microorganisms which furthers the threat of the disease. There is constant death throughout the shots which show that the film is going to be a dark horror with a lot of death. The short shot duration makes the opening scene very fast and also keeps the audience concentrated as they want to focus so that they can find out what is going on.