Post Apocalyptic Film - Luke Conboy

The Road

I am Legend

The Day After Tomorrow

Narrative ThemesDystopian World –

This is a world in which human life is far from ideal and

living conditions are very unpleasant. Typically, environmental

factors such as trees growing inuncommon places is a sign of a Dystopian World, where nature

‘claims back’ the cities and towns that were

once built in their place.Agrarian Society –

This is a theme which consists of a return to a pre-industrial world,

similar to that of a Dystopian one. Furthermore, this society lacks

technology and human life is scarce. An example of a film which features

an ‘Agrarian Society’ is ‘The Road’ – in which many people resort to

cannibalism in order to survive.

Real Fear – This is a theme in which the

narrative relates to modern day fears such as economic crashes, nuclear war, global warming and

technological advances. An example of a post war. An example of a post

Nuclear War is the film ‘Nuclear Family’.

Human Demise – This is when a natural disaster or similar occurrence kills off a large

proportion of human life, with only a few survivors remaining in the

World. In some cases equilibrium cannot be restored, so a new

equilibrium reforms and human life starts again from the bare

necessities. ‘I Am Legend’ is a case of this.

The RoadRelease Date: 8th January 2010Only one character in the film is represented by a real name, this character is the old man who calls himself ‘Eli’.

The narrative of this film is very much one of a Father and Son travelling through a World where little life remains. Their aim is to find a more suitable place to live, they think that by travelling South they will find warmer land.

One particular CGI shot in the film is in fact a digital reconstruction of the damage caused by hurricane Katrina. During post-production a skyline was added onto the horizon of the shot to fit in with the setting of the film.

As well as the Father and Son, we see cannibalistic people being represented in this film. These characters represent a natural enemy for the Father and Son. This conflict is displayed heavily in one scene when the Father is forced to shoot dead a cannibal who is chasing him and his son.

The film was shot in various places around America, but was mainly based in Pennsylvania. The other film locations include: Los Angeles, the state of Oregon and New Orleans.

I Am LegendRelease Date: 26th December 2007

The film faced much difficulty during its production as streets of New York had to be closed off for a vast majority of shots.

Similar to ‘The Road’, this films features two people trying to salvage humankind and search for answers, albeit in this particular film it’s a man and his dog doing the searching.

The man and his dog represent hope that one day humankind will be saved and in fact there are similar people out doing a similar job in searching for survivors.

This film features many long shots. This is because director Francis Lawrence wanted to portray New York City as being totally taken over by naturalistic elements such as overgrown weeds and derelict buildings.

As far as editing is concerned this film is rather unique. This is because the title of the film isn’t actually displayed on the screen until several minutes has passed of the film.

The Day After TomorrowRelease Date: 27th May 2004

The director of this film Robert Emmerich said that is whole day revolved around the weather forecast and whether or not it would be possible to shoot outdoor footage.

The most iconic image of this film is one of the Statue of Liberty still standing despite the adverse weather. This was done because Robert Emmerich wanted symbolise American values by saying America can stand up and walk away from even the worst of disasters.

An example of editing in this film: the breath coming out the characters’ mouths during the cold scenes was actually computer generated. Doing this proved more practical than freezing the whole set.

This film has a clear beginning, middle and end. It opens with discovering a potential disaster, then predictions begin to come true. In the middle of film it’s now just everyone trying to survive and find ways restoring natural order. To end, there are survivors and now equilibrium can begin to be restored.

The Road - Cliphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLgszfXTAY

This is the official trailer for the film The Road. Within the first half-minute of it, we see much disruption through the form of extreme weather; already it is clear this film will have a post-apocalyptic narrative.

Through-out the whole trailer it is clear to see the lighting of the film produces a very saturated picture, with somewhat of a blue tinge to it. A darker picture is created to simulate a world with very little sunlight and it helps with creating an eerie atmosphere of un-ease and uncertainty.

The audience can also grasp an idea of what props with feature in this film. At 1:17 in the clip, the main male character is seen pointing a gun at someone else. The fact that he posses a gun suggests that he and his son need a form of protection, so they can be safe from the dangers of this post-apocalyptic world.

As far as editing goes, this clip shows many explosions. With explosions normally comes injuries, or possibly even death. Injury and death is a common theme for a post apocalyptic film, as typically everyone is fighting for survival, but not everyone can survive the tribulations of a post apocalyptic world.

I Am Legend - Clipshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RxPDVIDhIU - this clip shows an example of narrative disruption. In this scene, the main character is forced to kill his dog, his only friend in this post apocalyptic world. The narrative is disrupted as now, the main character has to continue his journey alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyNu0CDim0w – at 1:23 in this clip, there is a wide establishing shot which shows a desolate New York city centre. This is done to show the extent of the Dystopian World that has come about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyNu0CDim0w – in the same clip there is an example of CGI use. The first 30 seconds of this clip shows a large group of deer fleeing the car chasing them down. The deer themselves are computer generated, one of many examples of CGI use in this film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qLtpb2jeY&feature=related – this clip shows one way how editing is used in this film. The sounds the zombies are making are clearly added in during post-production. This is a far greater way of producing a convincing and alarming sound, as opposed to a person simply making a screaming noise.

The Day After Tomorrow - Clipshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_1VnGp8Lls – this clip displays a narrative enigma. A huge wave is crashing through New York and is likely to cause unexpected damage of both buildings and human life. What is unsure and what creates the enigma is the fact how many lives are lost due to this disaster and how much short term and long term damage has been done; how will this affect the characters in the film and what is their next move?

The creation of this huge wave is also a prime example of CGI use. A great deal of the film’s budget would have gone towards creating scenes such as this. As these types of scenes would need to look very convincing to an audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxy-06abU08&feature=relmfu – this clip features generic conventions of a post apocalyptic film. This clip portrays different people in different places while a disaster is taking place. We see one person who is working a cleaner and he is completely oblivious to the events transpiring outside, he does realise but it is too late. We also a man and woman in their apartment building and they are all too aware about the atrocious weather conditions. We see much more facial expressions from these two characters compared to the cleaner, they express a great deal of concern and are seemingly fearing for their lives.

This clip is also an example of editing, as it cuts between these two shots showing a contrast between people who are aware of the events transpiring, and those who are not.