openning - 28 Days Later

28 Days Later (2002)

The film opens to a series of poor signal broadcast footage (which maybe caused by background radiation,) and news reports showing destruction and chaos of cities to show the severity of the situation almost giving subconscious exposition to the film. There is also non-diegetic sound included, in this case it takes the form of muffled cries and startled reporters, accentuating the absolute chaos unfolding in these scenes. The erratic camera movements in this footage also helps to add to the chaotic atmosphere as they impose that there is much difficulty and danger in capturing the unfolding events that the public are being shown. Among the chaos there is also more non diegetic sounds included such as the stamping of the soldiers boots and the loud bangs from the explosions. This also contributes to the whole effect of complete chaos and also serves to add a sense of realism in these events while also discombobulating the viewer of the film. As the locations shown in the footage go from towns or multicultural cities, it implies to the audience that the whole world has been affected by something rather than just the United Kingdom which also develops the sheer scale of the events that have taken place and links with the news broadcast as the news is televised or heard in many languages across the globe. We are also shown scenes of brutal force used by policeman and armed forces in an attempt to control and condense the mayhem and keep it concentrated to a specific area we also see violent protesters breaking out in the streets, which may suggest to the audience that the events were caused by something that maybe experimental and a virus and against what many people believe. The use of the frantic news reports creates an atmosphere of suspense and mystery to the audience as the broadcasters don’t reveal why bombs are going off or why anarchy has expanded across the world, as instead they just report on the mass chaos that is happening.