So, this time, I’m pulling apart this scene from Shaun of the Dead, because it’s one of the main inspirations for my main project I’m working on for this studio. (Spoilers for those who haven’t seen it)

As some of you may know, I’m an avid enjoyer of visual comedy (and comedy in general), so it would be no surprise that Shaun of the Dead is my favorite movie, but what I tend not to be as open about is how much I love drama and tension. I’ve taken a particular liking to this scene because it perfectly blends comedic dialogue, visual comedy, drama, and tension all in one.

Firstly, because I want to experiment with dialogue and pacing, I really had to pay attention to the way that this scene was acted and written. The dialogue is fast paced and seamless, and there are no awkward pauses. Any pause in the scene is there for a specific reason, whether it be to keep the dialogue paced, for dramatic purposes, or to give the viewers a chance to catch their breath. One thing I really wanted to focus on was the swearing. Not so much the context of it from a writing point of view, but more about the way that the actors project it. Swearing can be funny, but it can also be powerful. Now, as a professional swearer, I believe that it’s an art form. And like most art, it has to be done with care. When it comes to writing, cuss words are meant to give the character a sense of empowerment, or dominance over the scene. And so the actor has to act like that. In this scene, it seems like the actors are really cherishing their swearing. Each one is enunciated and projected loudly, and so they don’t fall into the trap of lazy swearing (where you end up using “fuckin'” as every second word just to fill in the awkward gaps). Even though the script that my group is following has a lot more swear words in it, I want to try and recreate the effect of this scene, where each word is just as powerful as the last.

Besides the actor’s ability to portray stress, a scene’s tension can be heavily affected by its use of cinematography. This scene is constructed of mostly close-ups, and medium close-ups, with the occasional wide shot. The director of this film, Edgar Wright, is known for his use of close ups, and this clip is quite evident of that. The use of them in this scene, however, is slightly different to the way he usually uses them. Especially in his Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End), they are used to highlight and exaggerate very mundane actions, parodying various gear up scenes from different various Ridley Scott, and Tony Scott films. But his use of them in this scene, instead, is to enhance the tension of the situation, and the actor’s portrayal of stress. Being close up on the characters makes it feel like they’re in a bit of a tight spot, and you’re given the ability to really focus on their expressions and moods. As the camera quickly cuts and pans around all of them, your mind has to try and keep up, while registering each of their emotions, and so overall, you get this big clusterfuck of information. On top of this, as tension builds, Wright gradually decreases the duration of the shots between cuts. And so, as your mind continues to work harder to keep up with what’s going on, you feel the same sort of stress that the characters in the situation would be experiencing. As Liz calms the situation down, the shots revert back to longer durations, letting the viewer catch their breath a bit.

Focusing on the whip pans a bit more, another of Wright’s favourite techniques is using whip pans. In this scene, there are three of them, at about 1:36-1:45 on the video above. The pans serve three purposes. Firstly, to create tension (refer to the paragraph above), secondly, because it’s hilarious, and thirdly, to show the situation from Daffs’ point of view. The quick pans between Shaun and Ed shows how Daffs is constantly looking between them, and portrays how they’re both kind of ganging up on him. It makes it feel overwhelming, and gives the two characters a sense of empowerment.

When it comes to audio, the use of sound will make or break the scene. It can be through diagetic and non-diagetic sound, through music, and sometimes even through the lack of sound. In this scene, Wright uses what is called by some as a ‘suspense crescendo’ (or in musical terms, a ‘swell’). A suspense crescendo is when the sound (usually background noise or music) builds up in volume, tone, or both at the same time, to create tension. The crescendo is constructed of the sounds of the zombies moaning in the background. The moans slowly raise in volume, and chromatically raise in pitch. In this case, the crescendo is very subtly used at first, as you’re not consciously aware of the fact the tension is rising because of it, but it suddenly becomes much more obvious the second Liz calms the situation down, and the sounds suddenly revert back to normal.

Overall, the message I’m trying to get across is that there are so many comedic tropes that can be used many different ways to convey many different emotions. If you’re really into comedy, you don’t have to feel like you’re locked into cramming your script with constant wit and banter. In fact, you generally don’t have to feel restricted to using a genres tropes for that specific genre only. And that’s what I want to explore in my project for this semester.