GENRE CONVENTIONS - media language

BRIDE OF CHUCKY
1998
Ronny Yu
Box Office - $117m
Budget - $35m
Sound - voice over, non-diegetic string instrument music connoting peace
Extreme Closeup on protagonist
First shot is of a man staring into the camera (similar to Hot Fuzz & Shaun of the Dead)
Clothes + Dirt on the floor - blue filter on screen - intertextualising Halloween
Narrative enigma on setting 
Slow motion
emotionless voice
Chairs which have fallen over
Dark, lack of sunlight
Yellow signs - airport?
Denotes mise-en-scene ironically 
Music changes after 52 seconds to become joyful and uplifting
Sepia filter - flashbacks
False scare - horror genre

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
2004
Edgar Wright
Box Office -  $30m
Budget - $6.1m
Sound - Voice over, non-diegetic music in opening title sequence
Extreme closeup on main protagonist in first shot
Dirty living room - cans all over the place

SOUND

A typical zombie movie will usually have low pitched eerie music, with short high pitched notes over the top, this manipulates the audiences heartbeat, slowing it down and speeding it up to add to the intensity that may be going on on screen. Shaun of the dead is an exception to this rule, in the titles scene, the song playing is 'The Blue Wrath' by I Monster, which has a mixture of both eerie and comedic with the 'wa' sounds in the song, as well as the synth and drum beats.

Romance movies typically have high pitched, happy sounding music which appeals to a female demographic, one of the opening scenes in Bridget Jones Diary includes the song 'All by myself', by Celine Dion, which is a song by an artist who has a large female following.

In comedy movies, the ways in which sound is used often varies and Foley sound is often used and exaggerated to make the scenes more funny.

CENTRAL PROTAGONIST and NARRATIVE

In Shaun of the Dead, the protagonist is the first person we see on screen, Simon Pegg's character, Shaun, and there is no narrative enigma on the character in the opening scene. He is centrally framed using the rule of thirds which suggests further that Simon Pegg’s character is the central protagonist.

Shaun of the Dead also follows Todorov's narrative theory, where the film starts out with an equilibrium, there is then a disruption of the equilibrium, they then realise there's a disruption. They then attempt to repair the damage caused, and finally there's a new equilibrium.

1st SHOT and MISE-EN-SCENE

The 1^st shot of a movie is usually an establishing shot, which is evident in films such as Pretty in Pink and Hot Fuzz. Shaun of the dead also has a first shot which shows the character of Shaun sitting in the pub.

In Shaun of the dead, there is a lot of mise-en-scene which shows that the character that Nick Frost plays is a slob, with no regard for his surroundings.