Editing Analysis

Shawn of the Dead – 'The Plan' and 'the walk to the shop'; Editing Analysis

Shaun of the Dead (2004) is a classic British Comedy horror directed by Edgar Wright. The film is very popular in the UK due to its unique comedy style and the way it is directed. The ‘walk to the shop scene’ is also an iconic scene from Shaun of the dead. What makes it stand out more is the fact that the scene is used twice to represent a change in the environment; pre-zombie takeover and post-zombie takeover. ‘The Plan’ scene involves a montage of how they plan to execute survival in the zombie apocalypse. What makes is stand out more is the way it is adapted each time a suggestion is made about how the plan may not work in a specific way. I am going to explore the ways in which the scene conveys meaning in terms of editing.

The ‘walk to the shop’ scene involves very little editing because the shot is done in one continuous run, but there is editing used to create the TV channel change hidden message because that clip would have needed to be recorded and edited separately before being filmed as if it were real and timing them so that it makes sense to the audience.

‘The Plan’ scene uses lots of different editing techniques to convey speed and quick thinking in times of desperation and danger. The small, quick shots are a collection of montages used for both comedy effects and to show a speed up the film. The three montages both use lots of quick, snappy segments of clip and use wipe transitions in all directions to create a sense of flow in the plan, otherwise it would lack continuity. At certain points the car acts as a way of transitioning the two clips because it has a wipe-like motion as it passes across the screen. There is no CGI used in the montage clips either, which creates a more realistic montage as it can be closely related to real life.