The reason we are taking the time to overview a scene analysis is because it has a different type of terminology than typically used in lit papers. The core components however are primarily the same; you are still investigating a text to extract a larger meaning, such as developing a thesis-driven argument and providing evidence from the text to prove said argument. What we are doing in this example that we didn't do above is incorporating the specific terminology necessary for a thorough deep dive into analyzing a scene for a film paper.

For this exercise, we are going to be concentrating on mise-en-scène and camera shots. As defined in the Film Art: An Introduction by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, mise-en-scene is "all of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the settings and props, lighting, costumes and makeup, and figure behavior." 

Argument

George Romero exemplifies his social criticism in the establishing mall scene for the audience through the evocation of a haunting nightmare that is startlingly familiar. Romero spends an entire minute cutting back and forth between lifeless mannequins and lifeless faces (figs. 2/3 and 5/6), stumbling forms aimlessly roaming around locked store fronts (fig. 1), and passive figures waiting for the slow crawl of an escalator to reach the top of its destination (figs. 7-10). Outside of the one sitting in the fountain clutching at the loose change of lost wishes (fig. 4), the zombies loitering the walkways remind the film’s viewer of shoppers awaiting the full opening of the mall’s shops. Romero even includes the chiming of a clock that has all of the zombie in the shot momentarily pause as if they were waiting for the metallic clang of store fronts lifting their gates to let them in to wander around.

Analysis

In a single minute of run-time, Romero demonstrates the upsetting reality of consumer culture through the parallel of the zombies and the audience. The full impact of Romero’s message would have been felt by the viewer watching his film in a mall theater in 1978, but it is a message that has not been lost over the past four decades: we as consumers are slaves to capitalism and even death does not offer an escape. The first look at the inside of the mall is a wide shot of the first floor in low lighting (fig. 1). The zombies wandering aimlessly around are obscured in the shadows. If not for the stiff shuffling, the 1978 audience would have been hard-pressed to distinguish between the zombies on the screen from the people loitering outside the theater in which they were sitting.

Explanation

The mall’s establishing scene initiates the obfuscation of the zombie as other. The refrain of “[t]hey’re us” starts in the silent comparison Romero offers his audience in this single, minute-long glimpse of the zombie apocalypse. Even if the rest of the movie took place elsewhere, one could still argue that Romero presents a social critique of consumerism in this one scene as he exemplified through the different criticisms demonstrated elsewhere in the film’s first act: the ineffective press unable to maintain a balanced and unbiased presentation of information, the excessive force and brutality inherent in police raids as well as racism within the ranks of the SWAT unit, and the similarities between the armed services and the country “rednecks”/militia. Romero’s criticisms resonate with a modern audience, because the viewer can still draw these parallels. “They’re us,” and we are unfortunately them.

While we have given you an example of the importance of one scene, we want to let you know that not every scene in a film needs interpretation. You might be able to argue an entire paper with a single scene as your evidence. You just need to always keep in mind the requirements of your assignment: paper topic and length.

Describing the scene in detail while revealing a hidden meaning is the purpose of a scene analysis.  Not every film has depth like Romero’s, so be careful when you are picking your own example to work with.