The wonder of the horror movie “Dawn of the Dead” seen from the perspective of “editing”

An editing approach that defines independent film

However, focusing on indie activities means that both the production scale and the budget are limited. For this reason, Romero places emphasis on editing as a means of smoothly developing low-budget films. By shooting a lot of footage, the screen does not become monotonous, and to ensure that he does not lack material for editing, he uses highly mobile handheld cameras to shoot, preparing and editing about twice as much material as usual. It is perhaps inevitable that such measures led to the massive number of shots in "Dawn of the Dead ofthe Dead," at 3,000. In "Document of the Dead, " he says,

"Editing is easy if you narrow down the highlights at the script stage, and some people don't like elaborate editing. But I shoot a lot of footage. That's because I want the movie to look three-dimensional."

Romero's skillful and efficient directing and editing had already been perfected by the time of his first feature film, " Night of the Living Dead" (1968). This film, which shocked the world as the first cannibalistic Dawn of the Dead film, was added to the collection of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York) in 1980, just 12 years after its release. In other words, from an academic point of view, the creation of the "Dawn of the Dead" character and the creation of a non-classical modern horror were recognized as art, and it was also recognized as a valuable piece of "film heritage" as one of the works that established the grammar of American indie films.

"Dawn of the Dead" (C) 1978 THE MKR GROUP INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

When talking about horror movies, a genre that directly stimulates human psychology, from a technical perspective, you may feel frustrated, as if you are attacking the main castle from the outer moat with a magnifying glass and tweezers, rather than arrows and guns. However, the creation of a spectacularly scary movie leaves traces of excellent technique. The masterpiece "Dawn of the Dead" is often talked about in terms of the different versions, but when you watch it from the perspective of today, 40 years after its release, there are still many discoveries to be made. It is a Dawn of the Dead horror that transcends time and brings amazing excitement forever.

References

Paul R. Gagne “The Zombies That Ate Pittsburg: The Films of George A. Romero”Dodd, Mead & Company (1987)

Text: Kazuo Ozaki

Film critic and writer. His main writing sites include print media such as ``Figure King'', ``Champion RED'', ``Eiga Hiho'', and ``Hokkaido'', and web media such as ``Eiga.com'' and ``The Cinema''. In addition, he has contributed many explanations and essays to theater pamphlets, movie mook books, and DVD & Blu-ray software booklets. She also formed a cinema comedian unit [Movie Gachinko Brothers] under the name "Dolly Ozaki" and appears on TV and at talk events.

Twitter: @dolly_ozaki

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Dawn of the Dead director's cut version

Blu-ray now on sale 4,700 yen (excluding tax)

Publisher: “Dawn of the Dead” BD Release Committee Publisher: Happinet

(C) 1978 THE MKR GROUP INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.