Night of the Living Dead '30th Aniversary Edition' doesnt begin with any idents but instead starts with the credits. All of the text is in a white, capital sans-serif font on black. The credits play until 57 seconds into the film. I think that the credits run for too long at the start and they would be better just having a few names at the start of the film and the rest at the end. But I do think that the music works well in the opening as it uses both long slow notes with faster piano notes which makes the opening instantly feel more tense.
The music ends, the last name credited fades out and the black screen cuts to the first scene. There is an extreme long shot of a large factory-like building. It is quite a long take and the camera stays still through it.
It then cuts to another extreme long shot of the side/back of the building with a pick up truck parked in the foreground. You then hear a diagetic American male voice as a man opens a wire gate. Another two men then walk out of the gate and carry a coffin to the truck. They struggled to carry the coffin and when they get to the pick up truck they hold their backs to signify that the coffin is heavy which I think works quite well, but then one of the men says that the coffin is necessary which I think takes away from the scene instantly as it is unnecessary exposition. The two men then lift the coffin onto the back of the truck. All three men then start talking and the shot cuts to an over the shoulder medium long shot as they continue to talk. As they speak they provide exposition which I think is way too blunt as they say things that no one would say in real life, just to get the exposition across. During the talking the shot cuts between the two shot types twice, and all of the takes are quite long. The two men then get into the truck and rev it up.
It then cuts to an extreme long shot of the building which is a similar shot to the one at the start. I think that they should of shown the truck actually driving away in the previous shot before cutting to this scene. The pick up truck drives along past the side of the building and non-diagetic music begins to play. At the same time there is diagetic sound of one of the men in the car talking, however it sounds like a voice over as it stays on the same shot and the voice is a lot louder than the car. I think that to make this work they would of needed to cut to a medium two shot of the men from inside the car as they talk, otherwise it sounds completely out of place with the shot.
Then it cuts to an extreme long shot of the truck driving down an empty country road. I like the composition of this shot however they continue with the diagetic talking which sounds out of place. The talking is also still to blunt and unnatural. The camera pans a little as the truck goes past to follow it.
Next it cuts to another extreme long shot from inside a graveyard looking across to a road. The pick up truck drives across and the camera pans with it as the truck pulls into the graveyard. The graveyard could foreshadow death in the film.
It then cuts to another extreme long shot from inside the cemetary as the truck drives through it. The camera again pans across as the truck goes past to follow it.
There is then another extreme long shot of the truck driving through the graveyard. The camera tracks across to show the backs of three people. A man and a woman who both have a spade, and a vicar.
It cuts to a long three shot of the three people. The vicar is bald, holds a bible, wears black vicar clothes and is looking down. This signifies that he is serious about this burial and is there to do his job. He comes across as very wierd through the rest of the opening although I dont think this is intentional. The other man is quite a fat middle aged person who wears a checked shirt tucked into his trousers. He starts shouting at the men in the truck to park there. The character is meant to be represented as a serious man but he comes across as a bit stupid and melodramatic due to the bad acting. The woman wears a floral dress over a long sleeved top. She is also middle aged and has her arms folded which signifies that she is also quite angry at the man in the coffin. The truck finally parks. I think that the driving scene is too long, there is not enough shot variation and the dialogue between the two men in the truck is too blunt and artificial.
It cuts to a medium long shot of the driver getting out of the truck and the passenger getting out in the background. The camera pans to show the driver walk around to the back of the truck. It then cuts again to a medium shot at the back of the truck and the passenger walks into shot with the driver. The clumsy talking continues which gives you more exposition about the different characters. The man in the coffin was executed in an electric chair for raping and strangling the middle aged man and womans young daughter; the two men from the start think that the man should be cremated instead of having him buried and the vicar and church dont believe in cremation.
The two men lift the coffin off the back of the truck. There are then two low angle medium close ups of the mother and father of the girl who was killed. The two men take the lid off the coffin as requested, the father spits on the 'dead' man and then the mother and father walk away after the vicar says hes going to say a prayer, because they dont think he deserves a prayer. The other two men then walk off to smoke. It then cross cuts between a low angle medium close up of the vicar saying his prayer and a medium long two shot of the men smoking. This connotes that the vicar will be safe because it presents him as a good man due to the low angle and him saying a prayer, whereas the other two men might not be safe because they are smoking.
The vicar finishes his prayer and walks away and the other two men go to put the lid back on. One of the men says that the dead body moves, the other one says that dead bodys twitch all the time, and then both men see the dead man open his eyes. When his eyes open a single low piano note plays which I think is quite effective. The two men then freak out and run to the truck and drive away as the dead man gets out of his coffin and tries to go after. I think that the bad acting makes this very unbelievable and almost comical.
It cuts to a medium long shot of the passanger leaning out of the window looking backwards. The car keeps driving as the camera pans to follow it and the shot ends with an extreme long shot from behind the truck of it driving away. I think that quicker editing is needed here to add suspense.
The entire opening is in black and white and uses long takes throughout. Also this opening was not in the original film but was part of the newly-shot scenes for the 30th anniversary edition.
I don't like this opening because I think that there isnt enough shot variation; the exposition could be provided by mise-en-scene effectively without it being difficult to film but instead they provide all exposition through direct, unnatural talking; I think that most of the acting is pretty terrible and I also think that the takes are too long which makes the film seem slow and unexciting.
I think that the music in the opening is very good though, and its something that we might be able to use as inspiration for the music in our opening.
The opening is 7 minutes 17 seconds.
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