Post Apocalyptic Research

Anna Medvedeva

Usually in post apocalyptic genres it is about

survival of people while a drastic change (mostly a disaster) has occurred in the world

The narrative of Post Apocalyptic films usually tells us about journeys to a safe place.

For example in “The Road” movie two people (father and his son) traveling to South where there is a possibility of other survivers.

Post Apocalyptic Genre

These are the possible disasters that people use in their post apocalyptic

films.

War/Nuclear war (Mad Max) Virus/Science experiments that went wrong

and caused diseases (Resident Evil) Global Warming (The Day After Tomorrow)

Settings

Post Apocalyptic movies start either with voiceover

that tells you what caused the disaster (Mad Max) or with something that started going wrong (The Day After Tomorrow).

For example, “The Road” movie starts with the main hero wakes up from his dream from the past and during the film he sees flashbacks that tell audience what happened with the world.

The moral in Post Apocalyptic movies usually tells us to stop doing something what might cause the end of the world.

Plot

1. Keep it short but sweet (try to tell all important thing in a short time) some

P.A. movies are too long and audience looses their interest in halfway through the movie, an example of which is the 2012 movie

2. Show characters banding together to survive (Mad Max 2)3. Focus on worldbuilding (show your audience not just how people trying to

survive but also what happened before “The Day After Tomorrow)4. Don’t forget that P.A. movies, are, in part about hope for survival (audience

like movies where someone or something survive after the world ends “Resident Evil”)

5. Never forget the MacGyvering (audience like when the main character “hero” creates something incredible out of nothing which helps him/her to survive)

6. Let the visuals tell the story (some audience prefer to not see to much dialogue in P.A. movies)

7. Don’t forget the cautionary message (show that something like in the movie might happen with our world if we don’t pay attention to some things “The Day After Tomorrow”)

8. Don’t forget the humour (even in a very hard and grim film audience would appreciate an on time sense of humor)

9. Don’t be afraid to take risks (make something unusual and new in your movie)

9 Rules For Creating Great Post-Apocalyptic Movies

Post Apocalyptic movies are usually dark and

gloomy which helps the audience to build up attention on some special things. There are not too many bright colours typically grey, black or brown like in movie “The Road” all that film is in grey and black colours.

Themes and Style

Hero who helps somebody or a group of

people to survive “The Road, Mad Max 2” Hero’s enemies (could be any types e.g.

people, zombies, could be both etc.) “The Road, 28 Days Later”

Usually hero has protective skills and kills enemies to protect others

One or more people that help and accompany the hero (28 Days Later)

Characters

Timeline For P.A.

These are top ten best post apocalyptic movies of all time

Timeline For P.A.

The movie is about global warming that caused

a new ice age on the Earth. This movie starts with noticeable climate

change in the north of the planet. During the film, a group of people are trying to

survive from tsunamis and cold. The movie was released 28th of May 2004 The running time is 117 minutes Promotion company is Dreamwatch Total Gross- $ 186, 740, 799

The Day After Tomorrow

New York was the location where the main

story had been represented Some of the scenes were represented in Los

Angeles, Tokyo and India (weather disasters, for instance tornadoes)

Library- safe place where people were waiting for the others to help them

Middle East- where people from America emigrated to because of the critical climate change

Settings/Location

One of the main characters Jack Hall (Dennis

Quaid) was represented at the beginning of the movie when he was working in the North region of the Earth (this scene clearly gives an idea to audience that Jack is a scientist)

Another character Sam that was Jack Hall’s son (Donnie Darko’s Jake Gyllenhaal) was shown while he was getting ready to go to New York for a study competition with his friends and a girl that he was in love with.

Characters

His main intention in the movie was to get to

New York where his son was waiting for him, so that together, they help the citizens to survive

At the beginning of the movie he was trying to warn the government about global warming that will happen if they don’t take any actions to stop it.

Jack Hall(Dennis Quaid)

His main mission in the movie is to save as

many people as he can, when disaster occurred in New York he escaped with his friends to the main library in the city.

He had a chance to talk to his father (Jack Hall) who told him that he and the rest of the survivors should stay in the library until help arrives.

Sam (Donnie Darko’s Jake Gyllenhaal)

CU Shots-very common for this genre since

they show characters emotions specially for intense moments

Establishing Shots-showed in details what is happening at exact moment of the movie (tornadoes, tsunamis)

Shot Reverse Shots- typical in this type of genres because there are usually lots of conversations between characters (help to see characters feelings and attitude)

Camera Work

When the movie starts there are fade in and

fade out effects Conversation edits between Jack Hall and

people that he was giving his speech to on the meeting

Disaster shots were created in CGI (New York in snow, Los Angeles in tornadoes etc)

Editing

Both of these movies are Post Apocalyptic genres where

the only difference between them is that “The Road” shows the time after the global disaster and in “The Day After Tomorrow” they show what’s happening during the global warming for instance what caused the disaster.

During “The Road” movie we find out that some problems that people have is due to the weather conditions (earthquakes or storms) which is the same as in “The Day After Tomorrow”

The end of these movies are quite similar, the boy from “The Road” finds other survivors and people from “The Day After Tomorrow” finally get help from government

The Day After Tomorrow and The

Road

Producers use similar camera techniques to

film these movies (lots of close ups and establish shots)

Some of the shots were created in CGI program (forest in flames in “The Road” and tsunamis in “The Day After Tomorrow”

The Day After Tomorrow and The

Road

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+Road

&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=kiPqT5LJGoGg0QXqm6Fc&ved=0CEQQ_AUoAQ&biw=1061&bih=583

http://io9.com/5354093/shane-ackers-9-rules-for-creating-great-post+apocalyptic-movies

http://www.filmeducation.org/teachingtrailers/secondary/what.html

http://movies.about.com/library/weekly/aadayaftertomorrowcast.htm

http://totalscifionline.com/dreamwatch-archive/3176-the-day-after-tomorrow

References