Research into existing products - Dawn of the Dead.

The 'Dawn of the Dead' was released in 2004 and was directed by Zack Snyder. I have chosen to research this version because it is the remake of the original version, 'Dawn of the Dead' by George A. Romero, which was released in 1978.
The film itself, whever it be the original or remake has an extremely huge fan-base and is recognized as one of the most famous 'zombie' films of all time and being a 'modern classic'.
Stereotypically, remakes aren't meant to measure up to the originals, so this remake had a hard task of reaching the level of standard produced in the original, which produced an overall revenue of $55 million and was the most profitable of the 'Living Dead' series that Romero had created.
The remake surprised everyone and surpassed the revenue of the original, with a overall revenue of $102 million worldwide! However, the remake has adjusted some of the features from the original, for example, in the original the 'living dead' (zombies) move slowly for dramatic effect and to add to their impact, whereas in the remake, the zombies are quick, agile and more aggressive.

The opening sequence of the remake itself shows an instant impact on the audience, revealing the storyline from the very start, which was not in the original film as the storyline developed over a number of weeks.
As the opening begins, we are presented with a black screen with bold, medium red font to the right of the screen displaying the Universal Pictures credit, the font then becomes smudged and runs to the right side, the connotation of this is that the writing is blood, adding to the horror theme as we hear the non-diegetic sound of liquid running, again relating to the blood.

We are then presented with a aerial long shot of people bowing down to pray in a mosque, as we hear the diegetic sound of them praying in chorus, perhaps relating to the mass of the praying congregation to the mass of the zombies later on in the storyline.
In the same style as the 'Se7en' opening, the sequence consists of different images or recordings pieced together to create a disorganized  montage.

In the opening we are then presented with mid shots of dead bodies and close ups of aggressive faces of zombies, we hear non-diegetic screaming and the smudging of the blood as credits appear on screen and then fade out.

Again, like the 'Se7en' opening, sometimes images appear on the screen so quickly, the audience can't see what it is, but know that something just appeared, adding to the fast paced, animalistic mood of the opening, relating to how the zombies themselves behave.
The cuts between shots are sharp and jumpy, showing no signs of seamless editing as the whole opening is pieced of abrupt shots and cuts, occasionally stopping to show the black credit screen.
The title for the film flashes onto our screens in a jump cut, big bold red font stacked on-top of each other and then eventually smudges out like the rest of the 'blood' credits.
The non-diegetic screaming fades out once the title has faded off-screen.

 Then, the audience hear a narration, a series of questions and answers, which appears to be a news interview about the pandemic which the whole storyline is based upon, this dialogue overlaps over flashing images. The answers are very vague and the speaker sounds upset, showing that there is no clear cut reason as to why this is happening, so the storyline itself is disorientated, like the fast paced, artificially lit clips of writhing zombies and mid shots of soldiers in protective gear stood in open spaces.
Eventually, among the zombie clips, we are shown a mid shot of a middle aged man, in a suit, standing at a podium answering the questions as the camera zooms toward his face to a close up, showing the worry and anxiety he feels at answering these detailed questions, the clip then cuts back and forth to static before the voices fade out.

Here, the sequence changes, the song 'When the man comes around' by Johnny Cash fades in over clips of riot police in action on dark chaotic city streets, the shots are faster now, jumping to extreme close ups of DNA samples under a microscope, more people undergoing interviews, as the diegetic voices of the interviews fade behind the song.
The static on the screen becomes more frequent now, and the clips are faster paced, often of fires, crowds, crashing cars and adding an overall theme of panic, chaos and the breakdown of society to the opening, relating to the storyline itself.

Sometimes diegetic sounds from the clips can be heard, such as glass smashing, sirens wailing or guns firing, adding to the atmosphere.

The clips featured are heavily industrialized and often city based, such as destroyed streets and burning shops and people fleeing then scenes in the background.
But they contrast with the zombie clips, often crowds of writhing zombies, pale faced and blood stained all bumping against each other. As the clips develop, they become more disorientated and chaotic.

There are aerial shots of fighting crowds, long shots of walls of people, long aerial shots of marching zombies, with screen static and scratching cutting between them and the credit screen.
We begin to hear the diegetic groaning, hissing and biting of the zombies behind the song as the clips go on.

As the clip reaches a climatic ending, we see one of the clips of a reporter featured earlier in the sequence, but only now do we see him panic and shout as a couple of rabid zombies sprint into the room, the camera man turns to face them in a scratchy, mid shot as the zombies attack fellow crew members. A close up of a zombie attacking the camera and obviously the man behind it, ends the clip as we see the zombies mouth and the blood and the screen fades to black.

Leaving only the song playing now, with the final sentence 'A pale horse, and his name was death, and hell followed with him' as static fades out on the end of the sentence, ending the opening.