Zombie Cliche Lookout: Too Wrapped Up
Today’s episode is sort of a counter-example of a normal zombie trope: characters getting too wrapped up in what they’re doing to realize how much danger they’re in. First we’ll talk about how it’s normally played straight, and then we’ll look at how we’re turning it on its ear. Distraction is one of the biggest killers in zombie stories, especially after the initial chaos wears off and people have to face the day to day realities of survival. Despite knowing how dangerous things are, they will frequently lose sight of this and end up getting infected or killed because they’re so consumed in something. Examples range from arguments to sex, listening to music too loud to falling asleep.
On the other side of the coin, some characters know where to draw the line. Their own activities are important, but they aren’t worth risking death for. These seem to happen much less frequently in zombie stories, and usually as a way of contrasting certain characters from others, or to show leadership ability.
About this Episode:
I’m trying some close-up shots on characters, which is hard to do (at least it is for me, because I suck at photography). You can look forward to a few more of these in the coming episodes as I experiment a bit more. I like the idea of isolating a character for a particular snippet of dialog.
Discussion Question: Music to Die For
Here’s another fun discussion question from BrickVoid: “What kind of music do you think people will turn to in a zombie apocalypse? What tuneful songs will most likely get belted out around an impregnable fortress housing lots of survivors, for instance? Would any rock band stand a chance of causing auditory loss sufficient to cause catastrophic brain trauma to any zombie that wandered too near their speakers? What other ridiculous music-themed ideas will you most likely witness in a zombie apocalypse scenario?”
For some reason the first thing I noticed was the fact that I was really drawn into the first panel, so I was pleasantly surprised to read afterwards that you are experimenting with close-ups. Maybe just a little-bit out of focus (did you use manual focus because imo manually focusing works best!). You used a kinda large depth of field so that makes focusing very specific and more difficult sometimes. I mostly use close-ups to focus on an important (or funny :P) sentence that character is saying without the surroundings disturbing.
One small question, did you change the color-warmth in the first (and maybe second?) panel? They look kinda greenish to me compared to panel 3 and 4.
I use automatic focus because my eyes aren’t good enough to get a good focus through the viewfinder. I didn’t even realize that the first frame was slightly soft. Ugh.
I did warm up the first frame, but not the second. If they’re off, I’ll again blame my eyes, specifically color blindness (I’m just full of excuses today).
Dave, that first frame is annoying. It’s like I’m looking at a totally different Cheryl from an alternate universe. It’s like you broke the color on it or something. Can you please fix it? It doesn’t look right to me.
Especially when you realize whatever photoshop effect you used didn’t stop at her face, but also changed the color of her hair from reddish brown to brown! That’s just …. impossible! 😀
I didn’t realize I messed up the color that much. I’ll try to fix it on Friday.
“…danger *they’re in.”
“…lose *sight…”
God, those are some embarrassing typos. Fixed.
Q of the day, I think I’ll still listen to what music I’m listening to right now, mostly movies soundtracks, some rock band (Linkin Park, Yellowcard). The real question is when will people feel safe enough to listen to music…
Enya
…
I would be rocking out to enya <..>