The Walking Dead Opening Credits Textual Analysis By

The Walking Dead, Opening Credits, Textual Analysis By Jordan Parmenter

Introduction This analysis is following the Season 5 premiere of The Walking Dead, mainly identifying the grittiness of the show. Shall be explained.

1 st Slide This scene, is a car exploding into a flaming ember, with the text AMC Presents. In this opening scene, setting the entire mood for the show, it already puts the audience into a tense, ‘up-beat’ edge for the show. Throughout these opening credits, there is no diegetic sound, the infamous theme from the show is played during this sequence as it has for the past 5 seasons. The slight grey, gritty shade over the scene, this obviously has slight denotations, it represents a fight, as well, a burst of energy, like you would get if you were there, without the sound of the car exploding, and just the dark, eerie music, it just has a slight feel which always puts you on edge, similar to the content in the show itself. As well, If you’re familiar with the show yourself, you’ll recognise that the last episode of the previous season, it was like an explosion, setting off lots of fans to go into outcry due to its cliff-hanger ending. Overall, this opening scene sets the scene itself without you really noticing what it does.

2 nd Slide This scene, is an introduction the actors in the show, beginning with the protagonist, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) And two bullets from what seems to be a rifle of some sort. In this next scene, we have two bullets, from what seems to be a revolver, this is in direct correlation with the protagonists weapon of choice, again, if you’re familiar with the show, you’ll know the protagonist (Rick Grimes) uses a revolver/magnum as his main firearm. Anyhow, this scene may seem plain, but it plays a big part to these opening credits, the fact the bullets have fired and these shells have came off, shows the gun is obviously being fired, this is also reinforced by the smoke in the background and that they’re falling, this creates a feeling of redemption and violence. Therefore creating a dark atmosphere that this season is going to be violent, this is due to the other seasons opening credits being much more to the point on who the bullets were being fired at, this creates mystery as you don’t know who.

3 rd Slide In the 3 rd scene, we have a glimpse (Around 3 seconds) of a possible location or introduction to this character, if you’re familiar with the show, Daryl Dixon has a shady past, we have seen flashbacks from a lot of the characters Po. V but this character has not seen that light yet, therefore leading to speculation about the character. As well, in this scene it is fairly shaded, low tone lighting, creating a dark atmosphere which the show possesses, finally, this scene is placed with the doom sound, in the music, it booms at this point, now this character is globally renown for his ‘epicness’ this is most probably reinforced with this boom at this point. This scene, shows a gun store, and if you see, a crossbow on a rack, this is representing Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) as his main weapon of choice is a composite crossbow.

4 th Slide In the 4 th scene, we have a clear representation of the character, he is known to be on the clock, getting supplies as fast as possible, this scene also may seem like it has a grey filter over it, it is due to it being night as represented by the pocket watch being at midnight, this is most likely portrayed as a possible supply run scenario for the character, this is also representing the fact, you are always on a timer, sooner or later, the clock will stop and in this season the clock will stop for a lot of the characters. This scene, we have a pocket watch in Roman Numerals, and a hand with a glove sliding across it, the character represented here is, Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) he is known as the minute man in the show, the runner for goods etc.

5 th Slide This scene, we have a black eagle flapping its wings, the character represented here is Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan), oldest daughter of Hershel Greene, the choice of the black eagle here is due to her being a precise shot In the 5 th scene, we have a black eagle swooping down for the kill on it’s prey, this is obviously representing the characters precise shot with a sniper rifle, she is renown for her precise kills on her prey, whether it’s; animals, walkers (Zombies) or other survivors. The use of a black eagle and a black background also represents hiding in the darkness, taking advantage of your gifts, putting them to use. As well, this character in the season before hand, struck a infamous bandit with a knife in the back of the neck stealthily, this is most probably referencing that scene. Finally, the fact that the eagle is spreading it’s wings may be referencing the wings that are spread on Daryl’s back, his jacket has a black eagle with it’s wings spread, so maybe, some reference there.

6 th Slide In the 6 th scene, we have a blurred and focused combo of the same scene, this shot is clearly on the ground, watching the feet of supposed Carl Grimes, the fact it’s in the wilderness is most probably referencing the characters travelling to a safe haven known as Terminus, and maybe they had to go off the designated track, this could be a small snippet on what may occur during this season, whether it’s them travelling towards terminus, or away. As well, the supposed character is most likely to be this one as the shoes he is wearing are odd, this is referencing the episode where he lost one of his shoes, making this theory most likely, as well due to the actor’s name being present on this scene. This scene, we have a blurred and focused image of a person walking, believed to be Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) son of Rick Grimes.

7 th Slide This scene we have the title of the show put on a black screen. In the final scene, we have the title of the show, The Walking dead, over what seems to be a black background, but as I did a little research, you see the dark, dried yellow font and a slight colour variation here, we see that it’s in a wood. Onto the font, the font for this has a rugged, damaged look to it, ‘slightly grungey’, this creates a visual representation of the overall damaged civilisation we know as Earth, everything is overgrowing and peace has been broken. The colour of the font is dried up yellow, this is most likely representing the dried up grass, Earth dying etc. A reference to music, the music in this scene has been building up on the previous ones, and when you expect a jump, it has become known to the fans, that when the slideshow of scenes ends, it’s when the music reaches a key note and abruptly ends here.