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.
1st 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.
2nd 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.
3rd Slide
In the 3rd 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 PoV 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.
4th Slide
In the 4th 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.
5th 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 5th 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.
6th Slide
In the 6th 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.
7th 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.