Rise Of The Zombie Bollywood Production Context

In this blog post I will be discussing the production context in Rise Of The Zombie. I will be discussing the genre, stars involved in this film, how the narrative, dialog, characters and locations which relates to the production context of this film.

Rise of the Zombies can also fit into two genre categories which is also known as a hybrid. The genre of this film is a horror and romance because the film is about a man that was bitten by a bug in the woods where he was travelling and turns into a zombie. He goes travelling because he separated from his girlfriend Vinny which he is still holding on his love he has for her as he turns to a zombie. This film fits in the horror genre because there are many jumpy scenes, dark lighting and gory scenes. There were many gorey scenes in this film for example; when Neil Parker is a zombie and attacks a man and pulls his heart out. This man came down to the woods because he was taking some food down there for Neil as they still think he is alive human. This would be quite scary for the targeted audience because Bollywood films don't have higher budgeted films compared to Hollywood so they don't have all the new technologies such as special effects to make this scene look more realistic. Another example of a gory scene within this film would be when Neil Parker eats an eye ball which is pretty gory for their targeted audience.

Rise of the Zombies can also be a romance film because its also about a love story as well as Neil Park turning into a zombie. For example; at the beginning of this film Neil and Vinny are together all loved up but become in an argument about Neil going away all the time and not spending time with her. He then disappears after they separate and he is constantly ringing her from unknown numbers, this is showing he is still in love with her and can't live without her in his life. This is shown throughout the film as Neil has loads of flashbacks of him and Vinny all loved up when they were together as a couple. As he goes missing for several weeks Vinny becomes concerned and won't give up to find him as she realises how much she loves him. In all Bollywood films no matter what genre it is the storyline is always based on a love story/romance between a couple.

The production context of Rise of the Zombies is known as a Bollywood production because of the music used at the beginning, location, the use of product placement, sound and the amount of sponsors they had for this film. The music used at the beginning of this film was typical music used in all Bollywood films. This is because Bollywood films use cultural music instruments from India to make their music. Here are some of the musical instruments they may use to make their music; harmonium and tabla. This can instantly tell the audience that the film is a Bollywood production because Hollywood and British films wouldn't use this type of music. The lyrics in one of the music tracks in this film relates to some of the action of the character as well as the production context. For example; in the scene when Neil Parker eats an eye ball the lyrics over the top of this action was 'tears in my eyes'. This is showing that Neil is doing these things as he is upset and heart broken as he still loves his e-girlfriend and won't ever see her again because he has turned into a zombie. Another way that this film can be a Bollywood production is the amount of sponsors they had for this production, these were listed at the beginning of the film. As Bollywood don't have large budgets to make a film they can get their money from sponsors from companies and by using product placement. Due to not having a bigger budget as other production context, for example Hollywood they can't afford to have major Hollywood stars or special effects in their films. Rise of the Zombies also got some of their funds/budget from product placement as they used many products in their film such as; Nikon camera, Blackberry, MacBook and a Converse t-shirt. The more the production company showed the products in a shot with the companies logo the more money they would get.

In this film the main star which is well known in Bollywood films is Luke Kenny. He is the director of this film as well as the main character 'Neil Parker'. As he is both an actor and director he will get a lot more publicity for his film from his fans as he would be well known in two fields acting and directing. This is very similar to the film we watched for the Hollywood production context 'World War Z' as Brad Pitt was the main character and the producer of the film.

The narrative of Rise of the Zombies is very simple compared to World War Z as that film's narrative was very in depth. This is because this film is about Neil Parking breaking up from his girlfriend and going away which he then slowly turns into a zombie. They may have used this simple narrative because they didn't have a very big budget to make this film and by showing him slowly turning into a zombie would be a lot cheaper than a zombie apocalypse like World War Z. This is because they wouldn't need to pay many actors as they didn't have hardly any extras and only had 2 main character which were Neil and his girlfriend. Rise of the Zombies narrative can also be very simple as they only filmed in one location for the whole film which was Uttarakhand, India. In the film they did use two countries but they were still filmed in the same location. By having only one filming location can indicate that the film is a low budget. This location links with the production context because Bollywood films are mainly filmed in India. You can tell that this filmed was filmed in India because there were many street stalls in the town, for example; when Neil Parker went in the town to constantly ring his ex girlfriend, the scenery had may stalls in the town with many people walking and biking around.

The dialog used in Rise of the Zombies is very similar to World War Z as they both are very formal. Bollywood films normally use formal language in their films because they may want to widen their target audience to younger audiences and to do this they have to use more formal language so the age rating doesn't get higher. This is because Bollywood films don't have a very big target audience or become as successful compared to Hollywood films.

Bollywood films don't follow all of Vladimir Propp's theory of the 7spheres of character. They may do this because their narrative is always based on a romance no matter what genre the film is. Rise of the Zombie used two of the 7spheres of characters which could be argued 'Vinnie' is the princess but could resemble the hero towards the end of the film. She would be known as the princess because she's Neil's ex-girlfriend and she becomes very needy as she is very worried about him going missing. She could be argued as a hero character because towards the end of the film she starts to look for him and doesn't give up even though she doesn't find him at the end of the film. The character that brings food down to the woods for Neil would be known as a donor because he is bringing food to Neil. Where as Hollywood films use all of the 7spheres of characters; for example; World War Z.

As Rise of the Zombie had a low budget they used more editing styles compared to digital effects. For example; when Neil pulls a mans heart out in the woods. This would of been added in post production because they wouldn't be able to show this visually when filming because their budget was quite low. When we was watching this film we would of found this seen quite funny as we are used to seeing more high budgeted films and expect more. The Bollywood audience would find this scene very scary and gory as they don't expect CGI effects to make it look a lot more realistic if it actually happened. They also used a lot of media make up for Neil as he gradually turns into a zombie which is a lot cheaper that adding CGI effects. In World War Z they would of used media make up for all the extras playing the zombies but would of added CGI affects to make the zombies look more realistic and scarier. Rise of the zombies used some digital effects but more editing styles, for example; when Neil was taking pictures of the wildlife on his Nikon camera at the beginning of the film, it cut to the actual camera screen as he was taking the pictures.