I Am Legend Introduction Analysis

I Am Legend-2007

         Horror / Science fiction / Drama / Thriller

 The introduction to I Am Legend, up until the title, is roughly 8 and a half minutes long. Like World War Z, they also begin with news reports. It starts off with an average news report. they news reports are talking about sports, and the different cities that are going to be taken part. The city New York is mentions several times, hinting that New York is where the film is going to be located. The news reports lead up to the interview with Dr Alice Krippin. She is talking about how a 'Viral cure for cancer' had been created. Through out the  interview, Dr Krippin looks nervous, or worried, as if she is lying. I believe this is implying that she suspects something is, or has, gone wrong. This is could also be seen as foreshadowing the events that followed. When the interviewer asked Dr Krippin how many people had been cured, she replied 10,009. But when the interviewer then said "so you have actually cured cancer.", Dr Krippin was hesitant to say yes. The way she said "Yes, yes. Yes we have" made it sound as if she didn't mean it, or that she was hiding something, further contributing to the foreshadowing of the events that followed.

The producers, just like in World War Z, have decided to use a 'viral infection' to make the movie seem more realistic. It is easier for the audience to picture/imagine something like this really happening, making the movie seem even more frightening to the audience.
World War Z and I Am Legend came out within 10 years of each other. I believe this is why their introductions are so similar.   

After the news report, it cuts to a high angle tilted shot of, what appears to be a flooded highway. As the news reports mentioned New York city several times, we can assume this is were the shot is located.
The producers have used props (Mise-en-scene) such as cars, overgrowth of weeds and grass on the roads, and the flooding to show the audience how obviously devastating the situation got. We can see the area has been abandoned as there is nobody to be seen, or heard in this shot. The text on the screen, tells us this is three years after, what appears to be the apocalypse. There is the sound of birds in the background, but apart from that, it is silent. The text, as well as the sound is telling us it has been like this for a very long time. We can assume it was the apocalypse as all the vehicles look abandoned, are there is a lot of overgrowth on the roads.




Focus: Mise-en-scene:
Props such as abandoned Cars, buses, and the rusted road signs are used to create the feeling on desertification in the area. Nobody is in the area that we can see. The cars and buses have just been left, as if they were abandoned in a rush. Without these props, the area would just look flooded, not abandoned and left for what we can tell is a long time. These props will also add to the sense of loneliness the audience may be feeling, as the area looks abandoned.






Below, I have included the parts to the introduction that I have analysed.