Time manipulation in digital cinema is critical in making the viewer feel the true action and pacing of a scene.
In ‘Shaun of the Dead’, director Edgar Wright creatively manipulates time to make viewers entertained while seeing the same scene several times. While Shaun is coming of with ‘The Plan’ for how they will survive the apocalypse, he amends it each time, while keeping the core plan the same. However, rather than completely skipping over showing the plan multiple times, Wright utilizes the same shots each time, sped up or slightly changed. This adds a great comedic effect to the scene and allows viewers to glimpse the quick montage multiple times, hopefully capturing different details in each pass.
This montage unfolds as a quick sequence of events, further highlighting that this is an imagined scenario rather than real life. This is aided by the vocal narration, which furthers the urgency felt and the similarities of each pass of the montage. Overall, it’s an extremely effective and fitting way to present a plan of future actions that not only keeps the viewer entertained, but it also adds to their experience despite seeing the same footage multiple times in a row.
(Best comedy trilogy!)