Introduction:
TITLE: Zero Day
RELEASED DATE: 24 January 2004
DIRECTOR: Ben Coccio
GENRE: Drama
STARRING: Cal Robertson and Andre Keuck
Narrative Structure:
Alongside most films Zero Day also used Todorov’s Equilibrium model. It started with an equilibrium where the state of normality was seen in first few minutes of the film in the form of old pictures and home videos of the 2 characters when they were younger e.g. Cal’s 5th birthday party. This was then followed by the disruption where the state of normality was interrupted by Cal and Andre revealing their plot to do a shooting in their high school. The new equilibrium comes at the end when the state of normality is restored again, this is shown when they’re memorial crosses are burned.
The film is seen in a chronological order as the its seen from the earliest dates of which things happened, moving to in order to later dates of occurring events. This is seen as the beginning starts with the revealing of childhood pictures and the revealing of the plot and the film ends with completion of their months of planning. The narrative structure is a single strand, closed narrative. This is because the film only follows one storyline of Cal and Andre’s plan and it’s closed as the film ends with them achieving their goal and putting a clear end on it with them shooting themselves. The audience sees and knows all the information thus making the narrative omniscient.
Genre Codes, Conventions and Representation
The characters are very typical of the genre as –drama- as there is in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. The element of the most the film being seen using hand held cameras makes it very realistic basing it on real-life events that have happened. In terms of age both Cal and Andre are still teenagers trying to find their purpose in life and they believe they’ve found it with this plot. They seem excited as they role play like they’re in the army and compare the mistakes of other people who attempted the same thing to perfect their plot (behaviour). The characters costumes, hair and makeup is like any other teenagers showing the normality of their characters, giving the audience the feeling of never knowing what an ordinary peer is capable of e.g. Cal gets his braces taken off and retainers put in. The representation of teenagers is an exaggerated and negative shown through mise-en-scene, because they are seen to be lying to their elders, playing with dangerous equipment such as making bombs, carrying guns and setting off fireworks without safety cautions and using abusive language. The anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, suggested the production of meaning depended on the concept of binary opposition. For example up/down, left/right, good/bad etc. In zero dairy there is a series of binary oppositions used such as the role play of Cal being the good cop and Andre being the bad cop. This is seen when Cal is liked by his peer at prom at Andre is seen as being hated. Another example is lying and the truth. This is shown when they steal Andres’s cousin’s guns, Cal wishes to leave a note telling him anonymously what they have done but Andre doesn’t want to.
The link above shows some events they boys take part in that is a negative representation of teenagers’-age- e.g. irresponsible behaviour, being rude to members of the public and burning their belongings. It also shows a contrast of behaviour as the end of the scene is positive in the sense they are normal teens doing things like going to prom, going to sleep over each other’s houses, using technology all the time e.g. camera, webcam etc.
characters such as their parents are seen to be typical also as they are German immigrants that wish the best for their kids, embarrassing them when their friends come over and always thinking their children are the best compared to the rest of them but they never really know what their kids are up to. Also Andre’s cousin is older than them and has experience in things the 2 boys don’t, such as shooting. He treats the boys more like friends as they go out shooting with each other and he trusts them to see where he puts the keys for his gun collection. This is a negative representation of older males influencing the younger ones to take part in activities and interest them in such things.
Social class is also represented negatively in the form that the working class students don’t like going to school as they find it irrelevant and seem to not achieve as well as other students and they would rather be doing other things with their time that will not help them in careers later in life. The boys have fake ID’s at the beginning in their plan to run away at the end (doesn’t happen) this shows that they are involved in a lot of illegal activities and don’t respect the law. Also Andre has a part-time job in a restaurant while at school this could be due to him needing money to help with his schooling and or activities.
The story line is very typical of the genre (drama) as it brings up themes of realism such as dilemmas, corruption and disruption to society in the form of the Nazi symbols being used, gun crime, plots of destruction etc. Teenagers as main characters are also very typical.
Onscreen diegetic sound is the most common used in Zero Day as its mainly hand held camera scenes to show a realistic perception of the settings. Non diegetic music is only played at the beginning and end of the film when the credits appear. His is typical of the drama genre. The cinematography is mainly hand held camera movements thus being a bit shaky and unsteady. The shots used are mainly medium close ups to see only the people in the frame. This is typically and establishing shot of the school at the beginning and some long shots. The main angels are eye level and high angles looking down for exaple the security camera’s all are from an high angel.
The editing is mainly straight cut that is medium paced to correspond to the paced at which the plot was planned and executed. Jump cuts are also used to show the passing of time along with fades. Natural light is used during the day along with night vision mode on the camera at night this is to make the film as realistic as possible. Artificial light is used when indoors such has lamps etc. The mise-en-scene is set around their town, school and forests these are all relevant and play a purpose in the storyline. The characters are mainly framed in the middle of the camera to have the audiences focus mainly on them and their activities. This is typical of the genre as the focus is generally on the centre of the screen. 
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