Black Ops 2 Zombies Trailer Analysis

For a change, I decided I would analyse something other than a movie trailer. Something that I am pretty passionate about, and that is the popular game mode within Call Of Duty, Nazi Zombies. It's likely that you have heard of Nazi Zombies before as it has been around for a few years, and has even been turned into an iPhone/iPod Touch/ iPad app. Simply put, it is a survival horror gamemode where the player starts as one of four characters that range depnding on the map, for example the majority of the maps have you playing as the game's main four characters. These are all stereotypical characters, based on stereotypes now-a-days and back during WWII (when the game originally began). The characters are a Russian (named Nikolai, very common name, who drinks a lot of Vodka and always implies he is drunk), an American (named Tank Dempsey, as he could be considered a bit of a 'tank'- very brave, strong, tough, but dumb as a plank of wood), a Japanese (Takeo Masaki, who loves Sushi and often spurts ancient Japanese proverbs) and finally a German (Edward Richtofen, ex-Nazi scientist and known psycopath, has an obsession with spleens), then other maps allow you to play as people like John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro and Danny Trejo. It's huge success has spanned from a large fanbase (It was originally featured as a simple bonus at the end of the Call Of Duty game, World at War), who constantly come up with theories to the confusing and non-linear back story to the gamemode. Thanks to the popularity of the mode, Treyarch (the gamemode's creator) have decided to include it for a third game running and recentley released a trailer to advertise the game and this mode. So, after asking Mr. Seston and getting his permission, I decided I would analyse the trailer as it was full of great things like camera shots, ligthing, character positioning etc. that would be very interesting to discuss. So, let's begin.

One thing to notice in the trailer is the choice of soundtrack. At the beginning, for the first 15 or so seconds as the bus rolls in to the station the theme playing is rather obviously the popular childrens song 'The Wheels On The Bus'. Aside's from this being relevant to the story, it also adds to the tension and aura the trailer is setting. Children's songs are nearly always perceived as being creepy, and the fact that this one is seemingly being played from a rusty old bus adds to the fear factor. The next song however is drastically different. From the minute the zombie groans change from being rather low pitched, unthreatening ones to the loud shout at around 37-38 seconds into the video, the song changes to Avenged Sevenfold's latest song, 'Carry On'. The fact this is now an Avenged Sevenfold song playing in the background shows portrays the change on screen. On screen, it's gone from zombies shuffling over to the bus too a full out zombie onslaught/ bloodbath. The music matches the scene very well.

Another thing to note is the protagonists. There entrance into the scene treats them as though they are the 'saviours'. This is because of the way the scene plays out. On board the bus we see that, whoever's there are preparing for a fight. Guns reloading, being cocked- they're getting ready. Then, a shot from outside the bus show's the doors creak open, showing a girl armed with a shotgun prepared to go to war. It's a very good scene which portrays the characters in a good light as ones that can be entrusted to help humanity. The way they go to arms at the sight of trouble also implies they are all brave and willing to defend either themselves or each other. Another way the trailer shows these characters off as being undefeatbale is the way they use the bus. As the bus moves on to the next location, a grouo of zombies is in its way. However, the bus simply ploughs through them, the zombies unable to even cause a dent. The fact the bus was moving means someone (the survivors) were onboard, and the way they tore through the zombies shows they are unstoppable and undefeatable.

Next is the messages Treyarch hid inside the trailer. For example, one scene at about 0:50 seconds shows a zombie sliding down a roof, with the words 'Dine' written in neon in the background. The sign is actually suppose to say 'Diner', but both have to Do with food which is exactly what the zombie is hoperfully sliding too. The 'Diner' is actually used one other time in the backdrop of the trailer to write a message, and this scene occurs at around 0:57 seconds, when the zombie is dropping to the ground. It's quite hard to see, so i'll include it as a picture in this post, but as the zombie drops to the ground dead the 'North Highway Diner' sign has all the letters in 'North Highway' except the No in North and the W in Highway blacked out, and in the word 'Diner' all the words  except D, I and E are left black. The message spells "Now Die", and could refer to the obvious that the zombie has just died after being shot several times. It could aslo refer to the fact that perhaps these protagonists will eventually die? I don't know, but it's pretty well hidden stuff and keeps any audience that sees it guessing.

Also, talking about this zombies death, I love the shot they used to show it. The camera started behind the zombies back then swooped round to his front as his head was popped off before dropping to ground level at the same time the corpse does and showing the hidden message in the background saying 'Now Die'. It is for this reason that I think the shot is brilliant and one that I personally love.

The lighting used in the trailer is quite dark (as it occurs at night) yet has an orange glow. This orange glow comes from the missiles which destroyed the Earth, but could also be perceived as there still being hope. Although it's dark, the glow of light implies the darkness will be broken and good will prevail, which again portays the characters as being the 'saviours' of the Earth as they are the only ones present in this trailer killing the zombies.

Another thing used in the trailer a few times is longshots. Longshots are used on a number of occasions to show, normally, the vast number of zombies opposing the protagonists. For example, in the opening to the trailer (at around 0:22 seconds) a longshot is used to show the bus waiting in the station.

Then, at around 0.33 seconds a very similair shot is used, albeit this time the bus is surrounded by zombies. The similarities between the two shots shows how the scene escalated quickly from zombieless to zombieful.

Also, later on in the trailer an over the shoulder shot of one of the protagonists shooting zombies also shows a rather longshot of the ground below, full of zombies.

For these reasons, I believe longshots are used throughout the trailer to show either a sign of a scenario gone bad, or to show the vast amount of zombies in the scene.

So, this was my review. I have actually been planning to upload this for a while, but then we began our prelim task and main task and this never came to completion. It's only because the game was recently released that I even remembered I had this on here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this analysation and to anyone one with the game, enjoy!

Thanks for reading!