Diary Of The Dead

It seems uncanny that we would happen to rent George A. Romero’s latest zombie flick just after taking in the first lecture for SOCS300 Web 2.0, which deals with blogging. Uncanny not only because the story revolves around a group of film students who happen to hail from our professor’s alma matter, the University of Pittsburgh, but also because the film itself almost reads like a ‘filmmaking in the age of the internet’ course. When the students (who are shooting their own zombie film) are interrupted by sketchy news of some sort of pandemic, they decide to take matters into their own hands and investigate with cameras in hand. The students’ constant dispute over what is more important: the making of their documentary or escaping to safety propels the film into a state of reflexive meta-ness that serves to further its pedagogical agenda of media literacy. While zombies can serve up any number of metaphors, in this film they seem to embody an underlying truth that is unattainable through traditional broadcasting outlets. The students realize that they have the power to convey this truth by posting their videos online and quickly find an audience and community of thousands around the world who are engaged in the same pursuit. In a moment of philosophical pondering, one character asks whether all these voices (in the vlogosphere) just end up becoming ‘noise’ – now that is some deep questionin’. Now as if this was not enough, Romero went ahead and made a contest where the general public could submit their own Diary of the Dead videos to his MySpace website so check it out.