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I'm trying to keep my Night of the Living Dead script from being too bloated with background information, so I'll just state some facts here that I can't work into the script smoothly:
Romero was inspired by Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend", which portrayed a post-apocalyptic world and removed vampires from their traditionally gothic setting. Romero rewound the apocalypse to the beginning & changed vampires to the undead, but similarly modernized the setting.
The bulky camera set-up they had limited their shots - because of the equipment needed to record sound, any shots with dialogue are filmed affixed on tripods. It's the shots without dialogue where Romero was able to do cool handheld stuff, like low angles from close to the ground
One of my favorite things is that the movie feels like it's in real-time - you sit there through the night with these folks, as information slowly dribbles in on the radio & TV. It's only at the end that we're given a respite with the fade to morning. But then the ending happens.
The sound design was done by Gary Streiner, older brother of Russ Streiner, who produced the film and played Johnny. This small production was very much a family affair, with lots of crewmembers doubling their positions and appearing onscreen.
