Zodiac discussion in calss

Zodiac discussion in class

Directed by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon tattoo, Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Genre - Crime Drama, Thriller, Non-fiction, mystery, psychological, Serial-killer

[Pattern of the film (narrative): 1. Investigation of a murder 2. Another murder 3. Danger 4. Resolution]

Unrestricted Narrative Range - Audience knows more than the characters (GOT, Walking Dead, Disney movies; Lion King, Lilo Stitch)

Examples in this movie:

We know that the Zodiac was never caught

We know about the killings beforehand

Restricted Narrative Range- The Audience learns information and details of the plot at the same time as the characters

Examples in this movie:

The details of the case

Number of suspects

How do you show the big picture and detail cinematically?

• Close up shots for details
• Tracking shots
• Long shots / wide angle / high angle (high angle of the city which only viewers can see it. We get this unrestricted view of California ---> shows the scope and range of the murders)

• The car is an important detail ---> important to the case, all of the murders were done in cars
• Taxi Scene ---> It’s a big city (first scene), and then the lights and noise lowers down to only the taxi driving in isolation. (sound ---> radio talks about the Zodiac, which further more gives us a foreshadow.)
• We learn the evidences by character’s pov. ---> This also shows that the characters were bombarded by so many details they could not possibly see the big detail.

Yup... Because Gary Smith tends to look too close into the vast access of evidences that he can not 'see' the big picture of how those details were connected.

Characters

Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) : Detached, ambitious/ motivated, curious, brave, devoted, outsider (his mise-on-scene - shirt colors), isolated, underdog, pays attention to details, good listener, desperate (files at the coffee shot compared to Dave Toschi ---> Talks very quickly. Toschi was on the other side of the frame which was splitted into two. His side has more people, people at the time took his side that the Zodiac cases should already be forgotten.)

“Looking in from the outside” ---> “Listen! Notice me! I need to get in, I need to tell you! I can help!”

These shots with Robert peering in from the outside outlines his curious personality and gives viewers the idea of him being isolated and not taken seriously for.

Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) : idealistic, hardworking, devoted to the case and the police force, egoistic (The part where he glances hatefully at Paul Avery) , justice, classy, believes in order and the justice system, believes in the court, in evidences, in logic and not guesses.