Zodiac Opening Sequence

   Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery thriller film directed by David Fincher, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch and Dermot Mulroney. It is based on a true story about a notorious serial killer who called himself the "Zodiac" who killed around the San Francisco Bay Area.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub6wGZu5Xng  0:00- 5:00



Sound

The opening scene starts off with calm romantic music and fireworks to make the audience feel settled and relaxed. The sound is non-diegetic therefore the characters cannot hear or see the source of the sound. We hear dialogue between the two characters that we meet, which are a boy and a girl. As they continue on they are now alone in the middle of no where conversating, we suddenly hear cars behind them who shoot our fireworks, however we do not hear any dialogue from who ever was in the other car. As the unknown character walks up behind the car and shines his light, the boy in the car says "you really scared us" which creates recognition as it conveys that the two characters know each other. Therefore the audience are now on edge wanting to know who the unknown character is. As the unknown character fires his gun shots we hear rock music which does not match the actions happening.


Miss en Scene

The scene starts off dark which creates mystery. It has a romantic feel as we can see fireworks and a people playing with sparklers, the scenery is romantic and relaxing to create a peaceful mood for the audience, which makes them unprepared for what will happen next. As the boy and the girl are still together in the car the scenery is still dark and doomy which may suggest that something bad is going to happen. As they continue driving the tension gets bigger as they are in pitch black and in the middle of no where. We then see a car pull up behind them and turn their car light off, which creates tension as we do not know who is in the car or what they want. Additionally, the fact that it is pitch black and we can only see the two characters creates suspicion and builds up the tension which leaves the audience in suspense. The car drives off and comes back again, however this time they leave their lights on and shine a torch light at the two characters.


Editing
The editing starts off slow with no cuts until we meet our first character who is a boy who gets into the car which a girl is driving. The cuts are starting to pick up pace which creates tension for the audience/viewer.


Camera
The scene opens with a medium shot and then into a tracking shot as we follow the car driving along from the characters POV. As we meet our first character we then get a shot reverse shot during their conversation. As they are in the middle of no-where we get a close up of the characters face as they look worried and anxious, which also make the characters feel anxious, as we can tell that they are in trouble.