Zodiac Opening - Gemma

The opening of zodiac introduces immediately a pan camera movement of the city at night with a soft non diegetic soundtrack accompanying it. This soundtrack becomes diegetic when it becomes quieter as it is now on the radio, this works well as it brings the two scenes together.

A dolly is used to move the camera down the road passing many houses which are being shown with children outside, the scene is set at night which is good for a thriller as this creates a tense atmosphere due to the dark lighting. The mise en scene also complements the lighting and the tension of a thriller as the boy is flicking a lighter and also because the sound and image of fireworks is being displayed, both objects can be associated with danger. The characters face is half in a shadow which could suggest something isn't right or could also suggest he is a dangerous character.

 A pan is again used to follow the car into the dark night which could cause the audience to feel tense. A high angle extreme long shot is used to give the audience an establishing shot of where the scene is now being placed in and to show a pretty empty space, the diegetic sound is of nature and animals which can be heard clearly suggesting the two characters aren’t in a busy loud location away from the town. The dialogue from the female does not imply a horror or suspense to the scene although the audience feel a bit of suspense as they wonder what’s going to happen in the dark empty space.

The female character is the stereotypical blonde girl who is pretty and is out with a male character, the girls make up is simple and her costume is colourful, her hair looks neat and tidy which again follows stereotypical females from this genre of film. The audience gets a shock when the fireworks are thrown at the car as we don’t expect a loud diegetic noise at that moment in the soft conversation. Shot reverse shots are used to show the girl and boy in conversation and eye line matches are visible to emphasise the conversation.

The thriller suspense mainly starts when an unknown car pulls up to the car park and stops behind the parked car , this light is partially  the only light produced onto the car which creates a shadow on the characters upper face. A medium close up is used onto the girls face to show her facial expressions as well as see the boy’s face behind her, her facial expressions suggest she is now becoming nervous as she looks scared. Once the car has left the scene we hear an off-screen diegetic squeal of the car wheels braking hard,  this creates the audience to think about what may happen, its at this point that the car returns and the females face within a medium close up really looks concerned. The lighting complements the camera work of the two shot medium shot as it pierces through the back car window and is still bright into the car, this shows a horror on the characters face when see realises she is stuck and now in trouble.

A man walks up to the car window for which the audience do not know the reasoning for. We as an audience see a big close up of the gun which is important as it really makes the audience on edge about what's about to happen.We then hear an off-screen gunshot noise and a loud non diegetic soundtrack plays which juxtaposes from the visual aspect of the scene as a man is murdering the two teenage characters. A close up of the gun is placed into the scene which shows the audience what had happened.  The successful non diegetic soundtrack portrays success and strength rather than the horror of what has happened . The pace of the opening is in slow motion in the final scene as it tries to capture the effect of what is happening.