Zodiac Analysis

Zodiac

Directed by David Fincher

Genre

- Thriller
- Non-fiction
- Drama
- Crime
- Biographical

Main Character

- Mark Ruffalo
- Jake Gyllenhaal  
- Robert Downey Jr



Description

Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by James Vanderbilt is based on the 1986 non-fiction book of the same name by Robert Graysmith. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr., with Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Dermot Mulroney and Chloë Sevigny in supporting roles.

Zodiac tells the story of the manhunt for a notorious serial killer who called himself the “Zodiac” and killed in and around the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, leaving several victims in his wake and taunting police with letters, blood stained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The cases remain one of Northern California’s most infamous unsolved crimes.

Cameraworks
Zodiac offers unrestricted Showcase of characters, settings and plot
Audience knows more than the characters – Zodiac never caught, we know about killings

Long shots, wide angle, high angle

A long shot with slight panning downwards

A tracking shot which centers the car 

Narcos opening analysis

Narcos tells the true-life story of the growth and spread of cocaine drug cartels across the globe and attendant efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. As we can see in the opening scene, there are many things that seem bad such as mafia gang (0:48), Buildings being covered with fire (0:51), Army forces which implies that there are lots of crimes and murders going on frequently

Children of men

ANALYSIS: CHILDREN OF MEN OPENING SCENE

Setting: London (16th November 2017)

Characters: Audiences and A man who is focused most of the time

Plot: It starts off with the shot to audiences getting the news from TV about the death of the younger man on the planet. As we can see, London at that moment is quite dirty despite the fact that it has got rubbish, laying around the street and pavement. Also it is quite dangerous as we can see an abnormal number of polices walking around the street with the sound of helicopter. Suddenly, a building is blown up by a bomb which tells that London in the future is literally not a peaceful city as it used to be. Also there are lots of immigration as we can see tuk-tuk which normally belongs to Asian countries 

About the man: He is quite weird as he put some bottle of whisky in a cup of coffee. Also he seems to not interested in the world at that moment as he does not watch the news about the last man on the planet. 

Thriller opening plan

Thriller opening plan

Hope to achieve for this project

- Produce a 2 minutes film (Hybrid spy, espionage, international and action e.g. James bond)

- Evaluation (summarise the whole film) 

- Identify the strength, the weakness and EBI

- Able to understand and explain the different sub-genres of thrillers

Plot

Most of the time, the hero faces challenge to complete many missions. Along the way, he has to face many villains to gain more experience. Sometimes hero loses, but despite the fact of being a hero, he will never die. Finally he meet the boss beat the boss in the end. 

Western Credit

By importing sound as a background music in audio section and the image that has shown at the top right corner is the layer of video sections. Also I can add more effect using the tools at the bottom left corner.

Story Board

Conventional credit structure

1. Columbia pictures - Studio
2. A Hofflund/Polone - Production
3. An Indelible - Picture
4. Jodie Foster - Actor
5. Forest Whitaker - Actor
6. Dwight Yoakam - Actor
7. Jared Leto - Actor
8. Panic Room - Actor
9. Kristen Stewart - Actor
10. Anne Mgnuscai - Actor
11. Ian Buchanni - Actor
12. Patrick Bauchau - Actor
13. Paul Schulze - Actor
14. Laray Mayfield - Casting
15. Michael Kaplan - Costume designer
16. Howard Shore - Music
17. James Haygood.A.C.E - Film editor
18. Angus Wall - Film editor
19. Arthur Max - Production designer
20. Conrad W. Hall - Director
21. Darius Khondji - Director
22. Gavin Polone/Judy Hofflund/David Koepp/Cean Chaffin - Producers
23. David Koepp - Writer
24. David Fincher - Director

Difference between Connotation and Denotation

Connotation represents the various social overtones, cultural implications, or emotional meanings associated with a sign.

Denotation represents the explicit or referential meaning of a sign. Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the 'dictionary definition.'

How fears are used for entertainment

Why do we watch scary films ?


Catharsis: Long back, Greek Philosopher Aristotle posited that people were attracted to scary stories and violent dramatic plays because it gave them a chance to purge their negative emotions- a process he called catharsis. So, if we go by his theory, that means we watch violent movies and play violent video games to release the pent up feelings of aggression.

Psychoanalytic theory by Freud and Jung: To Freud horror was a manifestation of the “uncanny,” reoccurring thoughts and feelings that have been repressed by the ego but which seem vaguely familiar to the individual. Jung, on the other hand, argued that horror gained its popularity from the fact that it touched on important archetypes or primordial images that he said resided in the collective unconscious. 

Curiosity: As human beings born with a super active brain, we are a curious lot. We loved to be shocked and what drives this is morbid curiosity.
Intense emotions: Some people like to watch horror because they want to vicariously experience complex and extreme emotional content.

Adrenaline rush: When we watch scary movies, we can face your fears, but since we know that it's just a movie we don't have to face anything in reality. For the time being, it tickles certain fight or flight responses that are entertaining, the release of tension, over and over until a hopefully cathartic ending. So, just for a short span of time, we are willing to endure the terror in order to enjoy a euphoric sense of relief at the end. We seem to enjoy the adrenaline rush of being scared while being safe.

Excitation transfer process: This is another important theory about scary movies. According to Glenn Sparks, one reason for the appeal is how you feel after the movie. Sparks’s research found that when people watch frightening films, their heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases. After the film is over, this physiological arousal lingers, he said. That means that any positive emotions you experience are intensified. Instead of focusing on the fright you felt during the film, you recall having a great time. And you’ll want to come back for more, he said.

Excitement: A scientist also says that people enjoy excitement, even if it’s from a negative source, otherwise, things could be pretty dull.
Sensation-seeking: Other theories relate to the sensation-seeking personality types. People who seek higher levels of arousal thoroughly enjoy the response -heightened feelings of awareness when their bodies go through intense experiences. These experiences range from watching horror films to skydiving and bungee jumping.

Dispositional Alignment: People seem to enjoy the violence in horror movies when it is directed against those they believe are deserving of such treatment. This observation gave rise to dispositional alignment theory in which it is hypothesized that a person’s emotional reactions to events portrayed in a horror film can be traced back to the dispositional feelings they have for the person involved. 




Aristotle



he thought that people were attracted to scary stories and violent dramatic plays because it gave them a chance to purge their negative emotions – a process he called catharsis. 




Glenn D. Walter



1. Tension - created through mystery, suspense, gore, terror, or shock.
2. Relevance - it has to be relevant to potential viewers. This relevance can take the form of universal relevance – capturing the universal fear of things like death and the unknown.
3. Unrealism - we all know at some level that what we are watching is not real. So we have to feel safe

Conventions of thrillers

Audience Segmentation

Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation is a process of dividing people into homogeneous subgroups based upon defined criterion such as product usage, demographics, psychographics, communication behaviors and media use.