The Zodiac

The Zodiac Killer

• Director: David Fincher
• Fight Club
• Se7en
• The Game
• Panic Room
• Gone Girl
• Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Alien 3
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Actors
• Mark Ruffalo
• David Toschi
• No Nonsense
• Stylish
• Experienced
• Balanced Life
• Solid Evidence
• Due Process
• Does things to the book
• Follows the Rules
• Jake Gyllenhall
• Robert Graysmith
• Obsessed
• Boy Scout
• Unique
• Nice Guy
• Disorganised
• Frantic
• Method to the Madness
• Stands out from the crowd
• Outsider
• Robert Downy Junior
• Paul Avery
• Nonschalante
• Drunk
• Up-Front/Straight Up
• Genre
• Crime Thriller
• Serial Killer
• Biographical
• Historical - Period Film
• Serial Killer --> Calm --> Victim --> Investigation --> Victim --> Tracking --> Closing In on Killer --> Killer Brought to Justice
• In the movies about serial killers, the Killer is conventionally portrayed to be obsessive about his killings, however in "The Zodiac" the obsessive character is the cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhall). There is also no closure in the film as they never catch the killer, this is due to the film being based on a true story. He is a californian killer and he will never be shot(convention) due to the lack of death penalty. The investigators also never seem to get the upper hand in the movie, this is also due to lack of plot conventions as the killings in this case were completely random.
• The Zodiac & Serail Killer Conventions -
• There is no Closure, Never caught him in real life 
• There is no calm, the movie opens to a killing 
• Investigators never in control
• Narrative Range
• Unrestricted - Big Picture
• The audience knows and sees more than the characters
• Know about the killings
• Know the killer was never caught
• 1968-1990, very big case
• Big Picture
• High Angle Shots (Often Establishing Shots)
• Reminds us of the big picture of the plot
• Omnipotent
• Cold, Unemotional, Clinical, Floating (Overly Perfected)
• Restricted - Detail
• Characters and audience learn story simultaneously
• Details of the case
• Arthur Leigh Allen becomes a suspect
• Complexity of the investigation
• Detail
• Inside of Cars - Claustrophobic, Trapped
• Gives a POV of the scene to provide evidence