Zodiac Opening Sequence

The film starts with the Paramount and then the Warner Brothers logos on screen (I'm not entirely sure what the proper name for these are). In the background there are sound effects of fireworks fizzling. Then a black title screen comes up with the words "What follows is based on actual case files" on it. A song starts playing and then there is an establishing extreme long shot of a bridge and San Francisco skyline, with fireworks going off in the distance. There is then a tracking shot of some houses, taken from inside a car, with the car window as the frame within a frame. Then the words "July 4, 1969 - Vallejo, CA" appear over the shot. The car stops and beeps its horn. We then see a man closing his front door and jogging towards the car/camera. He leans through the window and says to the driver of the car "Where have you been? I've been waiting since 7". There is then a reverse shot (Medium shot) of the driver, who is a blonde haired white woman telling the man "Get in. I had to find fireworks". There is then some more dialogue between the characters and then the man gets into the car. We see the car drive away and then it cuts to the car driving up to a diner. The woman says that it's too crowded and they should go "some place quiet" , the man says okay and then it cuts to a very/extreme long shot of the car parking in a deserted area. The characters talk some more and it is made clear to the audience that the man and the woman are a couple or will potentially become a couple soon, since the woman starts flirting with the man. Characters in two other cars throw a small firework at the man and woman's car. The man swears at them as they drive off. The woman starts to gently make fun of him. The camera tracks sideways as a car pulls up behind the man and the woman's car. The man and the woman turn around and try to see who's in the other car, but the other car is totally dark on the inside. The man asks if the other car was at the diner and says he definitely saw it there. The woman tells him to "shhh...". Both characters start to look very anxious.
Man: Do you want me to tell him to leave?
Woman: Stay in the car.
The other car then drives off.
Man: Was that your husband?
Woman: *staring out of the car window* No.
Man: Who was that Darlene?
*she turns around to face him*
Woman: Don't worry about it.
Man: Don't tell me not to worry. Who was it?
Woman: It's nothing
Things seem to have become awkward between them, since they both start looking down at their laps. We then hear the screech of car brakes and the two characters watch as the other car drives back towards them. Darlene says "Oh shit" then the man begins to look more panicked and says that they should go. The person in the other car gets out of the car and then starts coming over to their car and is holding a torch, making the character unrecognisable to both the audience and Darlene and the man. The character from the other car walks from the back of Darlene's car, to the car window the man's sitting by (this character still cannot be seen properly). Loud rock music is also playing on the radio. The man then says "Man, you really creeped us out". The other character repeatedly shoots the man and Darlene. All the while, this character's face is completely in shadow. The other character begins to walk away, then comes back and shoots the man some more. Then he/she walks back to his car and the screen fades to black.

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I thought the opening of Zodiac was very effective. It did a similar thing to Scream in that both films started by showing the first 'disruption' (as in Todorov's narrative structure theory). I liked the way that the opening sequence leads the audience in one direction (particularly if they have no prior knowledge of the film or the real murder case that it's based on) and then there's a plot twist. So, the film starts sort of like a romance film, there's lots of fireworks and happy people, then the audience is introduced to a couple. This makes the audience think that the couple will be the main characters of the film. But then there's a plot twist since the characters who the audience think may end up being the main characters are killed within the first 5ish minutes. I also liked the use of enigma. At the beginning of the film, we can see that some of the shots are from inside a car. This makes the audience wonder who's car it is and where the car's going. Then when the man is talking to the person in the car, the audience wonder who he's talking to. This enigma goes away fairly early on in the opening. Enigma is used again when the man and the woman are shot. The murderer character is holding a torch in his/her hand, which casts a shadow over his/her face, making him/her unrecognisable. This enigma effectively sets up the rest of the film, since it becomes apparent that the film will be about trying to find out who this killer is.

I've already mentioned this in another blog but just to re-iterate...
1. I think that enigma in a thriller opening is very important
2. Showing the disruption of equilibrium before showing the equilibrium itself can be very interesting.