I figured analyzing more than one opening purely on editing in our genre would help me out a bit more in the long run. A little more analyses never hurt anyone… that I know of. Zodiac is a crime, drama, and mystery film; three of our four genres we classified our film under! Analyzing it should be a goof thing for me, who’s gonna be editing everything anyway.
The extract creates a meaning of lot going on within a big city and having to get a lot done at once through the use of ellipses and crosscutting throughout the extract. The majority of the ellipses used are towards the beginning of the extract. The first one we see is a shot of the dad and son leaving the bathroom and it cuts to them climbing into a car. This shows the passage of time from leaving their house and getting into the car, which could be seen as quite fast paced since the sequence of them actually leaving their house was not shown. The next few are when the car is driving then it cuts to the dad and son standing outside of his school, then it cuts to the dad sitting in his car, then cuts to him outside of work. These ellipses convey the same message of time passing and almost a rushed scenario to get to work. Following these ellipses, the audience is shown cross cutting between the dad and a mail cart. For example, the scene cuts to him walking to the elevator, then cuts to the mail truck driving and arriving to its destination outside of the building. This continues all throughout until the end of the sequence, of course with the two figures continuing to move to their destination; the dad to his work space and the mail cart to the mail room. With the consistent switching between these two subjects throughout the extract, it shows a lot going on at one time and how much actually needs to get done.
Into The Truth 