Zodiac Scene Recreation

Zodiac Scene Recreation

After watching the film Zodiac, we were given a task to recreate and study the scene when one of the suspect meets the detectives. I got together with Richy and we started to analyse this specific scene together and pull out a total of 5 important scenes and recreated them in the Sixth Form meeting room. Using PAINT.NET, I used a duplicating technique that I've seen done once on the internet, it turns out to be really effective and I definitely enjoyed it

Here are the recreations:

  In this long shot we found our first obstacle that is I forgot to bring my tripod with me; this means that for all shots I must be perfectly still in order for it to be easy to post process. Camera options must be locked and on manual at all time in order to retain the same lighting as throughout the project as well. This shot was probably the hardest one due to there being 4 subjects in one shot, this means that it'll be harder to move things around and erase each layer without affecting the others; but at the end, I managed to fit everything in together really nicely and both I and Richy we both were both proud of it.

 

   This scene we had a good amount of attention of detail. We started of with separating the chairs and we thought that will be it; Richy being the person that he was, he grabbed the whiteboard marker and draw on the movable whiteboard the vending machine and writing Hot Foods on it, since he was drawing, I glimpse over at the screenshot and saw that there's a pencil sharpener on the desk as well, so I ran into the classroom and grabbed the pencil sharpener and ran out. Unfortunately the pencil sharpener was broken and it couldn't retain open but we did get it as close as possible. 

     As for the post process, this shot only took me 2-3 minute to finish up the duplicating method.

       This low angle shot both of us agreed on being the most accurate but has less attention on detail, we were thinking of going to add a clock in post process but turns out to look really weird and deleted it. Other than that, we nailed it pretty good, from the way one of the detectives looked at the suspect's foot to the unfocused leg.

     I kinda messed up on the leg but it's very unnoticeable so I didn't make any changes in case it looks even worst.

   This close up shot of the watch was quite rushed due this was the last shot we did and it was nearly break time which was at 20 past 9. All I need to do was line up the shot to the widescreen template I've created and blur up the background a bit because the depth of field was too shallow.

     I've added in the word Zodiac into the watch really quickly in post process and if I had some more time I think I could make it looked more real but that's all the time I had.

This three shot was really hard to replicate in many factors. For one, I must stay legit at the same spot while holding a heavy camera in my hands and communicating to Richy at the same time which is on the other side and we could barely talk to each other so we must use sign language and I can only move my head slightly to avoid any movement. Once I finish taking one shot, I would nod slightly for Richy to indicate that he can move now.

     The post process is actually not too bad as the first one and I am really proud of this one of my skill to be able to stand perfectly still and getting the shots. My reflections were really irritating me and at the end I was thinking to find some gates texture and overlay them but decided against it.

   
     Overall, this project had been really enjoyable to film and learning to do the duplicating technique really is something new and something that I'll be doing more of in the future. MrHarrison said that the recreation were actually scarier than the film itself!