10 Things You Somehow Missed In Zodiac (2007)

If you thought knuckle hair and blood were the only parts of Zodiac that used CGI, they are just the tip of the iceberg. Due to the inconveniences of filming on busy streets at night, many outside scenes were brought to life with well-hidden special effects.

So, what parts of the movie used computer-generated imagery? Well, pretty much every establishing shot of San Francisco. David Fincher's VFX team worked their magic to compose sweeping shots of the city that are so life-like, it's impossible to tell they were created on a computer. Because scenes shot under streets lights can cause a distracting blur, most of the sequences at night were shot in Downey Studios with blue-screen, artificial streets, and constructed sets. When Fincher filmed footage of the actual streets of San Fran, he digitally erased all satellite dishes since they weren't around during the time period that the film is based.

Considering Zodiac was made for $85 million at most, it is truly unbelievable how the special effects team created photo-realistic CGI that's more convincing than most modern blockbusters with triple the budget.