SE7EN

Opening Credits Analysis!

IT IS ABOUT
The trail of a serial killer whose murders each relate to one of the Seven
Deadly Sins. Brad Pitt stars as Detective David Mills who, with his
seasoned partner Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman),
investigates a sociopath nicknamed 'John Doe'. Their suspect is leaving a
trail of bodies in his wake - but as the two detectives build a picture of
John Doe's motivations they realise that his killings form a sermon which
is aimed directly at them.

SOUND
The sound used in this clip, is mostly non-diegetic but some sounds are made to
sound natural. For example, sometimes in the clip, a very high pitched noise occurs
which tricks the viewer into thinking it's someone screaming, which connotes danger
and someone desperate for help. The background music is heavy-sounding and is
quite fast, this is typical of a thriller movie as it creates suspense.
Its preferred reading is a disturbing and unsettling piece to watch. The music has a
very scratchy feel to it almost like the stereotypical fingernails on a blackboard, it is
unbearable to listen to and puts the audience in a very uncomfortable position. Right
at the start of the clip there is sounds of thunder which is typical of a conventional
horror genre as thunder is seen as loud and frightening to some. The non diegetic
music adds to the disorientation of the images being shown. The music has also
been chosen to create even more tension than what is already being shown. Towards
the end of the scene the music and tempo begins to get louder suggesting that
something important maybe coming up preparing the audiences attention.

CAMERA WORK
The opening of Se7en is a mix of close ups and birds eye view shots of
different objects on what appears to be a desk. Although this may not
seem effective it is. This keeps everything simple and there is no need for
characters or dialogue yet. This makes the audience concentrate solely
on the objects being shown, which connote disturbance and extreme
torment. For example, a birds eye view shot is shown of a picture of a
boys head with a metal object impaled into it, this signifies the twisted
nature of the psychopathy and indicates more of this will happen during
the film.

EDITING
The opening sequence is laid out in a montage format, with lots of
different clips put together. The editing of these clips is very fast-paced
and uses lots of transitions and effects. This is to give the impression of
chaos and that his state of mind is disjointed like the imagery shown. It is
not in chronological order but this may be suggesting that the person is
doing a lot of things to investigate. The transitions vary from straight cut,
cross fade and fade to black. The fade to black reflects the darkness of
the film overall, the fading gives the effect that the clips are all linked
together and it also creates an eerie feel. Towards the end the sequence
starts to get faster along with the music which creates tension.

TITLES
The titles in the opening are very interesting and unique to the nature of
the film. These titles are even made out to be more sadistic than usual or
what would go into a particular horror film. For example, the way they
present who produced the film, "Arnold Kopelson" is made out to be scary
and twisted. For a split second the words are the wrong way round. This is
symbolic to the film as this film is no ordinary thriller/horror film, a lot of it
though has been put into making it warped and messing about with the
audiences heads. All the text that appears on screen has its own
specialized font; its not straight and slants slightly like poor handwriting,
this maybe represents the mentality of the physcopath in the film; that he
is not thinking straight and isn't normal.

MISE-EN-SCENE
The Mise-En-Scene puts across very significant ideas in this title
sequence, like what to expect from the film and the overall tone it puts
across, which is ominous. The lighting in this extract is very low-key
adding to the threatening tone throughout; and there are shadows which
could be perceived as someone moving about, which keeps the reader on
the edge of their seat, wondering who or what it is. The colours used are
very intense and dramatic; and usually consist of brown, grey and black.
The only bright colour to be shown throughout the opening credits is red.
This may be to represent blood and ultimately death. You can see some
words being highlighted on paper, with a black pen, the black connotes
death and evil things.