Se7en Opening Sequence

Se7en opening sequence

Mise-En-Scene
Old messy looking book, gives creepy feel
Open book suggests it being read or written in
Hand in background, blurred out to add to mystery
Title appears bottom right corner, out of the way of the focus of the shot
Font is different to company shown at beginning. Creepy “child-like” writing used to give eerie effect
Two hands separated by red line, which could suggest blood
Hands are broken so could show pain and torture
Hands have no real significance but are there just to make us think and to disorientate us
Again, font is placed out of the way of the main focus of the shot to avoid distraction
Mysterious hand turning metal object with some sort of material in other hand, audience has no idea what this could be so it confuses them
Another mysterious object is being used, still have no clue what film is about
In next shot we find out that mysterious object is in fact a blade case, this is revealed by blade being taken out of case and flashed across the screen
Black screen reappears, possibly does this to show importance of names that appear
Subliminal message appears on screen, too fast to notice what it says
Blade appears again shows importance, this time its inflicting pain on person who is holding it. Fingers are in bad state, suggesting suffering by man holding blade
Object being dunked into water, possibly tea bag but unsure at this point because of how short the cut is
Black screen with film name appears in big bold letters showing importance
Recurring theme of book with writing in it, suggesting planning for something
Red lighting could represent blood even though by the looks of it is developing a photo.
Film being cut backs up theory of photos being developed
Pictures, being stuck into what appears to be a journal shows something is being planned
Man gives himself paper-cut shoes he isn’t afraid of pain
Drop of blood makes audience cringe
Man using marker pen to scribble out boys face suggests a possible vendetta against someone?
Long pieces of text, too fast to read so audience cant get their heads around what’s going on
Strange pictures of how people died, shows violence is a main theme within the film
Possible other books aligned against each other. Shows organisation, shows its not his first time in making one of these books, suggests he is planning something big
Hair sample being but underneath person in picture, suggests he’s possibly killed that person and took hair sample from him. Possible keepsake?
Man cutting the word god out of a dollar bill suggests religion within the film

Camera shots, angles and movements
Starts with close-up of book, don’t know what’s happening
Focus on book
Aerial shot of hands to show whole picture
Shadow casting over hand picture shows movement in shot and pulls us away from picture
Extreme close up of metallic object, because of how close camera is to the object we cannot make out what the object is
Another extreme close-up of another unidentified object
Extreme close up of same object but focus is drawn away by blade flashing across screen
Continual occurrence of extreme close-ups to show intensity



Editing
Long cut at start of title sequence
Cut to black screen, represents darkness and disorientation, don’t quite know what’s happening
Short cuts begin to appear to keep the audience on their feet and disorientated
Continual short shots to keep disorientation
Cut to black screen again
Three really short cuts of same object, aims to show what the mans intention of blade is
Montage of shots of book put together to show what’s going on
Shots begin to get faster and tension builds as more pieces of paper are being added to the book/journal




Sound
Music starts non digetic
Begins quiet ambient sounding
Starts with a powerful sound, immediately sets eerie mood
Digetic sound of possibly door creaking in background. We see this from shadow
Same music is looped but has other tracks playing over the top
Sound of blade case opening almost cringe worthy
Lots of warped sounds within opening gives the disorientating feeling
Repetition of door creaking
Sound of man scraping finger along paper, adds to the impact of what he is doing. Without the sound wouldn’t be the same
Music begins to get faster, building up tension
Music is in time with the cuts used
Music sounds like it gets louder towards the end
We begin to hear words but are put behind the track so they sound muffled and unclear
At the end of opening we hear the words “you got me closer to god”. Signifies the end of track and goes well with image on screen.