The 1995 film Se7en is categorised as a crime film with neo-noir and horror elements. It was directed by David Fincher and starred Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. They play two detectives who become involed with a case concerning a series of sadistic murders relating to each of the seven deadly sins. The opening sequence is a series of moving images that look like a person creating a sick scrapbook filled with strange images and phrases. The names of those involed in making the film also appear in white text, mostly against a plain black background whilst the camera shakes.The pace and rhythm of the opening is really fast, which gives the audience an uneasy feeling. This sets up the whole feeling of the film, as a good opening should. The cuts and traditions are quick, and the images are often only on screen for a second or two. This leaves the audience confused and often wondering what it was they just saw. For example, at the start of the opening there is a glimpse of a hand holding an old fashioned razor blade and it looks as if he is cutting of the skin on his fingertips. However, it moves so quickly that you are not actually sure that is what you saw, or that is what you are meant to have seen. The shots are taken from all angles and heights, again to heighten the confusion of the viewer. The camera work is quite shaky and moves very suddenly. The result is a very jerky series of images. Most of the shots are very close up to the objects, meaning the viewer gets not sense of location. In fact, some shots are so close that they are out of focus which makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and unsure of what is happening. The props are very important as they are basically all you see. They are things such as books, razorblades, needles, photographs, scissors, pens, negatives and even drops of blood. In the short duration of the opening there is a large amount of props which makes the viewer even more confused. The whole opening is aimed at giving the audience hints of what is to come, and each prop had a significance. You never actually see a full person, only their hands so costume and performance are not really significant in this opening. This almost makes it more eerie because the audience has no way to establish a connection with the character. Lighting wise, here is a great deal of play between light and shadow, and there is not much colour apart from the strong presence of red in a few moment where it looks
as if someone is developing photographs in a dark room. There is a song in the background which is Closer by Nine Inch Nails. It is very scratchy, and has a quite sinister tone. As the music speeds up it comes to the point where you hear the lyrics 'you get me closer to God', which in itself relates to the film as it is about the idea of the seven deadly sins. At this point the shots get much faster and the audience barely gets a chance to get a good look at them before they change. The titles are written in different and uneven fonts, and are placed in random sections on the screen. They also flash and move around as if there is no discipline to them. The text is in white, and mostly against a black background. At moments scratchy text appears for less than a second and is often unreadable. This gives the impression that the film has been tampered with, and something is wrong. The narrative is unclear, and in fact it is quite difficult to decide what is going on. As I previously mentioned, it looks as if someone is cutting of their fingertips, and later in the opening there is a hand with bandages around the fingertips. The enigma that is set up is simply 'why?' and 'is is possibly they have attempted to cut away their finger prints...ergo are they doing/planning to do something illegal?'. This is basically the only introduction to this character we get, which isn't much of an introduction at all. All we know is the detail of the fingerprints, and that they are creating some sort of morbid scrapbook. However, since we don't see the face of the character we can't actually be sure it was all one person, although this is implied. This creates another enigma, 'who is this person?'. The opening does not look particularly high budget, it is not filled with special effects and stunts but if it was it would not suit the whole tone of the film. The opening really fits in with the film, and grips the viewer. After seeing it the audience really want to know what the story is. There is so many clues and hints packed into such a short amount of time, it is almost impossible to not be gripped by it.
as if someone is developing photographs in a dark room. There is a song in the background which is Closer by Nine Inch Nails. It is very scratchy, and has a quite sinister tone. As the music speeds up it comes to the point where you hear the lyrics 'you get me closer to God', which in itself relates to the film as it is about the idea of the seven deadly sins. At this point the shots get much faster and the audience barely gets a chance to get a good look at them before they change. The titles are written in different and uneven fonts, and are placed in random sections on the screen. They also flash and move around as if there is no discipline to them. The text is in white, and mostly against a black background. At moments scratchy text appears for less than a second and is often unreadable. This gives the impression that the film has been tampered with, and something is wrong. The narrative is unclear, and in fact it is quite difficult to decide what is going on. As I previously mentioned, it looks as if someone is cutting of their fingertips, and later in the opening there is a hand with bandages around the fingertips. The enigma that is set up is simply 'why?' and 'is is possibly they have attempted to cut away their finger prints...ergo are they doing/planning to do something illegal?'. This is basically the only introduction to this character we get, which isn't much of an introduction at all. All we know is the detail of the fingerprints, and that they are creating some sort of morbid scrapbook. However, since we don't see the face of the character we can't actually be sure it was all one person, although this is implied. This creates another enigma, 'who is this person?'. The opening does not look particularly high budget, it is not filled with special effects and stunts but if it was it would not suit the whole tone of the film. The opening really fits in with the film, and grips the viewer. After seeing it the audience really want to know what the story is. There is so many clues and hints packed into such a short amount of time, it is almost impossible to not be gripped by it.
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