Inspiration from Se7en

Inspiration from Se7en

After having watched the opening credits of Se7en, there were many features within it that TDAC can look at and analyse for inspiration for our own film opening. The features also conformed to the genre of Se7en which is psychological/slasher horror. It did this by using all four technical areas: camera angles, sound, mise en scene and editing. Analysing this opening will be really useful and good inspiration for our own. 

In the first shot of the opening, the use of this tattered, worn book as mise-en-scene could be showing the old age of the era. It looks like a notebook which again reinforces the depth of the killers mind because he is writing and planning about his murders. This conforms to the psychological/slasher genre because there is a deeper level to the killer's understanding. 

The distortion of the typography mirrors the hidden identity of the antagonist killer whom we see shaving his fingerprints off to mask his identity. This action indicates to the audience that he is going to commit a crime at some point. The typography is also sans serif which is quite unusual because films which are based in the past and also films which have religious connotations often have serif lettering. 

This is a close up shot of the person shaving their fingerprints off. Just from looking at the fingers, the audience can tell that the villain is probably a male because of the shape of the fingers and the shortly cut fingernails as well as the fact they they are dirty and not well kept. It's also quite grim shaving the skin off of your finger tips and this conforms to the slasher part of the hybrid genre. Even though this camera angle gives clues to the identity of the murderer, it still remains a secret as there are only ever close ups of the hands.

There are quite a few examples throughout this opening of having two translucent shots which are placed on top of each other. In this example of the man writing, not only does it create a ghostly affect but it also creates the illusion of time passing, indicating that he's got a lot to write about.

The translucent shot then changes and the same shot of the close up of the pen writing is then overlaid with a close up of the actual writing. This text is illegible to the audience because it's got a mirror effect i.e. it's been reversed and flipped upside down. This technique creates an enigma because the audience want to know what the man is writing about. It's also written in ink, which again nicely sets the scene for the era of the film. 

Another close up of text is shown, but this time it is readable (even though it's been edited to only appear for a few seconds so the audience wouldn't have time to read it) however, you see the antagonist crossing words out in thick black ink. This again leaves the audience wondering firstly what the book or text it is that he is reading, but secondly what the words are that he is crossing out and why he's doing it. It seems as though the guy is plotting and planning or recording what he has done which conforms to the psychological part of the hybrid genre; the focus is mainly on the killer. This is also shown in the image below where a drawing of a man appears in a spotlight. He's had his eyes drawn over in the same black ink which is usually what they do when they either want to disguise their identity or because they have died. For this genre though, we can assume that he was a target of the villain and he has probably now been killed. 

The non-diegetic music also fits the genre very well. There are a range of sounds that have been edited together and quite often the sounds are slightly uncomfortable to listen to. For example, there is a piercing squeak that at first seems to be a girl screaming but then just turns into a computer generated screech, which keeps the audience guessing as to what the sounds could be. Not only this, but they overlap each other as well and are cut off quite abruptly, creating a sense of uncertainty and a lack of closure. There's also a constant drumming beat which increases in volume which builds suspense and then drops back down again. This keeps the audience on edge because they don't know when the music will suddenly pick up; it is deliberately inconsistent. Finally, the only verbal lyric in the track is at the very end with one line saying 'You kept me closer to God'. This conforms to the hybrid genre because from this it is confirmed that there is a religious link. It also ends with an echoing boom which is the only definitive part of the track; this signals the end of the opening sequence.