Inspiration from Se7en

The opening credits of Se7en act as a great means of inspiration when thinking about producing our own opening scene. Throughout the opening credits, there are features that apply to the codes and conventions of psychological horror, the sub-genre that we want to use for our own film opening. 

The use of mise-en-scene in the Se7en opening credits clearly establishes the genre straight away. It is evident from the close ups of numerous religious texts and symbols that the killer in the film is some kind of psychopath, obsessed with religion in the modern world. 

Furthermore, the use of close up shots of the killer's hands working through the various books and papers does enough to reveal the killer's basic intent and mind-set without giving away who the killer is. This supports the psychological-thriller hybrid, as it combines the psychological obsession of the killer with the mystery and detective case of the thriller. 

The images of the mise-en-scene that are shown are relatively disturbing, causing the viewer to become uneasy from the offset. These images reveal the warped mind of the killer before the audience even know who has been killed. This cleverly creates anticipation within the audience as to what will happen within the plot before the main film has even started. 

The use of both fast and slow paced editing creates a feeling of uneasiness, as some images are flashed past, such as some of the disturbing images and some shots of religious words in books, whilst others linger, such as the blade on the fingertips and certain shots of the killer's hands. There are also several instances of a relatively long frame time for a certain shot, and then quick flashes of the same shot that has been altered. An example of this can be seen in the mise-en-scene of the sketch of the boy's head. 

The font used for the titles establishes the killer, as it is sans serif and rough, like handwriting. The text flickers onto the screen, and is slightly distorted. This is commonly used in horror opening scenes, as the distortion suggests there is some sort of trauma or that some thing is not quite right which represents the threat of the killer. 

Distortion is used in the same way in some of the visuals in the opening scene, further demonstrating the idea that something is being hidden or something terrible is yet to be revealed. 

Whilst the visuals strongly portray the genre of psychological horror and also the threat of the killer, the soundtrack adds depth to the opening credits through the distorted and choppy audio. There is a use of an irregular soundtrack, where sounds of machinery and radio signals have been distorted to give a strange array of noises that work in time with the visuals to create a disturbing opening to the film.