Deconstruction and inspiration from Se7en opening credits

The first thing to appear in the opening credits to Se7en is the production companies name. This is pretty much always the case with every film as it identifies by whom the film was produced by.

The opening credits quickly move on to include creepily detailed drawings/photographs of human body parts that have been manipulated/mauled to immediately give the audience the idea that this certainly won't be a product aimed at young children looking for a funny film to watch.

The use of close up shots is already becoming apparent in the first 20 seconds of the opening credits. this is to indicate that the film takes place in a close and personal setting such as a house. This close up in particular shows the "killer" as we can only assume is featuring in this clip, is removing their finger prints by using a razor blade to slice them off which not only suggests that they want to hide evidence of them killing someone, but also indicates that there might not be something right with a person that would rather slice their own fingerprints off instead of just wearing gloves. This is a key point to take note of for our production to decide whether our killer will wear gloves or if they'll just remove their fingerprints altogether and how we'll show this.

The killer/protagonist we focus on in the opening credits seems to be keeping a diary of their killings/sick and twisted surgeries they carry out on their victims. We can see this very easily as the protagonist is writing pages of words and then sticks newspaper clippings or photos from medical journals on brain surgery which indicates that they know what they're doing which adds to the fear factor, that the killer knows that what they're doing is done in hospital yet they're wanting to do it for themselves at home and make diary entries about it.

Something else we can take away from the opening credits, is that the soundtrack is very parallel to the sequence as it is slow paced and has a dark eery feel to it which is very common amongst psychological horror films as they want to have the audience constantly on edge so the effects of certain scenes is amplified.

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. 

Inspiration from SE7EN

Inspiration from Se7en

There are many things in this film opening which I feel are very effective for the genre, which is a hybrid of psychological and slasher horror. Some of the ideas from this opening can be used to inspire our group coursework practical task.

The main areas which I found were most effective were:

• Sound
• Camera angles 
• Mise-en-scene
• Typography 
• Editing 

In one of the first shots of the opening sequence, there is a large book shown through an extreme close up. The book is dominantly bleak colours, with dark ivory pages and a dark brown cover. This initially gives a hint of the genre of the film to the audience. This is also evident through the use of shadows in the frame, which conforms to the common conventions of psychological horrors. The opening of Se7en is very enigmatic, and this is highlighted in this shot as the extreme close up means that the audience can only see what the antagonist wants them to see, further suggesting the power of the antagonist.

This aerial shot of what seems like a drawing or photograph of hands highlights the disfigurement of the mystery character. The use of black and white, which is a common convention of psychological horrors, increases the eeriness of the shot, as this emphasises the texture of the hands. Artificial lighting is also dominant in this frame putting the focus on the hands, this also creates a shadow effect on a large proportion of the shot. This puts the audience on edge as the visibility is limited to what the antagonist wants them to see.

The extreme close up shot of the antagonist using a razor blade to scrape off his fingerprints. This suggests to the audience that the killer wants to keep his identity hidden. This is then juxtaposed as this is the first time in the opening that the killer is revealed to the audience. By just showing the tips of his fingers, he is represented to be delicate and precise with his kills. Similarly, his personality is slightly uncovered by his fingers being dirty and unkept which also suggests that they are a male antagonist. Also, the precision with the blade highlights that he has done this is before and is used to the pain factor.  

There is an extreme close up of the antagonist writing in his book, but the writing is unfocused causing curiosity and confusion as the audience want to know what he is writing. This shot is followed by an upside down close up of the book which highlights that the antagonist is teasing the audience to see what he is doing, without fully revealing it. The fast paced editing causes disorientation and as the shots continuously change quickly, they aren't given enough time to acknowledge and understand what they are being shown, therefore creating an enigmatic effect.

 An extreme close up of a different book shows the antagonist highlighting particular words including 'transexual' and 'homosexual'  which suggests to the audience the type of people that the killer is targeting. It also allows the audience to develop their knowledge on the character, without revealing too much about him which creates suspense as the audience want to know more about the main character.

In this shot, there is a photograph of a young boy. The antagonist uses a thick black marker to cross through the boy's eyes and then follows it up by drawing horizontal lines across the rest of the boy's face. The fact that the killer crossed the eyes out first suggests that he objectifies his targets and this is highlighted as he crosses out the eyes which portray the most emotion and he has taken away a part of the boy's identity. 

The shadow in this shot highlights the killers hidden identity. It also suggests that the killer is teasing the audience, by allowing them to see specific parts of him, like his hands but not the rest of him. The writing on the page is only shown for a small period of time, not giving the audience enough time to read it, apart from the title which has a box around it - 'greed'. This highlights to the audience and gives them an understanding about the film, as from this and the title 'Se7en' they can work out that there is a relation to the seven deadly sins. This therefore allows them to assume that the reason for his murders is related to the seven deadly sins and potentially suggests that he is targeting specific people according to these sins.

Finally, the sound gets louder and more fast paced throughout the film opening to increase tension. This is then abruptly cut off in the last few seconds of the opening so that the audiences attention can be on the non-diegetic recording of the phrase 'you kept me closer to God'. This conforms to the common conventions of psychological horror being related to religion. The non-diegetic music throughout the opening is a disorientating metallic and industrial soundtrack including metal twangs. This highlights the idea that the antagonist has a machine-like killing style which is therefore emotionless. The lack of diegetic sound highlights the idea that the killer is purposely hiding his identity from the audience.

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.

Timeline of SE7EN

I watched the beginning opening sequence of SE7EN and screenshot every time someones name and job role on the film came up. I recorded the times, job role and their name and put it onto a timeline so I could analyse when the credits came up. The purpose for this task was to gain an understanding as to how and how often the text is situated throughout the opening. From doing this, I've learnt that the text appears every few seconds and is on the screen for a couple of seconds before disappearing. This task will help the group with our own credits; what we need to include (i.e. job roles), how long and often the text comes up and how the writing appears.

Timeline of Opening Credits - Se7en

Timeline of Credits - SE7EN

Timeline of Credits - SE7EN

We were set the task of analysing the opening credits in the film Se7en. I looked at the exact second in which each title came up, in order to look at the order that they appeared as well as what each one specifically said, which I discovered was usually the job role and their name. The purpose of this task was to improve my understanding of the opening sequence, as the research can be used to put our credits into our opening sequence, and we will be able to compare the two in order to check it looks professional. Also, it gave me an idea of what the credits actually say, as it is their name and job role so the audience know which part of the film they worked on.

From doing the timeline of credits, I have learnt that there are a vast amount of people mentioned in the opening credits alone. It also clearly shows what each of them do, which is helpful for the audience in identifying the production teams individual job roles. Overall, I have learnt the structure of the opening credits which I can then adapt and use in creating our own opening sequence.