Analysis of opening titles for "Se7en"

Opening Sequence Analysis - "Se7en"

Camera Shot/Angle/Movement:

The camera shots are very quick showing the man in the opening scene is crazy and mental ill. All the angles are on the mans hands showing that they don’t want you to know who the guy is or his connection to the movie yet. When the words come up it is distorted which also shows this guy we are looking at is not right in the head.

Sound

The sound is dark tune. It is creepy with a lot of disturbing effects and sounds. This is quite unique for an opening sequence because you do not know what is going to happen in the movie. The sounds are quite hectic as well showing the man does not look like his head is in the right state of mind.

Editing

There is a lot of editing in the opening credits it jumps to each scene fast and there is a lot of overlapping in scenes to get a sense that everything is packed together and there is a lot of thought going on. When everything is overlapping it is sort of like subliminal messages because some of the scenes only pop up for a second then disappear. Most of the close ups are of his hands and what he is doing with them, such as when he is cutting his fingers with the razor and when he is writing in his book. 

Mise en Scene

In the opening credits the Mise en Scene is themed around pain and obsession. We see the pain when it shows us the razor that he uses to cut his hands, also it has a lot of close ups of the pin right at the end of the opening scene. Obsession is show through the pictures that the person has and how he crosses out their eyes in the pictures, also how much he writes in his notebook. Furthermore in one scene it shows how precise the person is when he cuts out the word god. 

Characters

We only get to see one person through out the whole first scene and it is supposed to be showing how the movie is going to be portrayed through out because we do see an ill person. 

Locations

It is only set in one room, the persons room because it is dark and we see that he is at a table in some scenes.

Narrative/Plot

The plot I think is that this person that we saw is mentally ill and is going to go out and kill people in a gory and sinister ways. But keep them to a particular way because it seems he doesn’t like to do things differently. 

Themes

The Themes are crime and death, crime because in every thriller there is crime to set the scene and try and catch the person who did the crime, this links to death because normally a murder has been committed. 

Visual Style

The visual style is unique because you rarely get a lot of editing that overlaps each other and creates the effect that it is quite frantic.

Genre

The Genre is thriller we can tell this because we can tell that there is going to be a murder and in thrillers a crime is normally at the core of the story, which is normally a murder.