Analysis Of 'Se7en' Opening

• The opening credits for the thriller film 'Se7en' has no narrative structure, instead, non-linear techniques are used. This means that small parts of story have been cut up and are played in a random order, so the entire plot is kept hidden and the audience cannot get the whole effect.
• The audience are shown a person writing in a book, this is intended to keep the audience interested as it poses such questions as: Who is writing in the book? What is the book about? Why are they writing in it?
• The audience are also shown a variety of images in the form of a montage. The images are very graphic and unpleasant, which is a convention of the thriller film genre. They have been chosen specifically for use in the opening scene to engage the audience. The images include such things as;

- A picture of disfigured hands

-A razor blade being used to cut the skin off of a persons finger.

-Newspaper cuttings with certain words crossed out - 'homosexual', 'pregnant' and 'God'.

-Photographs of murder victims

-A needle and other sharp objects

• The images seem very random at first, but at the end of the film, the meaning of the chosen images becomes clear. hey are infact very important factors in the plot. This is called foreshadowing.
• Another convention used in this opening is partial vision. We never see the persons face, and the majority of the images are blurred, distorted or not entirely shown. This creates a more exciting opening and keeps the audiences attention as they have to figure out what is going on.
• The opening focuses on the villian of the story which is another convention of the thriller genre, like the eerie, very dark, mysterious atmosphere which this film opening also has.
• Predominantly still shots are used in this opening, with close ups on the writing in the book and extreme close ups on things like the razor blade and the needle and thread. This makes the audience intrusively near to the horrific imagery thats being used.
• The disturbing pictures used appear to be photographs that the person has taken. I think this shows that the villain has pride in his work, which turns out to be gruesome murder. The objects selected also connect with the villain. The needle and razor blades are sharp objects which connote pain and suffering. Exactly what the murderer is inflicting.
• To add to the tense atmosphere, white noise, what sound like record scratches, thuds, bangs and creaks are used. Music that sounds very intense and serious also creates this effect.
• Graphics are used very well in the scene, the credits look scratchy and the font looks like handwriting which relates to the book reference. The credits are white font on black background, which is meant to make them clear. However, they flicker across the screen instead, which I think adds to the sinister theme.