Se7en Analysis

 

Se7en:

Opening sequence:

Se7en is a psychological thriller about two detectives who are hunting for a serial killer who has committed several murders which you later find out that he uses the 7 deadly sins to commit his crimes. I thought that the opening of the film has been made very clever and well thought out as it looked much planned and organised although at the same time it also came across confusing to the naked eye as there was lot of short clips in one montage. I thought because there was so much happening in such a short space of time there was many questions which the audience would have been asking themselves and wondering why how everything linked together. So I think this is one of the main reasons why the opening of this film is one of my favourite opening sequences as why I would try to bring this into my work.

Most of the opening sequence is a montage of continuous clips and pictures from what we gather as the murderer however it could also be the detectives as there are many props which help us guess this. Instantly the opening grabs the audience’s attention as they have many questions in their minds which may mean they are interested in the film and would want to carry on watching.  Of course everything is meaningful which is why the clips have been used. The sound is very interesting in the sequence as I thought that the sound fitted into the sequence alone as at some parts the sound fitted into the action. The screeching noise could suggest to the audience that it could have been a cry for help from screaming victims. The sound throughout the opening credits is loud, low pitched music, giving a sinister sense to it. The sounds are synthetic, with neglected to classical instruments. The pace of the song picks up as the credits progress and at the climax; there is spoken words and then a loud rumble finish, which goes with the thriller genre style. Throughout the sequence there isn’t much dialogue used as you don’t see many characters other than what we expect to be the main character that is played by Morgan Freeman. 

The titles and credits in the opening sequence are very clear and basic as the editing isn’t confusing at all and very clear to follow. Although I found that the font was very creepy and jerky as the font sizes wasn’t always the same this could portray the important of characters and roles. I also thought that the font of the writing could represent one of the murders and the writing was quite mysterious. As the writing was mostly white on black it didn’t interrupt the opening montage as it didn’t distract me from the other action on my screen which I found was a great aspect to the opening as the graphics was very basic and fitted into the montage well. I also enjoyed the fact that each credit was randomly placed which helped add to the mysterious and confusion towards the audience. 

I thought that the whole of the opening montage was very face paced which caused tension and excitement towards the audience as it kept the audience intrigued on why and what all the short clips related to. I also thought the strobe lighting effect also cause more of the build-up of suspense as it help cause confusion to the audience which could in fact create more question which they wanted answers to which intrigued them to carry on watching the film. Additionally, jump cuts are used to quickly know what he has been doing and they also may scare the audience.

 Camerawork is also used in the opening sequence to portray thriller conventions as throughout the whole of the sequence it helps cause tension and excitement towards the audience. For instant how the extreme close ups are used to show the audience all the different details to the film. Also I thought that by having many close ups it caused more confusion for the audience as they was unable to see the whole image most of the time so they had to use their own imagination. I thought that the shot of someone shaving their fingertips off was a great shot as it made it very mysterious and made the opening very disturbing for the audience to watch which may have intrigued them into the film because I thought it also helped create suspense for the audience as it may have scared them. The camera angles also control the mise-en-scene, as the extreme close ups hide a lot of the locations which makes the whole of the sequence even more secret which could relate back to the detectives as they are very private people and like to keep everything conferential . At the end of the opening, there are lots of jumpy shots and this gives effect because it makes the viewer a little confused about the situation but it also gives a slight insight into what will happen at the end of the movie.

Trailer:

The trailer for the film Seven is 2 minutes and 17 seconds long. I thought the trailer was very imaginative and very effective as I think the reason for this was that it’s very fast paced. I also think that another reason why it’s such a successful trailer is that it has lots of action in it but equally at the same time it doesn’t give too much of the plot away. I also think that the voice over is very effective and adds a lot to the trailer.

The first shot seen in the trailer is the Production Company’s logo for the film which is New Line Cinema. This is a great apple for some people as they may feel that because the production company is so successful the film must also be.  This also shows the viewers that their must also be a big budget for the film, as the production company produce big budget films.

The shot is of Morgan Freeman which is seen to be the main character in the film is in a dark and mysterious place which adds a lot of emphasis to the audience. This shot in the trailer I found was a great thriller convention shot as it added a lot of mystery which may encounter danger. Another shot which is shown in the trailer is the clock which is shown twice throughout the whole trailer. The first time is at the start and the second is in the middle. I thought that the reason the producer did this was to show the epic race against time and as there may be a time limit to the plot. The ticking clock is also the non – diegetic sound which is played for a bit of the trailer. By having shots of the clock it adds excitement and tension to the viewers as it shows everything is happening so quickly within a time limit, they will start to question whether they will be able to solve the case by a certain time limit. A race against the time is something which is seen in many thrillers, it is another code and convention that tells the audience the genre of the film, and they show how the main character has to complete a task of some sort within a certain time period.

As hinted throughout the trailer the film is based on the seven deadly sins which appear in and out of the trailer. They appear twice throughout the trailer there is only one scene that separates the two, so the text appears very quickly in straight cuts then there is a scene where Brad Pitt who is another main character who is running after someone who may be the killer, then the same text appears. After the second time the text is shown of the names of the sins, Morgan Freeman says “he is two murders away from completing his masterpiece” so that means two more victims left to kill which then helped to build more tension and excitement. Also I found that because Brad Pitts killer was running other than walking it caused more excitement and may had added more mystery as you don't know why he is running and what for. The seventh sin 'Gluttony' didn’t appear in the list, this could be because the killer already crossed out Gluttony or it could be that the text went really fast that I didn’t see it.

Shots for instance like the one on the right add to help establish the genre and add suspense of a sketch which may help the audience grasp to the detective theme. By creating suspense and mystery it keeps the viewers engaged. The shot on the right is of a sketch to give the viewers an idea of what the killer may look like, this also shows a sense of hope that they may be able to find the killer and stop him. The viewers may start to think about whom he is and by looking at the sketch it shows that the viewers may get excited as they may think they have caught the killer.

Because thrillers are known to be fast and powerful the editing in the trailer is very fast moving as seen in the trailer for se7en. The fast moving and editing in this trailer has worked well as it keeps the audiences guessing and to carry on watching as it looked intriguing. To show the action there were many quick cuts that led to a lot of short clips of action scenes, by adding quick cuts it adds to the excitement of the audience to watch lots of actions one after another. Key characters were highlighted with close up of their faces to show the audience who the main characters of the film are.  The colour red is used for the title this could be symbolic of blood, to show the tally chart is written in blood shows that every line is someone’s blood.

I thought that sound portrays emotions and creates a specific atmosphere. Voiceovers are used a lot throughout the trailer as it creates meaning for the individual characters and helps summarise and follow the story. The voice over says that Morgan Freeman is looking for a way out, then when they showed Brad Pitt the voice over said, he’s looking for a way in I thought this was a great way for the audience to understand the meaning of the characters straight away in a new exciting way.  The voice over also says ‘Now they are caught in a game’ to show that the killer is playing a game with them and they are the ones who have to solve the puzzle and find him before he kills more people, this also shows the audience how clever the killer is, as he is playing games with the police and isn’t worried about being caught. I found that throughout the whole trailer the individual voice over notes all created different meaning as above I mentioned that they created specific atmospheres. But I also thought that the intense music created a massive amount of tension for the audience to get focused on so that they would want to watch the film itself.