Se7en Opening Scene Analysis

Titles:
The credits that appear at the beginning of the clip are very confusing as the text is stretched out, repeated and difficult to read. This may be foreshadowing the upcoming events on the film. The colouring of the titles is plain creating an eerie atmosphere. The titles flash up and randomly and seem to have no pattern to when they appear.  The quick nature in which the titles appear and then disappear give the impression of a fast paced film to follow.

Editing:
Cross-cutting is used to show the audience different things happening throughout the scene. This form of editing creates confusion as the scene regularly jumps and doesn’t have a continuous flow. The cuts used on the end of the scenes give the scene a fast paced nature and makes it unclear on what the plot of the film is going to follow. The inserts of parts of the title over the top of the background action adds to the uncertainty of the opening clip as it jumps around and doesn’t focus on one particular part of the title or the background action.

Camera:                                                                                                                               The main camera angles used are extreme close ups. The objects seen in the clip create tension as they are only small parts of the objects create narrative enigma for the characters as they anticipate what is going to happen throughout the film. These close ups are also used to focus attention on the props as they may contain some significance later on in the film. The fact that the camera doesn’t show the face of the characters in the film makes the audience of the film feel uneasy. 

Sound:

The sounds in the clip are low crackle sounds of hissing and some form of drum banging, the slow pace of the drum creates tension and makes each beat sound like a heartbeat. Over the top of this are mechanical noises and high pitched screeching, that has a similarities of screams, create an unnerving atmosphere that adds to the fear and tension of the clip. The music sound used in the clip makes the audience ask questions to why these sounds have been used and what is making the screaming noises, adding to the suspense of the scenes.

Mise-en-Scene:
The parts of the characters we do get to see in the close up are someone’s damaged fingers that have parts of skin cut from them and dirty fingernails, this makes the audience question what they have been doing for their fingers to be in this state. There is a short clip of the character using a scalpel to remove parts of their skin, this isn’t typical behaviour for a human so the audience again question the behaviour of this character. The props used in the clips are weirdly placed and are images of body parts just adding to the strange nature of the clip. This clip has dim lighting and has shadows which create confusion and fear for the audience. The darkness within the scene gives the impression of danger and that something bad is going to occur throughout the film.