Se7en Title Sequence Analysis

Se7en (1995) is an American thriller film which contains scenes of horror and neo-noir. David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) are police detectives which are working in a crime filled city, they both become heavily involved in a case involving a series of sadistic murders. Each murder corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins: Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Greed and Wrath.

Through the whole of the opening sequence the director mainly uses close ups and extreme close ups. These shots were used as the director would have wanted to keep the characters identity hidden so that the audience would automatically want to find out who the enigmatic character is. The colours used are dark and the lighting is low key which helps to set the mood of the film.

The non-diegetic soundtrack starts at a relatively slow speed which sets a mysterious and eerie atmosphere, this sets the genre of the film and the audience will know what to expect. The soundtrack then speeds up creating a climax to end the credits.

The opening shot from the title sequence to Se7en shows a close up of an open book. The book's pages look old which gives the impression that the owner of it has had it for a long time. This book creates an enigma as it questions how the book will be relevant later in the film. There is also anchorage in the bottom right corner which introduces the film. 

 

The images in the book are disturbing and could represent future events in the film. The way in which the images flash on and off the screen coincides with the non-diegetic soundtrack as it creates a psychological moment.

The unsettling theme is continued into the next frame during the rapid editing. The image displayed shows an enigmatic character cutting part of his skin with a blade. From this we can connotate that the character could be mentally unbalanced and that something bad is going to happen.

The title of the film is shown midway through the opening credits, this is unusual as the title is normally shown at the start or the end. The font used is quite distorted and eroded which could be seen as creepy, it is also a very suitable font as it matches what is being shown in the opening sequence.

A picture shown is of a young boy, the mysterious character drew a line across his face, then the next frame comes on and his whole face has been scribbled out. This makes the audience think that the child maybe a victim or someone who is going to be eliminated later in the film.

Certain words which the director does not want the audience to see have been scribbled out. This gives the sense of mystery which makes the thriller more intense. The text which is on show talks about senses and smell responses this is unpleasant.  

The hidden character cuts words out such as "God". From this the audience may perceive him as a superior figure. This is due to the fact that the character is cutting out "God" from the paper. He is eliminating him.

Alex Cirino

Questionnaire Feedback - Demographic: Older Audience

We decided to also hand out our questionnaire to an older audience to gain a wider and balanced collection of opinions. This will allow us to create a thriller which will appeal to a larger audience. This is important in a real thriller because maximum revenue from the film can only be achieved if it appeals to a large demographic.
We found that the answers received from the two types of people were different while some remained similar. By the term 'Older Audience', we used teachers and parents due to their availability and readiness to help us obtain answers.

In the first question, in contrast to the answers from the younger audience, only 4 said 'horror' with 4 saying 'conspiracy' and 2 said 'drama'. This shows that in general, older audiences seem to expect less horror in thriller's. As a result of this, the answers to question 2 were totally varied with the answers, blue, green, black and red being the slight favourite with 3.
Most participants still said that the film should be shot at night. This is probably because a night-time setting helps build suspense in a scene which is also required in both conspiracy and drama, not just horror.

Among the locations suggested by the older audience in question 5 were streets, factories, and forest's.The idea of street's is a good idea because it allows the audience to relate to the film, although it might be hard to make this scary as every thing might seem a bit too normal. Almost all of the participants still said that they would expect a thriller to be rated as a '15'. This give's us quite a clear interpretation of the expected rating of our thriller and will try and produce our thriller accordingly.

For question 8 there were a variety of answers, e.g a good storyline. Most answers we can incorporate into our thriller but were quite obvious anyway. We also found that most people thought that suspense played a vital role in a thriller. This is because it keeps the audience involved witht the film.

Thomas Steer

Questionnaire Feedback - Demographic: Young Audience

After creating a questionnaire, we handed it out to a selection of 10 friends that said they would willingly complete the questionnaire. We did this so that we could gain an insight into what makes a good thriller.
Most people that we gave our questionnaire to said that they liked horror thrillers the most (with 'action' and 'crime' the second favourite). We found that most people associate dark colours with a thriller film and expect to see rapid chase scenes and points in the film that excite the audience.
Out of the people who chose horror thriller, all said that they would expect mainly night scenes and some of the locations suggested were a forest or a run down mansion. These are both locations that we have previously thought about and therefore backs up our opinion that these would be a good place to film.


7/10 participants said that they would expect a thriller to be rated 15, with one saying 12 and two saying 18. This has helped us gain an insight into the general ratings of a thriller, although a judgement can only fully be made once the film has actually been produced because we cannot dictate how scary the scenes are going to be until they have been edited. It is important that we get the rating right because it could upset and distress younger people if rated incorrectly.
A selection of answers for question 7 asking if the opening scenes of a thriller is important are; "It set's the tone" and "Makes viewers ask quesiton's". Both of these points are very valid and we aim to achieve both of these as some of our main goals in the clip. Also, everyone said suspense is important in a thriller because it keeps people wanting to watch the film. It is imperitive that we also achieve this because if people get bored within the first few minutes they will not want to watch the whole film.

Thomas Steer

Questionnaire

We decided to create a questionnaire to hand out to people that could be used to gain an insight into what the audience perceive an effective thriller to be. By creating this questionnaire it means that we can create a good thriller with certain elements that the audience will definitely like and expect.
Below is a copy of our questionnaire:

Tom Smith, Alex Cirino, Thomas Steer & James Kinsella-Brown

Cinematography Ideas

By watching several types of films we can pick certain shots and framing that could inspire us in making our thriller, and here are a few ideas that we have looked at.

The Fighter (2011)

In this drama several uses of handheld cameras and dolly's are used to track action, this gives the audience a sense of feeling and creates a fast paced and frantic scene. I have chosen to look at this as we could use a similar type of cinematography in our chase scene to create a tense scene. During the film and fights, close ups are shot using the handheld cameras, to show emotion within the character and the cameras are swung rapidly between the boxer and the sideline, this helps create the sense of fury and danger within the scene which we hope to recreate.

Panic Room (2002)

When the chase is happening within the film, cameras are planted at a low angle on the floor to capture the feet running away from the attackers. Within the film, a slow motion shot is used as the woman tries to grab the phone, this creates a tense moment and makes the watcher think about the consequences of that action. Whilst she is trying to reach for the film, the diegetic sound of a thud is heard, whilst it is being shown in slow motion. By adding this sound to the shot we can see how desperate she is to get the phone. As the phone escapes her grasp we can see the struggle In the top picture when a close up of Megs face is shown, we can see the fear etched on her face. This creates a scary and tense atmosphere for the viewer.

The Godfather (1972)

In this scene rapid editing is used to replicate the danger and fury between the characters. 
By doing this you can establish the fast action and danger within the scene. Using fast rapid cuts is something we hope to achieve in the chase scene of our thriller.

Tom Smith

Character Influence's

By looking at other characters within the genre of a horror thriller we can gain an insight into what characters can be used in order to create an effective thriller opening sequence. For example we can look at certain character's clothing, movement, make-up and dialogue in order to see what things would improve the mise on scene of our thriller. 


Michael Myer's
We have decided to look at the character 'Michael Myers' in the film 'Halloween'.
In the film, the identity of the character behind the mask is never revealed due to the fact that he is only ever seen while wearing this white mask. Doing this creates a sense of mystery for the audience and as you cannot see the character, this makes you feel scared for people trying to get away from him. This mask is also very plain which can be seen to give the character no emotions which is very different from other thrillers where an angry face is usually used.


To further hide the villain's identity, dialogue from this character is never used which builds even greater tension. Because the audience never hear Michael Myers talk, his personality is hidden which makes viewers ask questions about who he is and his motives. In the opening sequence of a thriller the aim is to get people asking questions so hiding the identity of the villain is an effective way of doing this. The choice of clothing for the character is a full body boiler suit. As described above, this further hides his identity and furthers him away from an average man.


To help create a scary tone and a constant sense of danger, the character is usually seen wielding a knife which displays his aim; to kill. The knife is large and always held in his strongest hand which further shows his readiness to murder his victims. The prop is also covered in blood from previous murder's which makes the audience feel fearful. Michael Myers is seen creeping around with this weapon sneakily. His silent approach with this knife shows how he approaches his victim's and this makes the audience see how vulnerable other characters in the film are while he is creeping up on them. This suspense that is created is a good characteristic for a successful thriller.


Overall, this characters identity is totally hidden from the audience which makes them feel fearful of Michael Myers. Through the use of effective mise en scene, he can be seen as a very good example of a character in a thriller that helps create a suspenseful plot. After analysing this character it is clear that in order to produce a good film we will need to make sure that our villain is not exposed too much and that if they are not wearing thing's that cover them up (e.g mask) then we should be careful about choosing camera shots that do not reveal their full identity in order to keep the audience asking questions about the characters appearance and their motives.


Freddie Krueger
The character 'Freddie Krueger' is the primary antagonist in the film 'Nightmare on Elm Street'.

Freddie is a disfigured monster type man, who stalks victims in their dreams. In those dreams, he uses a glove equipped with razor sharp blades to kill his victims, which leads to their death in the real world. By having those sharp blades, it makes the audience feel like he is going to be dangerous with them, as usually things that can harm are associated with bad people, and these bad people are known to do bad things to others.

In the film, the character where's typical male clothing of the time period it was set in. This consisted of  a red and green striped jumper, a leather look hat, with a long leather jacket on top. This allows the audience to relate to the character and almost feel sympathetic as they know he used to be normal person as they know the story behind the film. This challenges the expectations of the viewer as they may expect a villain to be wearing dark clothing or even a boiler suite or something similar, like 'Michael Myers' in the film 'Halloween'.

Freddie has a deformed face due to being 'undead', the audience will gain a sense of fear when they see him, as they know that he is a powerful character, due to the fact that he should be dead, but he isn't. The viewers will be able to resemble the difference between the villain and the victim, as the character doesn't change his outfit throughout the film, this enables the audience to know when something bad is going to happen. This creates a sense of tension throughout the film, and suspense is a major theme in the codes and conventions of a thriller. The audiences expectation of a thriller generally consists of scenes which contain suspense.

In conclusion, Freddie Krueger's character successfully portrays the typical villain, due to his body features such as scars, his symbolic clothing and his choice of weaponry. When we create our character for our thriller, we need to take into consideration the expectations of the audience. It would be ideal to design a character based on our choice of theme throughout the film.

Thomas Steer & James Kinsella-Brown

BBFC Ratings

The ‘BBFC’ is a non-governmental organisation, situated within the United Kingdom that is funded by the film industry and is responsible for the national classification of films. This means that the audience and parental guardians have full understanding of whether or not the film is suitable for their children to watch.

Different children are affected by different things; what might affect one child may not affect another, so it is impossible for ‘BBFC’ to predict what might upset who. For audiences aged 4 and over, ‘U’ films should be suitable to view.

Suitable for general viewing, however some scenes may contain themes unsuitable for young audiences. For children 8 and over, a ‘PG’ film should not disturb that child. Although, it’s the parents decision whether or not the content is suitable for their child, however they are responsible for all consequences of their decision.

‘12A’ and ’12 are based on the same criteria as each other. These categories are put into place and means that the film is only suitable for children 12 years and over. Children under the age rating may find some of the content upsetting.

Where the ‘12A’ category is concerned, it is only put in place for cinema viewing only. Unless accompanied by an adult, no one below the age of 12 can view a film without being accompanied by an adult. If and adult feels that the film is suitable for a child younger than 12, then they are allowed to take that child in, however responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult.

In the cinema no one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ rated film. Nobody younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated film. This may include scenes where scenes of sexual nature are present and contains some swearing.

In the cinema no-one younger than 18 may see a ‘18’ rated film. Nobody younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated film. this may include scenes of sexual preferences, swearing and scenes of sexual nature.

Put in place to state that these films are only to be shown in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years. Films containing consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults must be given the ‘R18’ rating.

James Kinsella-Brown