Thriller Opening Analysis- Se7en

Institutions: The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. The production companies include Cecchi Gori Pictures and New Line Cinema. In the UK it was released in January 1996, in the USA it was released in September 1995. The estimated budget for this film is $33,000,000, and the gross worldwide is $316,400,000.

Sound: The opening has a strong and constant beat to accompany the visuals, it sounds metallic, forceful and makes the scene eery. The metallic effect in the sound gives the effect of construction, materials being scraped together and dragged along machinery, giving it a sinister edge in that the dragging holds connotations of someone being attacked, and possibly someone suffering, therefore straight away creating tension for the audience. The constant sound of this construction, along with the suspicious actions shown on camera, suggest that the character is spending endless hours concocting evil plots, or building some form of weapon. The constant beat in the background of the music, when added to the rest of the non-diegetic sound, provides a feel of lots of things coming together to construct something, almost like being inside an unusual, evil factory. One of the sounds reminds me of screaming, suggesting that this work being done is ultimately for the pain and suffering of others, giving the audience the idea that the character shown (small parts of the character anyway) is sinister, creating further tension for the audience. This relates to the thriller as a genre in that it suggests there will be a victim, therefore I assume there will be some form of detective, the way the character is shown in this clip says that he is a psycho, his activities and environment show this.

Credits: The style of writing used for the credits connotes many things to the audience helping them to draw ideas on what plot and characters the film contains. It is erratic and scruffy, suggesting the character shown, and possibly others shown further on in the film are rough, unapproachable and have an evil side. As opposed to writing that fades in, is bold and the movement of it, if any, is very slow, this would connote calm, kindness and reliability.

Mise-en-scene: One of the objects shown is photos of people, suggesting that they are a target of the person being filmed, also the character seems to be making some sort of book so maybe the person in the photos has already fallen prey to this person and is being recorded in this book, suggesting this person is a serial killer, keeping record of all his 'achievements'. This possible personality of the character relates to the usual conventions of the thriller genre, in that there is an assassin/psycho. Also, typical thriller narratives include being watched, (or voyeurism), this is included by showing photos of the target/victim. The colours used in the opening are very dark; greys and blacks. These colours can represent age, death and emptiness. This represents the character as being hollow in emotion and compassion, his life and aims are centred around death, bringing it on other people. This creates an atmosphere around this character and his environment of danger, leaving the audience in suspense as they don't know what this character is going to do and what disgusting things will happen in that dark and evil place. This aura around the character is also connoted in the picture of the ugly, disfigured hands. This suggests his mind is bent and far different from a normal person, and that his way of thinking is sick and twisted.

Semiology: The camera angles represent the erraticness of the character, both in actions and mind; the evil he is capable of and his ability to not get caught. This is all shown through short and sometimes scratched, blurred and just generally distorted camera shots. This representation also shows he is hard to get a fix on, understand his thoughts, have an idea of what he will do next. This creates fear and tension in that the audience feel any innocent person in the film could get hurt due to this characters unstable mental state, not only can we not grasp the character in these ways but it is hard to even imagine the things he will do to make people suffer. As mentioned above, this also represents one of the thriller genre's key narratives; death, also we can make an estimation that most deaths, at least the ones caused by the character shown in the opening, are pre-determined, adding to both the evil and twisted personality of the character, and the tension of the film, in that the audience know the deaths will be quite horrific, therefore the film will carry suspense in that they have to wait and see what kind of suffering people have to endure at the hands of this character. The idea of pre-determined murders are also shown in that the only part of the character shown on camera is his hands, connoting a 'hands on' approach and desired detail and planning in his activities i.e. murders.