Close Analysis of Film Openings- Se7en;

Se7en (1995)
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker
Staring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow
Genres: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

• The establishing long shot shows Morgan Freeman reading in bed. The ambient lighting is artificial and has reference to the quiet surroundings of his bedroom. However, the low ambient sound of the city brings the scene to life.
• The character in this scene has a room full of books to show that he is intellectual which is a typical cop stereotype.
• The sound of the city is then faded out by the characters switch of diegetic sound when he hits the metronome and then this becomes the focus of the opening.
• The editing cuts and then zooms onto the character face on and cuts back to the metronome changing focus continuously but zooming into the main character after each cut away shot.
• There is always an extreme close up of the character and the shot of the character eventually zooms into a medium close up shot.
• The scene then cuts but the metronome sound is echoed and exaggerated into a montage shot where the crime is planned thoroughly in detail with books of notes, photographs and diagrams and gradually as time goes the sequence reveals a series of enigmas.
• The opening prepares us for a creepy plot with the echoing music and sequence of shots of the seven deadly sins gives the audience an element of unpleasantness.
• The cuts to the black chalkboards where the people involved with the films names appear are written almost child-like with white chalk which connotes how chalk can be erased parallel to mysterious deaths.
• The distribution company "New Line Cinema" appears in a ghostly shadow which flips between the montage shots and title information.
• The extreme close up of flashing, unsettling images of razor blades which we are unable to make out at first but as the scene continues the psychotic theme continues as the photo of a child and pregnancy book is marked out.
• The scratched writing adds quality to build up the tension of the title sequence to add to the plot with the music which peaks with shrieks.
• The montage shot has monochrome colouring apart from the red which represents blood. The colours have the feeling of a photographers dark room due to photos being used in the sequence frequently. The photos release the feeling of secrecy and strange happenings.
• The book is sewn together just like bodies and so this is seen as psychopathic. The book has instructions and is organised to imply his crimes are carefully and that is the reason the serial killer hasn't been caught.
• After the montage, the sequence cuts to the city where the music has stopped and the diegetic sound of sirens suggest the story has begun. The title "Monday" appears in the same text as "New Line Cinema" to establish time and impose that time is important.