‘Se7ven’ was a psychological
thriller directed by David Fincher in 1995.Fincher worked with designer of motion
graphics Kyle Cooper to create the title sequence for the film which has
received much recognition. In the title sequence enigma is created for the
audience to feel anticipation as to what is going to take place in the film.
The title sequence is meant to give the audience and draw the audience’s
attention to stay tuned into the film.
The title sequence begins
with a close-up shot of a book being flicked through; although the person
reading the book is unknown the audience know that someone is using the book to
educate themselves. This creates a sense of suspense for the audience as they
don't know what character of the figure being shown, but the skin cutting and
collection of old newspaper articles suggest that he may be the villain. The audience
is then shown a mixture of close-up and extreme close-up shots showing
different objects that don't seem to have any relation. By doing this it enigma
is created, as the audience begin to think about what is going to happen within
the film. The title sequence doesn’t begin with a master shot or show any long
shots so the audience is unable to establish where the action is taking place,
this could have been done to show that the unknown figure is doing something
that should be hidden from others, creating more suspense for the audience.
Throughout the clip all of the majority of the angles are close-ups which focus
mainly on one object within the scene making the audience feel very
uncomfortable about this unknown character.
The mise-en-scene affects the way the genre of the film is
imposed on the audience as the positioning of props and characters are very
important because the visual effect
is used to implant ideas about
what to expect from the film. Colours used are very dull and mainly consist of murky
brown, grey and black shades. You can see some words being highlighted on paper
with a black pen, the pen is used to highlight words associated death and evil
things. We are also shown objects like blades and needles which could have been
shown to make the audience think of pain as these objects can cause harm if
used in the wrong way, this helps to set a dark mood for the film. Other props
used such as the book and images add mystery by making the audience think about
how they are related to the unknown figure.
The shots with in the title
sequence are layered on one after the other using a flicking effect in which
they are seen for a very short period of time, this could suggest a deeper
meaning to the images being shown in the shots and the use of this effect can
cause . The lighting in most of the shots is very dark and many of the shots
contain shadows showing scary images that create an unsettling feeling for the
audience.
The typography used within
the first shot uses the same font but the name of the production company is
highlighted in a brighter shade of white, showing the expected conventions of a
title sequence. The music used in the title sequence beings with a subtle bang
which introduces the scene, the music creates an eerie feel, causing the
audience to try and figure out what is going to happen.
By Diana Odoom
