Se7en Opening Title Sequence: Inspiration

The things that I liked about the opening title credits of ‘Se7en’ were the cinematography of the scene. I liked how the focus was on his hand, and you see him slice off his finger tips with a razor, but it does not stay this way for long as you look at it and then it jump cuts,

Another thing that I liked is that a credit for the serial killer; Kevin Spacey was not there, as people did not know who the killer was, and if they showed in the credits then people would have known what he would look like when he shows up on screen, but his reveal was shocking when he was not someone like a B-list actor, or someone who had been credited in the opening credits.

The third thing that I liked about the opening credits to this film is the attention to the Mise-en-Scene. Even though we cannot see what is happening as the screen changes very quickly, if we look fast enough we can see that there is great detail in props that are out of focus, including the book he is writing in, with crossed out words in journals, books, and all types of things that make this character so much more interesting even though we have not even been introduced to him both physically and vocally. We can see what he is like, as he is crossing out biblical words, maybe he follows religion in his own way, shaping the bible to who he wants it to be.

The typography of this scene is in my opinion, great and appropriate for the genre. The letters are messy and they look like they’ve been written on the screen by the killer, as it doesn’t look like formal hand writing. The letters also move slightly, and don’t stay for long, and when they do, they move in the next shot.

The sound of the scene was appropriate, as it was non-diegetic, and felt right for the type of film it was trying to show itself to be. It has horrible sounds that make people uncomfortable, and this goes hand in hand with the scene they are witnessing. The timing of the horrible sounds is done well too, as it comes in when something disturbing on screen appears.

We wouldn’t be able to tell who that person is, or if they have any disfigurements, which is why this scene is more effective, as we see this person as a nobody. A John Doe.