Se7en Timeline

00:03 The film ‘Se7en’ begins with a quick shot of pages turning. Already, the audience is left in confusion as to what is happening; this is only the beginning of the psychological horror. The opening shot also shows the company that produced this film, small on the screen so you can focus on the screen details. Throughout this opening scene, there is a constant eerie sound that could be considered music, yet it repeats the same notes. From this shot in particular, we cannot read much information but we can see that maybe the book is there as the person is researching into what he wants to do.

00:10 The next shot shows who the film is made by, and usually this is a big deal, because they are responsible for bringing the vision of the script to life on the big screen, and you want someone good, someone who people know and has a good record of films. What this shot has in it is a pair of drawn hands, so it brings the question as to why there are drawn hands in such detail. One possibility is that it is there to show it’s a surgery book and shows the nerves in hands? It adds to the list of questions in this thriller.

00:12 The next shot is a close up of a razor, it’s purpose is unknown but we can only presume it is for violence. More evidence for this comes in the next few shots, but this raises eyebrows in questioning as to why he may be doing this. What this makes us feel is a sense of uncomfortableness with the music as well as the mystery of what is happening.

00:13This shot shows us who the cast is in the film, and when a film has a cast of good and well known characters they usually become more popular and make more money.

00:15 The next shot things become more disturbing as the eerie noises become more high pitched as you see a quick second glimpse of the unknown man using a razor blade to slice off his fingertips, disturbing the audience on what he is planning, and maybe making them squeamish at the sight.

00:16 The next shot is an extreme close up of a razor blade. It is only a quick shot, so we have to pause it to see what is happening, but when we do we can see his fingers, and it might imply that he has taken off his fingertips, and never washes his hands and does not care for his physical appearance like most psychopaths. I think this is done well, it makes you think and can disturb audiences.

00:18 This shot shows us another one of the cast is in the film, and when a film has a cast of good and well known characters they usually become more popular and make more money.

00:24 This is the film title. It shows the name of the film and the way it is done is in a series of jump cuts and the words move and flash at you whilst the eerie noises continue.

00:29 This is another shot in the opening credits to show who the cast is, another famous actress.

00:34 This is another actor so people know who is in the film.

00:39 This shot shows a piece of film being cut. There is no reason that the audience could think of as for why, but if you look closely you can see some sort of written book, implying he is scrap booking his crimes. This is effective as it is a record of his mind, and who he thinks he is.

00:40 The next shot is darker, and shows the scissors again but this time cutting a picture and putting it into a journal of some sort. His fingers are plastered showing that he may have done something to them, confirming his removal of fingers.

00:43 The shot is continued with more pictures of what at first glance appears to be dead children photographed in black and white and now being placed within the messy and horribly done scrapbook of a supposed psychopath.

00:59 In this shot we see his handwriting, and how jumbled and messy it is. He begins to cross out words, but it is unknown as to what this word is because it is hard to read, especially upside down.

 

01:01 The character, known to be male because of his hands is now looking at ‘When you’re pregnant’ books. This may add question as to who the character wants to be, like Buffalo Bill from ‘Silence of the Lambs’.

01:08 These words if you look closely seem to be referring to sexuality and sex, as that is what some words show.

01:10 This gives credit to the casting directors, the people who chose who would be in the film. But the shot also includes a pen crossing out the eyes of a picture, and when that usually happens that is to show their identity or nothing, or that they will be killed.

01:18 This shot does not show much with what is in the scene apart from the words which shows the person who did the music for the film. If it is a famous composer then the film may make more money off of the soundtrack because they like the songs used. For instance; the composer Hans Zimmer is famous for his amazing work with ‘Interstellar’ and ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’.

01:33 This shot is something for the more easily disturbed people, since this is a type of horror they must have some scenes which gross out the audience, and this one will do just that with a metal pole digging into a man’s skull as a form of old surgery, adding to the audience’s curiosity as to just what is happening.

01:45 Producers usually get an opening credits slot since they had an involvement in the film’s production.

01:50 This shot shows the mysterious man now threading his own journal together with string and a needle to keep it together. He has bandages around his fingertips showing how he has removed them with the razor in the previous shot. 

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Se7en Evaluation

Se7en Evaluation

From the opening credits scene in the movie ‘Se7en’, I have learnt many new things about the way the genre of psychological horror and thriller should be done effectively.

Right away, you are put in with the killer, he remains unknown, and all you see is his hands and the detail on them. This has taught me that to create a successful opening; you need to focus on one thing with minor details to impress the eye, because with his hands you can see bandages, where he removed his finger tips and in the Mise-en-Scene you can see all of the creative things like his journal, and the detail that is put into something that is barely in focus and is only in the shot for about a quarter of a second, before it jump cuts to something else.

To make my production an effective piece, mystery is needed, because if you add the name of the actor that plays the mysterious killer, then the mystery and drama element of the film is ruined.

Opening credits usually establish what the film is about, and with this one we are left with the psychopath’s mind into how his world works, but we see little of it, and this can help our production because we can show how a psychopath acts and behaves, and use something to keep in focus instead of a whole body or a long shot that shows the room. It’s the things that we don’t understand, that frighten us the most. The opening credits are two minutes and show us what we should strive for if we are doing a horror that involves a character that is a killer and we do not know the appearance of such a person.


The typography was impressive, and was animated. It w

as rough and fits well with the genre it is.

Another big part about the opening credits is the sounds used. Sound can be a very effective way to give people Goosebumps and freak them out in a way that they want to skip the scene. If you use disturbing music, an old piece where it is disorientated and some of the notes are scratched on the record to make the singing high or low pitched, the audience will feel uncomfortable with what they are watching. Especially when the themes that are being showed on their screens are filled with horror elements like a journal with body parts and disturbing pictures of mutilated corpses, or fetuses

. Just things in general that can make you uncomfortable, like watching the mysterious man in ‘Se7en’ cut off his own finger-tips and looking up surgical procedures, adding the element of confusion. 

Another thing that I learnt was how to edit effectively. In the opening credits you do not need to show the narrative, just the people involved with the film and let the audience do the rest, like piecing the film together on what they think they saw, with jump cuts to confuse them. This effective use of editing allows for a bigger mystery that the audience won’t be able to figure out until the end of the film when it is shown to them, the editing is more of a tease. It is not done linear, as we cannot tell what he has done, or is doing.

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.

Deconstruction of Se7en Opening Credits

Se7en Opening Credits Deconstruction

In the opening credits of Se7en, the villain is shown editing diaries he has made. The villain is never shown so he is a mysterious and unknown character during the credits. Through the credits, it is made obvious that the character has psychopathic and obsessive tendencies when he is shown putting pictures of mutilated bodies into a book.

 

The opening credits are a mix of scratched frames, glitch graphics and bad quality shots. In the background there is a remixed version of Closer by Nine Inch Nail's.

The opening credits for Se7en are very detailed and the mise-en-scene used immediately show the audience that the genre will be horror,

Soundtrack

The non-diegetic music is slow with a beat, this runs parallel with the shots that are shown, although at the beginning there is quite fast paced editing but the music is at a slower pace than the credits, this could be to create an eerie atmosphere. The eerie atmosphere is emphasised with the creaking, mechanical noises and high pitched noises.

The only part where there is spoken word is in a part of the song, it is right at the end of the credits. it says 'you got me closer to God', at this point, the killer cuts out the word 'God' from a newspaper headline.

Camera Angles

There are mostly close ups and extreme close ups in the credits which is probably so that not too much detail is given away about what the character is like, this creates a mysterious and sinister feeling. There aren't any long shots because there is more of a concentration on the small details rather than the room that he is in. The close ups of different objects suggest some kind of importance and relevance to the film. The shots are often blurred, scratched or of bad quality to highlight the idea of deception and mystery.

Mise-en-scene

The person put pieces of hair into a book along with pictures of people. This builds up the idea that the character is obsessed with these people, hinting to what the film will be about. The books, pictures, files and pens could be associated with an investigation, implying more about the character.

The lighting is quite dark and dim from the low quality indoor light, this foreshadows something ominous and dangerous in the film. 

Location

The location isn't shown throughout the whole opening credits, which creates a feeling of intrigue for the audience. It can be assumed that he is in some kind of lair because of all the creepy mise-en-scene around.

Text

The flickering white font with a black background is similar to handwriting, it looks like the text was written by the killer. The text moves around and jumps a lot, it makes the audience feel uneasy and suspicious of the killer.

These opening credits are really good and so detailed, for our opening scene we can take ideas from this. The detailed close ups would be really good for our opening scene as it doesn't give away much information about the killer but at the same time hints at things. The props in the credits such as pictures of people, a book with lots of writing in it and files of information are all things that we could take ideas from and make them ourselves for use in our opening scene.

Se7en opening credits timeline

Our task was to watch the opening credits of the film 'Se7en' and find the different parts with writing to see the typography, placement and effects of it.

The writing was very effective because it was a thin handwriting font that looked shaky. Throughout it, they were in different places on the screen and flickered so it gave an almost insane look where it displays the damaged mind of the killer. Some of the writing was like a coding and machine-like font, very different to the other font so it may be different sub-genres involved. This adds more to the storyline, giving a more interesting plot that people will want to watch.

In the background of some of the credits were fast clips of props like books / journals that the killer keeps and pictures of victims with their eyes scratched out. This is a good technique to use because it foreshadowed what the killer did to the victims and how he killed them without explicitly showing it happening. This is good inspiration as it's easy to recreate being so simple but very effective.

Advantages

• conveyed the genre well
• stood out against the black background so flickering could be seen more clearly
• reflected what was happening in the pictures by twitching

Disadvantages

• difficult to recreate twitchiness and different font effects
• takes a lot of time to edit
• may be hard to get videos in the background (jumping and scratched writing effect) 

Se7en Timeline in Opening credits

Se7en Timeline in Opening Credits:

We wanted to see what order the names of actors and other important people in movies appear in the credits, this would help us later on if/when we made our own opening credits sequence as we would understand the order of names. We used the movie Se7en to see what they did:

We found that the first name to come up, and therefore the most important, is the production company name. The Directors name then comes up, revealing who the films creation was down to. Followed up is the Lead Actor, often the lead actor is a famous and may-be recognised by the audience (in Se7en the lead actor is Brad Pitt), they are also the first actor name to appear as they have the priory part in the film as it is based around their character and is therefore the most important character featured. After the main actors/actress's appear the title of the film is revealed, usually in big font making it clear what it is and that it has significance. This is then followed by other actors/actress's that have a role in the film, however aren't a main character. Behind the scene people's names then appear such as Costume design, production designers, casting and editors etc. 

Deconstruction of Se7en opening credits

The task was to deconstruct the opening credits of the film 'Se7en' so that we may find inspiration and conventions that conform or subvert, giving us ideas for our opening scene.

Mise-en-scene: there are short close-ups of the killer's hands as he is shaving the skin off of his fingers with a blade to get rid of the fingerprints. There are also pictures and books with a lot of writing in like a journal. The pictures are of people or victims with different ways of killing them, for example with weapons through their head or their eyes blacked out with a pen. These props set the film up to be very sinister to the audience within the first few minutes.

Editing: the shots are overlapping so it looks quick and flickery, and slightly blurry. It seems to give the feeling that a lot of things are happening at once and makes it more fast-paced and busier - suggesting multiple things may be happening in the plotline.

Sound: there is only a non-diegetic soundtrack used. It sounds almost robotic and machinery like, and there's a static kind of sound like a radio signal emitted.

Typography: there's very thin writing used which makes the film seem like it will be quite creepy and chilling, conforming to the genre. The colour is white which is usually a symbol of purity and may link to the religious references in the film.

This film's opening credit sequence is very effective because the twitchiness and flickering of the writing and video clips set a fast and suspenseful pace that can convey the damage of the mind of the killer, and show his psychological problems. This would be good for any film because it immediately foresees the mental state of the villain so we are straight away captivated and are expecting them to have an interesting backstory or upbringing that made them this way.

Se7en opening credits deconstruction

Deconstruction of Se7en opening credits

Genre: Psychological horror

 

Typography: 

The typography used in the opening credits to display the title of the film and people involved in the making is in plain white child-like text, flashing up in time with the mechanical music and often is edited to look static to make it seem disorientated, representing the killers mind. This fits in with the narrative of psychological horrors where it divulges in the killer's mind rather than the victims.

Mise-en-scene [1]: 

in this short opening sequence there is numerous pictures shown of body parts, the pictures look as if they are old and have been taken from a newspaper (eg. there is a picture of a person with a screw in their skull. This highlights an obsession for operation's from the killer's POV and is sinister as it reflects on the killer's intentions.

Mise-en-scene [2]:

There is many relgious connotations throughout the opening sequence, as we see the killer reading the bible and highlighting parts of it. Suggesting the killers inspirations and motivations for his killings. This links in with the theme that many psychological horrors have religion as a reasoning for the antagonists murders. This also links in with the title of 'Se7en' that relates to the seven deadly sins.

Editing:

In the editing process of the opening credits, they have overlapped some of the clips to make images look faded over the top. From an audience perspective the clip looks blurry and out of focus, creating a disorientated look to it. As well as this transitions from clip to clip is smooth through the use of textures overlapped on top make it seem fast paced and a lot on screen at once. The use of the red texture (shown in the right screenshot) symbolizes blood, and danger.

Music:

The non-diegetic music in the background sounds like static or when there is no signal on a radio, and is mechanical. The use of this music creates an emotions of helplessness as it sounds like 'no signal on a radio' suggesting no help will come to the victims aid.

Context:

Close up of the killer using a sharp edge to cut of the skin from the top of his fingernails showing he is cutting of his fingerprints, this suggests themes of crime as the killer doesn't want to be identified through his fingerprints when he commits a crime. This foreshadows later events in the movie.

Deconstruction of Opening Credits for Se7en

Opening Credits Timeline



Se7en (1995) is an American neo-noir psychological thriller that stars Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Morgan Freeman. It was directed by David Fincher and is based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker.

 



 

The text in the credits is very suitable for the genre, so we could aim to create a font that is similar to this so that it is creepy and fitting for our slasher genre. I really like how there is a lot of detail in each of the close-up shots, for example the close ups of his fingers, these shots give the audience information about what is happening and gives an insight into what the character is doing, so it would be good for us to include some detail like this in our opening scene. The writing in the credits tells us what names to put into opening credits, such as costume design and co-executive producers.