Se7en Opening Credits and Analysis

The genre of this film is categorized as a thriller: This is easy to perceive and work out whilst watching the opening sequence itself. The sinister looking items within the clip help the audience to establish the genre of the film and to set the atmosphere for the upcoming events in the film. The themes and effects created within the first few minutes of the film are conventional of a thriller film; suspense, discomfort and tension are three things that the director of the film has created through the use of images, lighting, soundtrack and narrative. The camera work is much distorted and often hard to make out – this creates a sense of mystery and keeps the audience guessing. Another aspect of the opening sequence that keeps the audience guessing would be the fact that the opening sequence does not introduce any given setting nor does it characters. This crafts tension and makes the audience feel confused and curious as to when these aspects will be revealed. Many opening sequences, for example comedies, will almost instantly introduce a big character: However the director has chosen not to in order to create the themes and effects of a conventional thriller film. Although there is no dialogue, characters or setting there is still many props. Several items are shown by the use of a close-up shot. This indicates the audience that these items are important either within the film or within the type of person the main character is. The close up shots show extreme detail and enhance the importance of the images captured to the reader. The audience are always left in suspense: An example of this would be the inconsistency of the lighting. Throughout the clip is varies from high key to low key: This is alike to the distorted images that are too changing from either clear to mysterious. The camera too often appears to be, at some points, hand held – This adds to the realistic aspect of the film as well as distorted factor of the images. Compared to the Austin Powers film, the font used to represent the big names of the people involved with the making of the film is small and almost looks to be hand written. This also makes the film seem more realistic in contrast to The Spy Who Shagged me which is unrealistic due to the main character walking around naked.