SE7EN Opening Title Textual Analysis Release date: September 22, 1995 (USA) Director: David Fincher

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING Book suggests that the person who owns it may be intelligent. The shadow of a hand turning the pages gives a sense of hidden identity therefore conveying a sense of mystery straight away. This creates an enigma for the audience to hook them in. A diegetic sound is playing over this shot. It sounds like something old and rusty scrapping or swinging. It’s contrasting to the silence. This gives a sinister atmosphere. This is typically to the thriller genre as thrillers what to make the audience feel on edge and uncomfortable 0.01 There is non-diegetic sound of thunder as the first shot appears. Thunder has negative conventions such as fear this could foreshadow that something negative is going to happen in the film. Close up shot of an unusual picture of hands. The audience cant see who the hands belong to this straight away gives the audience the idea that the film will contain mysteries and keep the audience guessing. This is typical for the thriller genre as thrillers always keep the audience guessing drawing then in making them want to watch more to find out unanswered questions 0.09

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING Non-diegetic sound is playing over the shots, it sounds like a girl screaming which reinforces the sinister events to happen in the film. This is typical for the thriller genre as it makes the audience feel on edge 0.23 Extreme close up of blood spreading into water. This could represent that there will be blood in the film suggesting murder and death. The audience will associate the color red with danger and violence. 0.15 This disturbing close up shot of someone taking off their finger prints with a razor, makes the audience feel discomfort. It also foreshadows that a crime may be committed and this person doesn’t want to be traced. This shows the characters psychotic nature. Does not reveal who the character is, this keeps the audience guessing and wondering. This is typical to the thriller genre creating a restricted . This extreme close up is a slightly canted angle of someone writing excessively. The canted angle makes the shot appear slightly skewed. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable. Suggesting that the person writings mental state may not be in the right place connoting the physiological elements in thrillers 0.30 The shot becomes distorted. This could represent the person who is writing is psychotic and what they are writing is irrational suggesting that they are the antagonist.

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING Here is a montage of images over lapping each other. You can see someone writing, some writing which is upside down and some writing which looks like it has been starched into something. This suggests the psychotic mind of the person who is writing, it also gives the idea that in side his head there's lots of crazy thoughts. The next few shots are of disturbing images. One of a man who appears to be dead, in the sequence you can see the man developing the images. This suggests that he is the killer reinforcing he is psychotic. Other images are of the character cutting up and creating some sort of collage. This shows his psychotic behavior that he is frantic, obsessive and pay attention to detail. 0.36 The transitions for the opening sequence vary. Some are straight cuts and some cross fade or fade to black. The fading gives the effect of the clips being links together. The fades to black reflects the darkness of the overall film. 0.48 0.44

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING This shot shows lots of old news papers and writing and blood dripping in the corner. This suggests how there will be blood spilt throughout the rest of the film The bright white light has connotations of heavenly and god like which suggests there may be death to come. 0.49 The blood shows how there is going to be death. It also could suggest how the person who owns these papers could be the villain and committed a murder. It also creates questions for the audience such as whose blood is that? This reinforces the thriller genre by creating unanswered questions for the audience. The use of lots of writing may suggest the characters intelligence. It also may that the character may like to log everything and is extremely precise showing his obsessive nature. This is typical for the thriller genre suggesting a psychotic character 0.50 The shadow of the hand writing reinforces a hidden identity furthering the sense of mystery in the film.

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING This is a shot of a young boy with his eyes crossed out. The colour white has connotations of innocence, purity and heaven. The young boy and the white light could represent that something bad may happen to innocent victims in the narrative. This shot uses dark lighting The dark lighting in the frame could represent the characters dark nature. The fonts which are used are uneven and at different angles this could represent the antagonists unstable behavior. The colours used in this shot are very interesting and gives the audience an idea of what is to come later in the film. The colour red has negative connotations such as danger or hell. The colour white has positive connotations such as purity and innocence, it also connotes god or heaven. The way the shot has been split with the obvious colour difference could suggest that religion may have a part in this film in the way that the colour’s are split could represent heaven and hell. 0.48 High pitch sounds are playing throughout this makes the audience feel uncomfortable and on edge. The sound is unsteady. In this is a split screen shot. Two different things happening at once, at the top photos are being developed and at the bottom someone is writing excessively. The page being split could possibly represent two different characters or how that the character is split minded which develops the impression that he/she is mentally ill. 1.15

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING This image of some writing which appears to be distorted through being wet. Again is making the audience ask questions. Never reveling a shot fully. This creates enigmas to hook us in. The shot is upside down this is done to make the shot feel uncomfortable to watch and suggesting that all is not as it should be. 1.28 Another disturbing image is shown which the audience can see has been taped down. This furthers on the idea that the person making this collage is psychotic. This image my also foreshadow an event to come. 0.48

MISE-EN-SCENE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND & EDITING The black background is contrasting with the white font suggesting that there may be conflict between good and evil. The font is eerie and sinister, contrasting fronts which are bold and handwritten, may make the audience feel uncomfortable The colours again could be comparing the good v bad and foreshadowing what is to come. In the last shot we see in the OTS it shows a extreme close up of a dollar bill. It shows the character cutting out the word ‘God’ this gives the audience a big clue as to what the film may be about. It suggests that the may have something to do with religion or the character may be religious. The title font is distorted and blurred. This could reflect the psychological elements of the film The lyrics in the soundtrack says ‘you’ve got me close to God’ this could be related to death as God is related to afterlife and if your ‘closer to God’ this could be suggesting that someone is dead. This could be giving a clue to the viewers how there will be death in this film.