The films starts with a close up on an opening book, the book itself was a thick older looking book with the words 'new line cinema presents' are shown in the bottom left hand corner. The font is a white and very Gothic looking giving the credits as almost unhinged and unnatural feel. Through out the credits when ever any writing appears two fonts are predominantly used; one is the font mentioned above and the second is also white but looks more like it was wrote by someone as it is smaller and much more scrawl-like, this is used when the cast and production teams names appear also accompanied by a black background making them the central point.
The main shots used are the close up, birds-eye view and extreme close ups. The birds-eye view shots are used when the unknown male character is looking at, collecting or writing in his books, these shots make the audience feel like they are getting a sort of sneak peak at what the male is doing. The close ups and extreme close ups are majorly on his hands as he is preforming some action for example there is a close up used when he is taking the ends of his fingertips off with the razor. The shots are used as a way of seeing directly what he is doing but leaves the audience wondering why.
The Title 'Se7en' is shown on a black background in the 1st Gothic font but as the image flickers it appears much bigger only then to reduce in size to the original. This is used so that at the beginning it remains the same as the previous but the change in the size is not only to enforce the importance of the word but also to make sure that it is the main focal point of the audience.
The editing used is very quick and is full of cuts; the main transitions between each shots. This gives the illusion that the audience is seeing more information that they actually are, it also gives the pace of the opening a quick, almost immediate feel to it. Another editing technique used is the red filter effect, the shot is of a picture which looks to be developing, this could relate to that fact that when developing images sometimes a red light is used to help the photo develop, but in this case the colour red could connote anger, blood and violence.
The mise-en-scene is very hard to pinpoint as not a lot of the actual setting is scene but the interpretation is that it is somewhere he feels safe enough to make his books and collages , somewhere like his home, where he knows he won't be disturbed. The props used such as the book could be linked with his intelligence but also with the fact that what ever he is doing he has had plenty of time to think it through and plan as we see numerous books through out the opening. A link to violence and crime is the prop of the razor blade as we see him quite clearly remove the skin off his fingertips, this is associated with someone who does not want to leave a trace.
Throughout the opening no diagetic music/sounds are present only the non diagetic soundtrack. The song is Closer by nine inch nails although it has been distorted and remixed to fit in with the opening. The use of distorting the song adds to the uneasiness that the shots bring, it creates tension. The only line that is actual sung is the lyrics ' You bring me closer to God', this is accompanied by the image of the male cutting out the word god, this could be foreshadowing that religion may have something to do with the plot line.
Overall, we believe that this opening is a great example of how just the credits can create an effective opening and we will be taking some things into consideration when filming and editing our thriller.
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