9 Frame Opening Sequence – Se7en

All of the opening sequence had close-ups in every frame, to enhance the mind set of this characters actions. This opening sequence looks although the main character is making a shrine of someone, as earlier shots that aren’t included in this nine frame are scenes of the main character keeping someone’s hairs. As I haven’t seen previously seen this film before this 9 frame analysis I cannot comment on the plot of this film, to see weather these opening credits reflect the synopsis of this film. The music and sound effects of these opening credits are very dissonant and are lacking harmony, these are in place to make the audience feel strange and to portray that this is going to be a very eerie film. These opening credits have a medium pace of editing as it is fast enough for the audience to see and understand what this character is doing. These opening credits fit together well as a sequence and are all elliptical edits as it’s dark in some places and what looks like daylight in another shot. Either this is recorded in different parts of the day, or they have used effective lighting to give the effect of different times.

Shot 1 is the very opening and the shot the audience will see first. This is a book being opened and the produces company ‘New Line Cinema’. This is where the music starts being dissonant and this continues throughout. There is also synchronous sound of paper since in the shot there is a book.

Shot 2 is a drawing of hands and over this is writing telling the audience who the film was by. Over this shot the music is still there but very faded. This is because there is sound of creaky floorboards and footsteps. This gives me the idea that the character setting is a very ran down place, but also give the idea that the character’s setting is old and decrepit.

Shot 3 is the overall title writing that tells the audience exactly what film that they are watching. The font of this is a very scratchy and because it’s a thriller this aids the music in thinking that it’s going to be a strange film. The sound is a deep bang, to grab the audience’s attention if they weren’t before.

Shot 4 is the main character writing and the music behind this shot is something being sawed, and this is a asynchronous sound, this gives the audience more of a creepy edge.

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Throughout all of these shots so far there is also a creak from the floorboards and what sounds like a rocking chair, which everyone knows is a typical thriller/horror clique.

Shot 5 is the main character blacking out works from what looks like to book that was first opened at the beginning. When pausing and reading the words that aren’t blackened it seems that the man is reading a book on how to disguise dead women, but when reading the plot this would be a good assumption as the main character is a serial killer.

Shot 6 is the shot where the character is blacking out someone’s eyes carrying on from my previous assumption in shot 5, this could be because he’s killed that person and hates to see his eyes still looking back at him. The music throughout these last two shots is still the scratchy and very dissonant, it still lacks harmony and it aids the pictures in making the audience seem uneasy.

Shot 7 is the shot were we see the character writing, and the credit of the music writer is shown. The music here is the same as it has been throughout the whole opening credits. I don’t think that this shot has got any significance than the other shots as you cannot see what the character is writing etc.

Shot 8 is when the character is trying to bind his shrine together using string and an old rusty needle. This could symbolize that the needle is old and so is everything else in the credits as I have already mentioned in earlier shots, I noticed from the creaky floorboards on shot 2.

Shot 9 is when the character is cutting out the god part in a American dollar as it should read ‘In God We Trust’ So now it only reads In we Trust, this could symbolize that the character doesn’t trust anyone. The sound effects are all crashing and there is an asynchronous of what sounds like crashing metal gates together, this could represent the characters trapped.