Se7en
For the opening title sequence of a film, I have chosen the movie called Se7en. The film is a horror/thriller movie and was released in September 1995 in the United states. The two main actors are Brad Pitt who plays David Mills and Morgan Freeman who plays William Somerset, who are two homicide detectives. Their characters become deeply involved in the case of a sadistic serial killer named John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey, whose meticulously planned murders correspond to the seven deadly sins which are Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Envy and Wrath.The filming took place in Los Angeles, California.
The opening sequence starts with the pages of a book fluttering, the camera then concentrates on a picture of hands with distorted fingers. We then see someone,who seems to be a man, take a blade out of a razor and use the blade to peel the skin off his fingertips. Next we see him pick up a tea bag, then pick up a book and start writing in it. He then starts to cut up photo negatives and photos and sticks them in to the book. As he does this, blood drops from his finger and he smudges it on the page. During these sequences, there are disturbing flashing images of people who appear to be suffering physically and mentally. He takes a sewing needle and threads it and uses this to sew together the written pages. He seems to take a lot of time and effort preparing the pages. The scene ends with him cutting out words and the final word we see is God.
The opening title sequence is filmed mostly in black and white with the addition of red which can resemble blood or danger. The use of these colours gives it a sinister feel and the impression of darkness and dread especially when we see sharp objects like a needle and blade. This was a good idea as filming in colour gives the scene a softer more familiar feel and the use of black and white gives a much grimmer feeling.
The music used in the opening sequence was non-diegetic and can be described as dissonance because it shows lack of harmony and is edgy and disjointed. At times the music is high pitched and towards the end of the sequence it is more disturbing which makes the scene more tense. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable as it builds tension and it is so haunting.
The opening titles showing names of the actors, director and production team appeared on the screen at different intervals and sometimes suddenly flashed up on the screen. The writing was in different styles, some were printed but most appeared to be hand written, almost scratched on the screen. The writing seemed to match with the music. It was interesting that the writing appeared to be hand written as the audience will feel that it has a connection with the person in the scene who was writing and cutting up written words.
In the scene there were lots of close up shots and flashing images. The close up shots were extreme because they focused on his fingers especially as he used the blade and threaded a needle.There were a lot of flashing images when he was looking at photographs in a book which showed pictures of people. Also there were flashes of hand written pages and the written titles flashed on and off the screen. The flashing images of people was a very good idea as although they were only on the screen for a quick second or two and the audience would have only had a brief image of the picture, this still would have left an impression in their minds that the pictures were disturbing and not to be seen.
In conclusion, I think that the opening title sequence makes the audience curious about the person shown in the scene. You wonder why he is behaving in that way and you feel that there is something sinister about him because of the music and flashing images which were very disturbing. So the opening title sequence was very effective in showing the two genres of the film and setting the story up for the audience.
The opening sequence starts with the pages of a book fluttering, the camera then concentrates on a picture of hands with distorted fingers. We then see someone,who seems to be a man, take a blade out of a razor and use the blade to peel the skin off his fingertips. Next we see him pick up a tea bag, then pick up a book and start writing in it. He then starts to cut up photo negatives and photos and sticks them in to the book. As he does this, blood drops from his finger and he smudges it on the page. During these sequences, there are disturbing flashing images of people who appear to be suffering physically and mentally. He takes a sewing needle and threads it and uses this to sew together the written pages. He seems to take a lot of time and effort preparing the pages. The scene ends with him cutting out words and the final word we see is God.
The opening title sequence is filmed mostly in black and white with the addition of red which can resemble blood or danger. The use of these colours gives it a sinister feel and the impression of darkness and dread especially when we see sharp objects like a needle and blade. This was a good idea as filming in colour gives the scene a softer more familiar feel and the use of black and white gives a much grimmer feeling.
The music used in the opening sequence was non-diegetic and can be described as dissonance because it shows lack of harmony and is edgy and disjointed. At times the music is high pitched and towards the end of the sequence it is more disturbing which makes the scene more tense. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable as it builds tension and it is so haunting.
The opening titles showing names of the actors, director and production team appeared on the screen at different intervals and sometimes suddenly flashed up on the screen. The writing was in different styles, some were printed but most appeared to be hand written, almost scratched on the screen. The writing seemed to match with the music. It was interesting that the writing appeared to be hand written as the audience will feel that it has a connection with the person in the scene who was writing and cutting up written words.
In the scene there were lots of close up shots and flashing images. The close up shots were extreme because they focused on his fingers especially as he used the blade and threaded a needle.There were a lot of flashing images when he was looking at photographs in a book which showed pictures of people. Also there were flashes of hand written pages and the written titles flashed on and off the screen. The flashing images of people was a very good idea as although they were only on the screen for a quick second or two and the audience would have only had a brief image of the picture, this still would have left an impression in their minds that the pictures were disturbing and not to be seen.
In conclusion, I think that the opening title sequence makes the audience curious about the person shown in the scene. You wonder why he is behaving in that way and you feel that there is something sinister about him because of the music and flashing images which were very disturbing. So the opening title sequence was very effective in showing the two genres of the film and setting the story up for the audience.
RM