Research into existing products- Seven opening sequence.

When the film Seven, (Se7en) was released, it was the first of it's kind.

A dramatic thriller with a undertone of horror, acting as goroegraphy, where the violent acts in the film are not viewed by it's audience, but instead the audience are left to recreate the horror through their imagination.

It was directed by David Fincher in 1995, who has directed the likes of Fight Club and Alien 3 and was written by Andrew Kevin Walker.

It follows the story of two police detectives, Detective Mills and Detective Somerset, as they are trying to find a sadistic, obsessive murderer, who kills his victims based on the sins they have supposedly made throughout their lives, entwining with the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins, such as Lust, Greed, Sloth

When we begin the opening sequence, we are presented with an Extreme Close Up of some blank book pages, each of them being turned over by a hand, obscured by a blur in the background.

The first sound to be heard is non diegetic, loud music that could be heard as a rumbling of thunder, relating to how the storyline begins, with a rumble of thunder. As the sequence progresses, the sound is a slightly slow paced composition of electronic crackled beating, loud rumbled beats and a sound that almost sounds like a thumping heartbeat.

The credits that overlap with the images fade in and shake, or are sometimes backwards, then quickly reverse themselves, showing a sense of that everything is not right.

Throughout the sequence, images flash into the sequence very quickly, almost so quick that the audience can miss the image, but realise that something different appeared.

We are then presented with the Extreme Close Up of some fingertips, and the movement of a razor-blade, shaving layers of skin from the fingertips, as a high pitched screeching sound is now heard.

Images of black backgrounds with small white scratched writing quickly flash upon the screen, as the music becomes more filled with creaking, giving an eery atmosphere.

Names of people involved in the film still cut in and out or fade over images.

As the opening develops the audience can see the film title for the first time. The word 'SE7EN' flashes upon screen in a scratched, blurred bold white font over a black background before it sharply cuts to an image of some metal and a hand again, while the title is still shaking onscreen, but it is not smaller than before and positioned in the right top corner of the shot.

There are is a huge use of Extreme Close Ups in the opening sequence, as we are bombarded with more, tape being cut and images being placed on pages. At this point the music becomes more screechy, and the pace of it increases slightly.

The film title, big white, scratched, overlapped font then flashes on screen again.

After this, the sequence changes.

The music becomes more rough, there is a industrial grinding noise and a high pitched wailing, making the music is disturbed and chaotic. Now scenes are cutting from one another in a fast pace, overlapping fingers overlap text, scratches overlap movement etc.

A pivital moment is when we are presented with a Close Up shot of a boys eyes being crossed out on a picture, which is surrounded by darkness. The music suddenly becomes faster, theres more bass like undertones, and overall thumping beat throughout.

The colours used are often dark, such as blacks, browns, reds, conveying that there is no happiness in this storyline, most of it will be dark and disturbing.

Names of people involved in the film now become even more blurred, sometimes smeared down a shot that quickly flashes on screen or fading quickly over the top of an image.

Throughout the sequence we have seen what appears to be a scrapbook being made, as the scrapbook becomes more complete, the pace of the sequence increases and becomes more chaotic.

Again the title name flashes up, in bold white font, overlapping each other at different sizes, with scratches over the film reel which makes the image more distorted, resulting in a chaotic image of the film title.

To finish the sequence, we see an Extreme Close Up of a dollar bill, because the word 'God' is being removed, we then hear the first voice of the sequence, which says in a crackled, electronic way, "You bring me closer to God".

This could relate to the killers obsession in the storyline, representing that the killer might believe that they are carrying out the work of God.

 

The sequence finishes by a quick cut to a black screen, where the rumble that was heard at the beginning, occurs again, forming a bookend sound, for the start and the finish.