Se7en Opening Sequence Analysis

By Tom Andrews-Faulkner

A film about two homicide detectives' desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" sermonizes to Detectives Sommerset and Mills -- one sin at a time. The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones characteristic of film noir. The seasoned and cultured but jaded Sommerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while the bright but green and impulsive Detective Mills scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer...

Se7en was directed by David Fincher in 1995 and stars Brad Pitt (Detective Mills), Morgan Freeman (Detective Sommerset) and Kevin Spacey (John Doe) to name a few.

This shot is a close up of a book being looked through. This does not conform to the expectation that films start with establishing shot. This could cause the audience to become disorientated. The sound in the background is non-diegetic and sounds like the symbols on a drum being hit gently. This means the audience has to listen very carefully for it thus is drawn in to what is going on. It is a very ominous sound and has no relevance to the scene so is asynchronous. The text is sans serif and is all upper cased. It is stylised to look murky and fits in well with the lighting of the scene which is sepia therefore very bland and old. As shown in the second photo the text does cut to being shadowed by itself creating an illusion on the audience due to its cryptic nature.

The shot is not of a specific distance or angle due to it just being white text on a black background, this is used multiple times and is used to cut up the montage of clips in this opening sequence.The text in this shot has two different fonts, both of which are sans serif. The one for ‘Arnold Kopelson’ is stylised and almost looks like someone has handwritten it , it is also upper and lower case font. For ‘An’ and ‘Production’ it is very mechanical, formal and all upper case . The sound in this shot becomes inharmonious when the text switches from backwards to normal and is low pitched to shock or scare the audience.

This is a high angled shot of a drawing of some mangled hands with a shadow moving across the paper to give us the idea that there’s a person walking past. This cerates an enigma because we do not know the identity of this person and why the book is open on this drawing.The text in this shot is two fonts; ‘David Fincher’ is in stylised font like handwriting and is upper and lower case but ‘A Film By’ is very mechanically written and is all upper case.There is a creaking sound in the background in this shot which is synchronous sopujd as it was in time wth the movement of the shadow.

This is an extreme close up shot of someone, most likely male, rubbing a blade between their fingers and cutting dead skin off their fingers with it. This is a gruesome shot as that isn’t what you expect to be seeing and is very off-putting to the audience.There are discordant asynchronous sounds as he rubs it between his fingers which create a scared feeling in the audience as that isn’t something you hear in normal, every day life. The lighting is low key and the shot is desaturated which are common features of places of evil and sin.

This shot is of the title of the film which enlarges for a split second before going back to its original size but on a different background which has a man with bandaged fingers looking through a book in.The shot of the mans hand is a close up and still only reveals his fingers which furthers the enigma in this sequence of who this man is.In this shot the sound goes very mechanical and futuristic when the text is on the screen but is asynchronous.The text is sans serif and is all upper case. The word ‘SE7EN’ is shadowed behind it as well. There are lots of indentations in the lettering almost like it had been cut into which relates to the blade shown previously in the sequence.

This is an extreme close up of a man writing. His hand is blurred into double vision as the pen jumps in fast motion towards the camera but becomes focused at the end of the shot as shown in the second shot.As the shot progresses it becomes more started and less sepia creating a chilling effect on the audience.The text is sans serif and is a mixture of upper and lower case letters. It is stylised to look handwritten which relates tot the shot as the man is writing at the same time.There is non-diegetic sound which sounds like an electronic drill or razor being used. This has no relation to the clip therefore is asynchronous which crates tension in the audience if this tool could be used for something evil in the film, as the ominous build up is suggesting could happen.

This shot is a close up of a man crossing out words in a book. You can see his shadow in the foreground where he is crossing out.The camera is blurred slightly to create a confusing effect on the audience as it seems almost dream like with a mysterious figure as well.The shadow appears to show that the man is wearing a hood. This is generally associated with crime which connotes he is a criminal or psychopath.

This shot is a close up of a photo of a boys face that has had its eyes, then whole face drawn over it pen.The text is in two different fonts; ‘Casting by’ is in upper case, in a mechanical font. The names are in both upper and lower case and are more italic. Both types of font are sans serif. The text moves across the screen upwards like it is vibrating when the picture changes which could cause the audience to become disorientated.A asynchronous and non diegetic sound plays as the shot changes and is very distorted, just like the boys face has become.The haircut and general features of the boy make him seem part of a military group or being kept in a prison which makes the audience feel little sympathy for him disappearing off the screen and those are not desirable traits.

This shot is two shots put together, in different colour filters (red and normal) to separate them. The top shot is of photos in liquid in a dark room and the bottom shot is of someone writing on a board.The split between the shots is not perfectly straight which could confuse the audience as this isn’t a common feature of film.The text is in two fonts, like most of the sequence. The top line is slightly shadowed to create the effect of it not being dry or stable it its environment.The different angles of the shots could discombobulate the audience as one is normal but the other is tilted to the side.

This shot is an extreme close up of a man’s fingers threading a needle. The needle has what looks like blood on which suggests it has been used to harm someone or something.His fingers look very dirty and work man like which suggest ruggedness and toughness. This relates to the bloody needle which is linked to the aggression of the toughness. However such a touch man juxtaposes the threading of a needle as it would usually require dainty fingers to do so.The music at this point has a high tempo and the discordant noises are becoming more prevalent which suggests that the sequence is close to its climax and the enigma of who the man is being identified.This shot is a short take which could mean the audience only get a glimpse of the blood therefore meaning they are not sure if they actually saw it.