Title Credit Analysis: Se7en

In the establishing shot, the audience are shown a close-up of what appears to be a book or a newspaper. The book seems to be in a bad state of repair, perhaps indicating to the audience that it is used often or transported to different locations. In the background, one can see a blurred shape moving, presumably, a hand.  A high contrast/dark colour scheme has been used to reflect the darkness of the plot of the film, immediately showing the audience what genre the film is. The background lighting is surprisingly mellow, but in between the pages of book, where the light cannot reach, it is dark, possibly implying that the contents of the book are depraved, as darkness is usually associated with evil. Uncanny, non-diegetic music has been used to overlay the sequence, sounding very much like the recording of a storm, perhaps indicating that wicked or unchangeable is brewing. The titles appear in a inconsistent flashing motion, the names presented in a font that appears to have carved into a hard surface, as it is thin, sharp and angular. The ‘non-names’ as written in a thicker, rounder, bolder font, contrasting ably with the jagged font of the names. 

Here, the audience sees a drawing/picture of a pair of hands with the joints dislocated placed over square graph paper, making the audience wonder what the yet-to-be-unveiled person is up to. The light shines onto the page from the left-hand side, illuminating the page. A thin, dark shadow passes over the page twice, again indicating a human presence. The same, uncanny, electrical music continues, accompanied with a strange rattling noise. Space has been effectively used, allowing the audience to see both the picture and read the title, which is verging into darkness. The height of the shot places the audience in antagonist’s role, allowing them to see from his perspective. The proportion of the hands makes one think that they maybe life-sized drawings, again making the audience deliberate why this person would have very detailed drawing of hands with dislocated finger joints.

In this extreme close up shot, the antagonist is slicing the skin of his fingers off. Being this close to an action that may cause pain makes the viewer feel uncomfortable. The fact that this has been shown to the audience indicates importance, especially as it is taking place in the first five minutes of the film. It suggests that fingers or perhaps fingerprints are of utmost importance. The lighting helps to emphasize this, as it falls directly on the fingertips and shines through the skin that has been cut off, as well as reflecting off the edge of the blade/razor. One can see that the character has very short, dirty nails, suggesting that he works predominantly with his hands, and combined with the action or removing the skin from his fingers suggests a criminal nature. As skin grows back fast (two weeks onwards), suggests that he is planning some nefarious. The bass-heavy, non-diegetic music continues, but spikes into a noise much like that of a cassette being rewound very fast.

Further along in the opening, the audience sees this photo to a hugely gluttonous man that the antagonist most likely took. The picture is in black and white, perhaps suggesting that the antagonist has and old camera, but more likely to enhance the contrast of the victim's face via the lighting. The audience now begins to see the antagonist's sadism, through this picture and many others that are scattered through out the beginning.