Tom's Media Portfolio
Se7en (18) Opening Analysis
Unfortunately, this only has the credit sequence, so I can't give evidence of the scene before this one
Mise En Scene
The scene uses entirely low key lighting to make the scene dark for the evil and sinister feeling, the costume of the protagonists are suits which shows them as professional. The scene is set in both a city and a couple of apartment buildings, which is used due to the crowdedness of the settings to compliment the low key lighting and give a claustrophobic sense to it. The protagonists are always at the front of the shots, and aren't blocked by any secondary characters when they're in the scene. Finally, the antagonist isn't shown during the scene, which gives them a sense of mystery, and that the audience shouldn't know who the antagonist is.
Camerawork
The scene is comprised mostly of close ups during the opening scene to show the protagonists' emotions during conversation, and to hide the antagonist during the credits. There is a mid shot, a two-shot and a tracking shot when the two protagonists are talking to each other, which are used so the audience can keep up with the conversation, and don't have to pay much attention to their emotions. Finally, the main characters are always shot using a stable camera to give the professional feeling, however the antagonist is shot using handheld camera which portrays them as insane and helps give the erratic feeling to the scene.
Soundtrack
The scene mostly uses diegetic sound to introduce the characters and the plot, however once the credits start, so too does the score. The score is introduced suddenly and is industrial to compliment the distorted effects on screen and make it seem much more crazy and out of control. The credits, in contrast to the previous scene (and, by extension, the protagonists), entirely uses non-diegetic sound to make the audience feel as detached as possible to the person in this scene, and also means that very little of this character is seen or heard, adding mystery to the character.
Editing
In the first scene, there is minimal use of editing. There are very few cuts which gives the feeling of professionalism to the characters and also shows that the mood of the scene is overall calm. This is wildly contrasted by the following credits scene where editing is heavily used with lots of quick cuts to show the unstable mood portrayed in the scene, There are also many ways the editing is used to add distortion, as images are sped up and laid over each other to make the entire scene more confusing and disorientating. The instability of the scene portrays the character as insane, and perhaps represents chaos in the film.
Graphics
The graphics during the scene are messy looking and disjointed to compliment the unstable mood of the credits. The text uses overlaying and shadowing to further compliment the distortion in the scene, alongside the editing. The credits appear on various places on the screen for further confusion and instability. The order of the credits go as follows: Production Company
Producer
Creator
Main Actors
Movie Title
Actors
Casting Directors
Musical Director
Costume Designer
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Co-Producers
Co-Executive Producers
Executive Producers
Writer
Producer
Director
From these credits, we got the idea for the distorted text which will be done mostly through overlaying one text on top of another, and also producing the same effect with the footage itself, especially in the quick cuts we're planning to do to add further confusion to the scene.
