Media – “Se7en” Opening Sequence Analysis

The opening credits of David Fincher’s horror film “Se7en”, is designed in a way to make the spectator feel uneasy. It creates the feeling of uneasiness with the combination of Sound, Editing and lighting as well as Mise-En-Scene.

The sound throughout the opening credits is an edited version of the song “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails. The song has been edited in a way that will cause an unsettling feeling upon the spectator; it has a constantly changing beat which never allows the audience to settle. Sound effects such as razors, drills, and rattles have been included to give the credits unpleasant sounds therefore, helping the spectator familiarize themselves with the genre. Throughout this sequence the sound is presented in a way to bring tension to scene as you don’t know who this person he is or what these bizarre scenes making the spectator become intrigued by this character.

The majority of the editing during this scene is the discontinuity style of editing, rather than the more traditional continuity style of editing, by editing this sequence with the discontinuity style of editing, it makes the audience become aware of the editing and make then readjust themselves with the screen after the jump cuts. The purpose of this entire sequence is to disorientate the viewer; it does with a variety of techniques. For example the sequence over lays some of the shots to have to make the spectator try and concentrate on two things at once, however, the shots during this sequence are very quick therefore whenever the spectator does familiarize themselves with the screen something new has appeared. Some of the sequences throughout the clip have been filmed backwards to also create confusion among the spectator, it does this by over laying some normal clips on top of some of the backwards clips, these moments are also very short so by the time the spectator has figured it out something new has again appeared.

The lighting during this clip is constantly dark, although there are some occasional moments of the color red. Red is used to help keep in context with the genre of the film. Combined with what is happening in the scene the red is used as a symbol of both danger and blood to represent the horror genre.

The mise-en-scene in this clip has been done in a way that reflects the characters personality, the mise-en-scene helps the spectator to understand the character, who is never seen, by showing the characters actions. At one point the character is shown removing skin from his finger tips, therefore removing his identity, which makes the spectator distance themselves from the character. At another point of the clip you see the character again cross out somebody’s identity by crossing out eyes in a photo of an unknown man. It removes the identity as eyes are what we use show feeling and it is what people first look at when meeting someone. This clip is hard for the spectator to understand what is going on as they have nothing to relate or no idea why this unknown character is doing what he is doing.

The editing, lighting, sound and mise-en-scene are all used to make the spectator understand what the film they will be watching will be like, this title sequence is designed to make the spectator understand they will be watching a horror.