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Monday 3rd November
Thriller Film Opening 2 - Se7en
The second thriller opening I'm going to analyse is 'Se7en'directed by David Fincher, 1995.
Mise en Scene
Within the first few minutes of the opening scene we see a montage of disturbing images, we see a picture of someones broken hands and the man in the clip begins to peel his skin with a razor blade.
This makes the audience feel uncomfortable at the strange and disturbing images, it's unsettling because of the abnormality of what's happening on screen. I think we might incorporate this idea into our opening, using disturbing images to create dis-comfort in our audience.
Mise en Scene
There are barely any shots in the clip that fill the screen completely; in all the shots there's a part of the screen that's still black or has nothing in it. There's always some empty space, this could represent the gaps in the protagonists knowledge during the film.
This foreshadows events of the film and tells the audience that the main plot is going to be a puzzle or riddle they'll have to figure out. I think we may want to do something like this in our film opening, but make it less obvious we're doing so.
Mise en Scene
High key lighting is used in most of the shots in the clip, the images are lit up so we can see things we may not have if the lighting had been low key. This means the audience can see more detail in the shots, this creates fear because the audience can see everything going on but they still understand nothing.
This lack of understanding of the information presented to them makes them feel nervous because of how little they know. This is a convention of thriller films, to present the audience with information they cannot yet understand. We want to do something like this in our film opening.
Events, Themes and Characters
The sequence of events in the clip are all jumbled up, there's no continuity. We see repeated images, the same images layered and images that only occur once. There's no structure to anything that we see, we don't have a timeline of events that occur in the correct order, everythings pulled out of order.
This connotes the chaos and manic nature of the film to the audience, it makes them feel alarmed and intimidated by what's going on. Their lack of insight and knowledge makes the audience feel helpless and unbalanced. We don't want to do this in our opening, we plan to put everything in order so the audience knows what's going on. By giving them all the information it makes them feel even more unnerved because they still cannot help and they still don't know what's going to happen
Events, Themes and Characters
In the clip the disturbing images and range of abnormal activities we see the character doing suggests themes of obsession and unnatural strange events.
This also suggests the antagonist is smart, since he's putting all these things together in a way that we as the audience don't understand, however he clearly does understand and is able to connect all the different elements together.
Events, Themes and Characters
There's just the one character in the opening scene, however we don't see much of him. In fact all we see of him are his fingers performing strange tasks such as blacking out words in a book and sewing paper together.
This makes the audience feel weary of his character because the things he's doing are unnatural and are not common hobbies for people. It also makes the audience feel anxious and afraid because they don't know what he's doing or what the end goal is for him.
Titles and Credits
The font used for the opening credits isn't very smart or neat, it looks as if a young child has written on the screen. The typography is messy and inconsistent making it look strange and unusual.
This gives it a creepy feel because the events going on in the clip are clearly not being performed by a child or anyone close to being young. This suggests the man we see is not of sound mind, he perhaps holds some likeness to a small child. It also makes the audience fearful because we don't know if the man has a child or if he has, what he has done with said child.
Titles and Credits
The text is white, contrasting the dark screen it's put onto and making it stand out among other things in the shot. The shots containing text flash during the clip multiple times, during these flashes the text changes size and sometimes appears backwards.
This creates a chaotic atmosphere and puts the viewer on edge because of the changing nature of the text. It never just stays still, this puts the viewer on edge because they don't know what's going to happen next. It makes them feel vulnerable and jumpy because they're in the dark about so much that's happening.
Titles and Credits
The text is in a different location each time it appears on the screen, it's in a different part of the screen and is sometimes at a tilted angle. The text apears to be placed randomly without thought.
This highlights the lack of continuity and sanity presented in the opening scene. It suggests that the characters thoughts are everywhere and that like the sequence of events in the clip, there's no order. This makes the audience feel like they're in danger because of the lack of order of everything, it also makes them feel nervous because of the ambiguity of what's going on. This is a typical convention of thriller films, often pulling events out of order to confuse and scare the viewer.
Sound
Nearly all the sound in the clip in non diegetic; it's all added for effect.
This dis-connects the audience from the events in the clip because the audience cannot hear what the characters can. It also creates various effects depending on the background music used.
Sound
The music used in the clip is a simple repeated beat, there's no rhythm at the beginning of the clip. The music becomes more prominent about halfway through the clip, becoming louder and haivng an increased amount of elements to it. The background music was previously less noticeable because of the overlaying sound effects.
The simple repeated beat unnerves the audience because it makes what's happening in the clip seem routinely and common. The increase in volume surprises the audience and creates tension because it suggests somethings going to happen because of the change in music.
Sound
There are sound effects layered over the beat at the beginning of the clip. At the very beginning of the clip lightning is heard, other sound effects heard include; creaking, scratching noises and a strange buzzing noise.
This mess of added sound effects makes the audience feel tense and makes them anticipate somethings going to happen. It also makes them question what the character is doing since we don't see the objects that are making the noises.
Sound
There are no vocals in the music for most of the clip, the only words spoken happen at the very end before the music stops. At 2:01 we hear the words 'You bring me closer to god'
The lack of vocals makes the audience feel nervous because it's normal for music to have some kind of voicing or lyrics however here it doesn't. This makes it eery and makes the audience focus on the images and what's on the screen more than the music. The lone sentence at the end of the clip shocks the audience as there are no other vocals so it's not expected. It also alerts the audience the credits are finishing and the actual film will start soon. The sentence spoken sounds creepy and somewhat threatening, frightening the audience and making them feel vulnerable and unprotected.
Sound
Asynchronous sound is used at the end of the clip, when the screen is black we hear ambient noise (traffic) before we see a shot of the road the sounds are coming from.
This dis-orientates the audience and leaves them puzzled as to what is happening so suddenly.
Editing
Non continuity editing is used in the clip, there's no set sequence of events. No order; there are shots repeated, there are images repeated at different times during the clip, an example being the book we see at the start of the clip. None of the images are in order, some images are overlapped by the same image at a different time.
This bewilders the audience as they don't know what's happening or what order it's happening in. This puts them on edge because of their lack of understanding of the events going on.
Editing
The editing is fast paced througout the entire clip. We see many different shots and images in a short amount of time.
This connotes a fast moving plot and makes the audience more alert in an effort to see everything what's going on. It also conveys to the audience there are many different elements and events going on that they'll have to keep up with.
Editing
There's lots of superimposition used in the clip. Many images are layered over one another.
This use of superimposition is used to unbalance the viewer and make them feel like they know nothing. It makes them feel useless and helpless because they're unaware of what's happening. We plan to use superimposition in our thriller opening for this effect.
Editing
The transitions between shots are mostly straight cuts. There are a few fades and dissolves used, placement of them seems almost random.
The sudden cuts make the audience feel overwhelmed and unable to take in everything they're being shown. The fades and dissolves used are surprising to the audience because they're not used often. They make the shot transition slightly smoother and don't look like they belong in the chaotic mess of shots and images. This confuses the audience and makes them question why these slide transitions were used as they are out of place among what's happening.
Camerawork
The first image we see is a close up of a book, shallow focus is used so we can clearly see the pages of the books but we can't see the arm or person who's reading the book because they're blurred.
This makes the audience question what's going on, we cannot see what's written in the book or who's reading it. Immediately the audience are having information withheld from them, this is a common convention of thriller films being used in many of them to creates mystery and suspense.
Camerawork
These close ups help the audience focus on a particular object and see more detail of that object. These close ups also take the focus off other aspects of the shots. The audience cannot see a lot more than they're shown, this makes them suspenseful and makes them curious of what they're not being shown.
Camerawork
There are some birds eye view shots (looking at an object from above) in the clip. They look at images and some of the writing the character has done.
These shots makes the audience feel as though they're seeing the whole picture because they can see the entirety of what they're looking at. It also lets them scan the entire shot without trouble and makes them feel like they know something about what's going on.
Camerawork
Towards the end of the clip the camera pans across some files stacked neatly in a box. It's assumed these are the organised files we've just seen the character putting together.
This makes the audience feel relaxed as it tells them that the events have stopped and makes them feel in control again. It also lets them know the character they've seen is intelligent and organised.
Mise en Scene
A lot of the images are layered over one another (superimposition). The layering is sometimes different images and a few times, like at 1:08 in the clip the same image is layered. The two images are of the same object but at different times, this allows us to see what the man has crossed out and is crossing out.
This helps the audience to decipher who this unseen character is and what he's like, it also causes some anxiety and makes the audience unsure and weary of this character since he's clearly not healthy mentally. I don't think we're going to use this technique in this way, we want to keep the antagonist neutral so the audience doesn't know anything about her.
