The nine frame analysis of the opening credits of the film Se7en provides clues about the genre and themes. Frames 1-3 introduce an ominous tone through distorted titles, shadowy hands flipping pages suspiciously, and a blade shaving skin off fingers, implying the villain will have something physically wrong. Frames 4-6 continue setting the thriller genre through an enigmatic title, a character enduring cutting pain without flinching, and a drawing being violently crossed out, indicating a secret murder plot. Frames 7-9 suggest the villain is a serial killer or psychopath through their focus on detail when designing and sewing, and disdain for the word "God" by cutting it out of money. Overall,
2. Frame1:
Title- “New line cinema presents”.- This is the film
company.
Extreme close up of pages flipping through
from a book, but it's not clear who’s flipping
through the pages. You can only see a vague
shadow of a hand which immediately makes
you/ the audience suspicious.However, there
are no clear clues, so at this point the audience
can only guess. however, the title “New Line
Cinema” is gets slightly distorted suggesting
something out of the ordinary/ unusual event
may occur which the audience can sense
straightaway making them suspicious.
3. Frame2: Title- “ A film by David Fincher”, director of the film
is shown within ten seconds of the film opening
which suggests that he is important and well
known, but also making others aware that he
directed it so the audience knows this film would be
good.This frame shows a detailed drawing of
someone's hands from a high angle but, they
contrast each other with a red line that separates
them which could suggest the good versus evil. The
shadows in this frame could suggest something bad
or evil especially when in contrast with the
highlights in this frame. the shadows could
symbolise someone's secrets or their dark past. This
frame makes the audience think that something
isn’t right making it seem more mysterious which
suggests the theme throughout the film.
4. Frame3: Extreme close up of a blade shaving skin off
fingers, which suggests that this hand may not
be real instead it may be made out something
else. This frame suggests the general
conventions of of the villains that are in
thrillers because they always have something
wrong with them either physically or mentally
or even both. Even in fairytales they have
villains that have something wrong with them
for example, from “Peter Pan” the villain is
Captain hook and he has a hook instead a
hand.
5. Frame4: Title “ Se7en”, this is the title of the film. there
is a 7 instead of a V shown in the title, which is
more creative, but the the fact that the
number is represented in two ways may be
significant in the film which could an enigma
itself making the audience think outside the
box. The shot is an extreme closeup of the
characters fingers again , but this time they
are bandaged. Although this character doesn’t
show any signs of pain while picking up/
sorting files suggesting that they can endure
this sort of pain and the cutting of the skin
with the razor blade is the norm.
6. Frame5: In this frame you can see only the hands of the
character that's placing a picture of on paper,
but you can also see a bunch of other people's
picture under some of the paper which implies
that these may be victims that are targeted
next. The dark shadows really emphasises this
frame ,making it look dark and evil
represented that sinister work is happening.
7. Frame6: The title “Casting by Billy Hopkins , Suzanne
Smith , Kerry Borden” flashes each second
while it disorientates with the background
image also changing. the character has crossed
the eyes out of a drawing/ image of a person
and then a few seconds later the whole face is
scribbled out suggesting something dark and
mentally unstable. This is image of this person
that is scribbled on can suggest that this is the
next victim which means they is someone out
there to kill him and it would be done secretly
because the face of the character isn’t shown .
This already suggests the genre which is
thriller.
8. Frame7: “Production designed by Arthur Max”, this
title links with the close up because this
character is also designing/ creating
something also, this close up shot represents
the detail that needs to be focused on by the
audience. It looks like pins or a piece that is
used to make books/folders suggesting that
this character focuses on every detail
representing that he is villain like a serial
killer or psychopath because these sort of
characters would need to focus on the details
especially when creating a perfect murder.
9. Frame8: This frames a extreme closeup of the
characters hand again but this time the action
is sewing. This character is sewing some pages
together with a needle and thread which is an
old-fashioned way to put two pages together.
The use of sharp metal objects this character
uses suggests that this character is not afraid
to use these objects, but the fact that this
character likes them implies that it’s used
these to harm people or torture.
10. Frame9: An extreme close up is used in this frame of a
dollar bill ,but focuses on the word “GOD”
because it might be really significant in the
film but also plays a huge role. However, the
word god is being cut out of the dollar bill
representing that this character doesn’t
believe in God or dislikes the way God is used
in this manner meaning that he is a religious
character.
