Personal Opinion of Se7en Opening

I don’t particularly like this opening title sequence but it has certain elements to it that I found quite interesting. This sequence starts off slow with the sound picking up towards the end when the title of the film is introduced. Every 5 to 7 seconds, there is a black-out where an actor or film crew member is introduced. It’s set in time to the music in the background and the scratchy sound effects that give the sequence an eerie feel to it. It’s slow to draw the audience in and speeds up gradually to keep them engaged. The flicking between the images of the book and the writing to a black screen is quick and not very clear. I feel this is done purposely to mess with the way the audience is thinking. It sets the film up for something psychological or horrific in genre. I like the inventive use of the font in this title sequence because it looks like someone has drawn on the screen. It makes the audience feel as though they are participating rather than observing. The constant close-ups of the images and the book is also effective in keeping the attention of the audience because they are so close to what’s being shown that they can’t be separated from it. I would like to interpret this aspect of the title sequence into my own. There is an effect that’s been edited into this title sequence which is the overlapping of the film footage. It’s almost like the pages of the book being overlapped. The colour and lighting in this sequence is a sickly yellow to associate with ageing and perhaps death which is very effective for setting the mood of the film. We get a sense of psychotic behaviour through the crossing out of words and the extreme close-up of the pen and fingers. It’s like the title sequence is drawing us in so close to the action that we can’t look away. It’s a powerful piece that I learnt to respect rather than like.