Analysis of a title sequence (Se7en)

Se7en:

Camerawork

The general camera shots shown in this specific sequence are close ups and extreme close ups. These shots allow the projection of mystery due to it's specific framing, it cut's out any other area and focuses the attention to the blade, it hides the identity and almost hints the narrative by the depictions relating to investigation. This shot show's a person who is quite dirty through his fingers shown, that is holding a blade, this could again symbolise the danger that may be found in the film and it almost emphasises the sharpness of the blade, the framing of this blurs out any other area and so again relating to mystery as it keeps the viewer intrigued on why exactly is this         person is holding a bare blade in his fingers and who the person is, it leads the audience to believe that this person is the antagonist due to the person is holding a sharp and dangerous object, in which we would normally see the antagonist holding in any other thriller.


Editing

 The editing is used to make the sequence seem disorientating and chaotic. From these two shots, it shows the use of a fade and a dissolve of the same image but differently placed (superimposed shots) to again make it seem disorientating and confusing, the first shot shows the superimposed editing, it expresses the films chaotic themes with it's dazed images, this could connote an unsteady mind of the person we see that is writing. The second again shows, a dissolve/fade effect but before this occurred we see quite quick jump cuts, these jump cuts causing a jarred effect and making the shots look more sharp and brisk. In these shot's we see a pen and diary, we see the person writing continuously in addition with the fades to create a sense of time passing, we can not see clearly what the person is writing and leads to the audience to be intrigued on how this relates to the narrative and what it all means. The distortions in framing, give off a dazed feel as we could relate to the person's mindset, maybe the person writing is not mentally stable and so these words may mean nothing.


Mise en scene

The props used in this title sequence all relates to something: investigation. The use of newspaper cuttings, pictures and notes with areas of editing, all could relate to a type of investigation, maybe showing us that they're picking pieces and putting them together to form a conclusion. We can see from the third shot they are cutting a picture out, in which it looks like a picture from a crime scene. The lighting shown by all three shots, is quite low key, portraying feelings of despair and just giving the atmosphere a gloomy and edgy feel. Although we do not see much of the setting through its careful framing, the atmosphere given off and the eerie creaking noises may suggest that it is in a quite run down area that is quite enclosed, we begin to picture the area as this through the persons dirty fingers and it's overall dark lighting suggesting that this person shown is not of the cleanest of people and so we could then parallel the dirtiness of the person with the room. Finally the typography used in this sequence is shown to be as if it's handwritten leading it to look rough depicting the film as uncoordinated and chaotic, the first screenshot show's this. Also with use of editing we can see that some words are multiplied and laid on top of each other again relating to confusion and unsteadiness.

How it relates to it's genre?

This title sequence is effective for it's film genre of a hybrid mystery thriller, through it's mise en scene, editing and sound. The use of props signifies and relates a lot to a mystery film through it's typical investigatory props, it seems as the title sequence progresses we see clues being added up, which leads to the audience wanting to know what the person is investigating - mystery. The fast jump cuts keeps the tension high in which a thriller would normally include. The sound is mostly non diegetic with some aspects of ambient diegetic sounds being blended in to give a quite sinister feel, the sound track at points is high pitched with some crescendos and stings keeping it interesting but yet uneasy and edgy, adding to the tension. The titles are manipulated as it flashes and fades into the scene promptly and therefore makes the introduction of the titles more interesting, captivating the audience to actually acknowledge the titles through its white lettering (stands out) and sharp transitions keeping you wary.