The opening of Se7en is very intense. There are not so many conventional shots of characters or setting, but a montage of cleverly edited, quick shots which create an enigma straight away.
This is the opening shot of Se7en. We see a book from the side where the pages are open. The dark shadows in the background is a hand, which becomes clearer within the whole of the opening: this shadow creates an enigma immediately because the audience is wondering who does the had belong to. This with the book, which again the audience does not know about creates a wonderfully mysterious feel not only when first seen but as it is repeated throughout the beginning.The delicate lighting used from behind the hand to create the silhouette teamed with the way the shadows of the pages emphasise the dimensions of the book and bring a feeling of significance to it. All of this in the first shot of the opening creates a wonderful sense of mystery and curiosity.
At the end of this shot 'New Line Cinema Presents' appears over the compressed pages of the book. This could be to ensure the audiences attention is on the pages of the book that haven't been open, which might have some relevance late in the film.The font used is a 'cracked' style of font where all the letters are in upper case: the use of the 'cracked' style of font may suggest something is broken, or falling to pieces. The possibility of something breaking apart or separating comes across quite obviously from something as simple as this font choice. The text is in white, i think, to create contrast to the very soft, almost delicate colours in the shot. Its continuity throughout the opening and the way it shifts up and down builds yet more tension adding to the enigma.
The next shot i would like to talk about is about 16 seconds into the opening. We see a shot of fingers holding a blade of some kind.
An extreme close up is used here as we see the finger nails and skin. It looks like the blade is being used to take off skin or some texture covering the fingers.
The image is not directly clear and it creates a feeling of shock and unfamiliarity. The lighting is gentle, as in the first shot, where the shadows and forms within the shot are emphasised by the direction of light. Again there is a blurry background to maybe suggest the unknown. This adds to the already tense enigma of the opening.
The positioning of the fingers and blade joined with the blurry background almost coax the audience into using their imagination as to what could be there. The fingers and blade are positioned in the bottom two thirds of the shot, leaving the rest of the shot for shadows and movement which stimulates the audience, again building yet more suspense and adding to the enigma.
In this shot you can begin to see the director has very cleverly kept to a neutral colour scheme, something understated. I think these neutral colours create the sense of vunerablility because they hold connotations of older things, such as photos. Had he have used bright, bold colours (attention grabbing colours on their own) i think he would have lost the feeling of suspense which is built up heavily within the first 2 minutes - especially with the intricate shadow play and lighting used, which i think is heavily relied on.
The final shot within the opening two minute sequence of Se7en that i would like to analyse is about 1 minute 48 into the sequence.This shot brings together previous shots: one of a pen writing across a page (close up), and one of fingers holding a needle (extreme close up) by meeting the props together within one shot.
As the opening progresses the images become clearer and in this shot, we see that the fingers are stitching the paper, which was written on, to something. You can clearly see the needle and the writing from the previous shots, and the fingers, but, there is still the tense feeling because the mystery of who is stitching it, why and what it is being stitched to still remains.
Again the lighting used is very soft but helps create a wonderfully harsh, yet intricate image: the paper is almost opaque, yet the light from behind finds its way through bringing the backside of writing to the image, and the light reflects of the fingernails and traces around the fingers, and we can see the white thread wrapping around the edges of the paper.
I also noticed that in comparison with the previous few shots this one is largely brighter, where as the previous shots have a darker, eerier, more sinister feel to them. Its almost as if the series of shots previous to this one are documenting the making of this shot. The contrast in brightness separated by a black screen with the co-executive producers, i feel provokes a sense of achievement within the audience. They can feel this sense of completion and finality the character feels as the shots show the story of how these things come together to create something obviously significant.
The sound throughout the opening plays a large part in building a tense, suspecting atmosphere. The steady beat and added sound effects create an unreal eerie feeling. The almost 'extra torestrial' sounds give the feel that someone or thing is around you or behind you. The opening credit music is a spliced sample of an uncredited remix of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer". At the end of the opening sequence in the music we hear 'you get me closer to god'. Is this relevant to the film? or does it just happen to be the lyrics to the tense music which creates a great build up of unease.
