Analysis of opening sequence Se7en

   



First shot is an extreme close up of an a book..?- which is in focus and a hand out of focus- turning the page- camera is level with the edge of the book,
 music is low and edgy, then cuts to a black screen with a credit on it in white,

then another fast cut to a birds eye view of a sketch on hands on a piece of paper with another credit-
the fingers dont look normal.
the cuts are all extremely fast after this,
one looks like to be a piece of metal spinning around- a gun piece or a building tool?
then another black screen with another credit in white writing.
then a fast cut to a low lit extreme close up of someones fingers holding a piece of metal, could mean that this piece is important and what theyre going to do with it may show what happens later.
then a fast cut to anither black screen with another credit in white writing.
another fast cut follows, with another extreme close up of a hand putting a teabag in a cup?
fast cut - shows a picture of a man for about 0.5sec and then back to teabag dipping into a cup

a plain black screen with the title Se7en which then gets bigger  and continues onto the next cut which looks like to be an extreme close up of come notebooks and a hand covered in bandages- shows that they might have been doing some dangerous handiwork.
the hand opens the notebook but the camera changes its angle to a side point of veiw of it- and you see a pen writing in the notebook- looks like notes- butyou dont get to see what it actually says-

okay so the beginning is a whole load of credits and numerous clips at one time so i started the analysis at 1:25 :) Its a long shot- shows a 'friendly looking neighborhood' - disturbed within a second by a a big black jeep driving fast around a corner, police sirens and lights and the it cuts to a medium close up a man driving holding up and stereo speaker , saying: 'FBI pull over now', this already shows that this man may be the one of the main characters. it the cuts to a small white van and the cuts again to the inside of that small white van to the driver.. lots of fast cuts are used because of its effectiveness to the fast scene with this car chase scene. more speech is exchanged between these two characters, and then one car stops infront of the other causing the other to stop, both of them walk out of their trucks. the first guy tells the other to get out and put his hands up in the air.

Analysis of opening scene

There is no visual in the beginning, only audio which seems to be of a news report. the first lines are "The world was stunned..." - it also then continues with more new reports, such as the "Siege of Seattle" it then cuts from black to a picture of poeple in a cafe looking up at a tv screen thats hosting the news. The people in the scene are dressed in plain clothes, most are grey blueish clothing, this denotes as them being either depressed and not really interested in their clothing, or a sign of a siege and a dress code. Many of them show signs of distress on upon hearing the news that is on T.V of which they are all looking up to. The camera are looking down onto them - showing their vulnerability and also making the camera in the spot were the "T.V" is. There isn't much movement as they are all engrossed into what is on T.V but then a man pushes his was in and asks for a coffee, his expression and his rebel like behaviour in comparison to others around him shows his lack of concern with the news which seem to a ground-break and extremely effective to the others' lives, and this also shows that he may be or one of the main characters. The camera then cuts to another T.V opposite and continues with the news thats being broadcasted which gives hints of the date, which is 2027- which shows its a futuristic film, the sound is diegetic as the music is from the T.V which is being played, also sounds someone softly crying is in the background. The camera the cuts to the back of the "coffee guy" who walks out of the shop, a bus drives past and displayed on the side of it is an advertisement for offers on kidney donors at £3000, this shows that times have become desperate. The camera pans along behind the coffee guy and continues to pan across rather than cut from scene to scene. This shows the audience the surrounding area, and then also some non diegetic text is given on the left-hand corner of the scene, "London, 16 November 2027", this establishes that it is set in the future in case the audience had missed the small hint on the T.V earlier. The surrounding scene in which the camera takes time to show; continuing to pan across the scene rather than to cut, is a dirt-ridden london with many cars and scooter-drawn taxis whose drivers had taken on face masks to protect their lungs from the dirt and pollution. Though it is set in the future, with its moving advertisements on busses and buildings, it shows that the area and people have remained stuck in an earlier time. The sounds within this are all non-diegetic- from the streets and passing traffic. Continuing with a medium long shot, the camera follows the coffee guy along the street behind him, as it is following him this early on in the film it shows again that he may be a significant character and that the audience will be following his story. the coffee guy then walks past some rubbish piles- again showing the dirt in the area. He then set his coffee down on a metal box type on the side of the road. The camera is displaying the scene in a long-shot, so to be able to show the body language of the coffee guy- who at this time takes out a bottle of liqueur and pours in into his coffee, this shows hes most likely a drink and an alcoholic as he's drinking in the morning- (black coffee and news on the tv suggest it is the morning) the camera pans around him continuing with the same shot,and shows him filling his coffee with alcohol, then an explosion happens and he jumps and his coffee drops, the coffe guy falls back and stays there but the camera goes towards the explosion site, not with the "gliding panning motion" it did before, but more of a wobbling, running type, as if it was trying to resemble a mobile recording of an incident. the sound at this scene is diegetic, the high pitched ringing noise is what most get when really close to an explosion and this has an effect on the audience who thinks they're there.