Se7en Opening Analysis

The opening credits of Se7en starts with a close up of a book with the company's name ''New Line Cinema''  faded in at a medium speed rate at the lower right corner of the screen.The font used is I believed to be Century Gothic in bold but there are still some minor difference. I tried to research it but no website specified it so I think it was personally designed. The main setting is not wholly shown but presumably it is a small confined room. This creates a sense of secrecy and thrill which goes along with the distorted and a bit faded hand of most probably a man turning the pages of the book, I think this kind of effect is achieved by the use of a mixture of Key lighting and Fill Lighting which creates a very striking lighting effect.

The next name shown is the  producers name which is ''Arnold Kopelson'' the font used for the name is very simillar to chiller. More names were include in the opening credits such as actors like ''Brad Pitt'' is the first actor name shown shows that he is a more respected and most well known actor alongside ''Morgan Freeman'' and ''Gwyneth Paltrow''. The credits were played really fast along with a series of jump cuts. The director david Fincher is known for his recent work Alien 3 in 1992 before the making of Se7en which was in 1995 this would help the audience to become more familiar with the film that they are about to see.

The only character shown in the opening credits is the possible villain in the story. This assumption was made because the character was seen doing some weird preparation for his killing or future killings. He might have been seen doing some sort of research work so he could be mistaken for a detective but his work is unorthodox and unethical. Another reason why he is a villain is the music and sound that they use while the character was being shown. The music created tension which relates to the villain. The sound was also intensified to create an unease in the audience. For example when the pages hit each other insted of light paper flickering sound; the sound was made deeper to create tension and create an impression of agression that would reflect to the character presumably the villain.


There is no music involved in the opening credits at the start intensified sound was used by sequencing them together to form a rythm. But near the end there was a lyric singing ''Hold me closer to God'' from the sound of it, it is similar to a rock song which is a conventional music used in the thriller industry. The music was written by Howard Shore this was shown in the opening credits.


Many names were included in the titles such as producers, co producers, writer, actors and the director. The company (New Line Cinema) is well disposed. The estimated value of the film budget is $33,000,000. Many names in the titles were not well known actors like: John Cassini who is only known for a few films and Se7en was his first film but he has been in many TV series in America his names were shown along with two other Peter Crombie and Reginald E. Cathey  this shows that they are not the main actors since Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow had their names on their own.


The story-line in the opening credits is just linear and the shots are mainly close ups and the clip is heavily edited. The editing was done by Richard-Francis Bruce he is well known for his work in Red Dead Redemption and Green Mile. The Casting was done by three people: Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith and Kerry Borden. Michael Kaplan was in charged with the costume design he had design many costumes in various films such as Armageddon, Fight Club, I am Legend and his most recent work is the new Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Arthur Max is the production designer of the film he has also designed famous tittles such as Gladiator and American Gangster.