The film opening of Se7en establishes mystery and suspense. Shots of an unknown person intensely researching old books and cutting/analyzing materials leave the audience wondering about the person's identity and intentions. Fast-paced camerawork and jolting editing keep viewers engaged. Unnerving music with screeching instruments matches the pace. Mentions of god may indicate themes of religion or challenging religion. Overall, the opening leaves many unanswered questions to intrigue audiences into watching more.
2. Horror film openings
Saw
The film begins with the camera showing weapons of hammers, guns ect, with blood all
over them this instantly tells us the genre of the film giving clues of the up coming
events which will include gore and lots of blood which indicates violence. This gives the
connotation of death and threats, all conventions in horror films.
The camera is unsteady which makes the audience feel on edge it makes it feel more
real as it is hand held looking at the floor from our point of view as if we are looking
down at all of this. The music builds up in the film opening it sounds busy and high
pitched which sounds like the screams of people in pain, which relates with the blood
on the floor. The titles are over the top of the blood and weapons in the
background, the font of the titles is scary big bold letters the way they fade in and out
gives mystery to the film.
3. The woman in black
The film opening is all very normal, you have three children playing contently with each
other having a tea party with their dolls.
All though you can tell that this isn’t just a normal happy tea party, as for one, the dolls are
creepy like, the room is dull which contrasts with the girls outfits of ribbons and pretty little
dresses. When they all look up as if someone is speaking to them then look at the window
then to jump out of it, we do not see who speaks to them but the three girls look in the
direction of the camera this scares the audience which makes them question why they
have done this or who has made them do this.
This is the convention of mystery which we was in the pervious film opening and this one,
this keeps the audience interested in the film.
4. Se7en
• We are first shown a book, this book looks old and
authentic it is also very big so may have some importance
to the film. From the other shots we see it looks as if
someone is doing research, we are shown lots of different
books and pictures, with various different equipment that is
unusual and the precision of moving bits of material is
interesting. The person is cutting things up, looking at
pictures, writing things down, highlighting words in a
book, as if this person is creating something. We also get
the impression of intelligence which is slightly scary as the
person seems to know what he/ she is looking for. This is
something the audience is asking questions about and
wants to be enlightened of what is going on. The mystery
keeps the audience watching the film, so it is very
important the start leaves some unanswered questions.
5. The camera shots are very fast moving adding pace to the
film opening. This adds suspense and keeps the audience
interested in each shot. Quite a lot of these shots seem to
be from this persons point of view as if we are them
looking down at all of these things. This is quite scary for
the audience as they do not know what they are looking
at or what they mean.
The fact the identity of the person has not been revealed
in the opening keeps the audience wondering who it is
6. The editing in this is very jolty and unnerving to
the audience with the credits sometimes fading
to black with just the name, and the name
moving around the screen with no pattern to it.
The names are sometimes on the actual screen
with the filming in the background. There is lots
of writing and things going on in the background
which captures the audiences attention all the
time. The fading to black is very common in
horror film openings and is one of the
conventions of this.
7. • The music is the same through out the start, with
a steady beat which is quite fast and scary, the
use of instruments sound like creaking doors and
screams. When there is lots of editing of fast
moving writing the music sounds fast so it relates
to the editing. The line at the end talks of
god, this makes the audience think that there
could be religion as a theme in the film, as it is
sung in a rocky theme it could also mean the
opposite that this person is going against religion.
