Kyle Cooper - Se7en Analysis

The initial shot of the opening title sequence displays someone turning pages in a book with a deep depth
of field but a focus pull on the pages in the foreground of the shot. Immediatley there is tension built up from the soundtrack as it starts with a thunderous crash, the mysterious impression the audience are positioned to receive through classic codes and conventions, indicates to the film's crime and mystery genre within seconds of it beginning. This works in combination with the disjointed text and varied font across titles as it leads the audience to assume that there is something quite sinister about the sequence. The subsequent use of a black screen with the title "An Arnold Kopelson Production" draws the audience's attention to it as it is all that it seen, highlighting the importance of the title. Additionally, it adds to the mystery as the audience are only shown small visuals before they are then 'put in the dark again' both physically but mentally in terms of following the sequence and storyline. 

Following this is a series of extreme close-ups, these are extremely effective as they demonstrate a mechanical and well-thought plans of a serial killer and perhaps the creation of false evidence or tools to help commit these murders. The use of fast-paced editing between shots increases the tension but also captivates the audience's attention as they never get bored of seeing certain shots but they also become invested in finding out who is doing this and what their objectives are. They are only seeing small elements of each shot, positioning them as though they are detectives, piecing together the story. As well as that, the editing style of cross-cutting and fading different shots onto one another, flashing between them and editing scratches onto screen creates a chaotic atmosphere and once again augments the
suspense as it is a common convention to crime/mystery/thriller films.

The color palette is very plain and muted with colors such as beige, white, black and grey being illustrated the most. This appears to be very dull, however, when combined with the accents of red throughout the sequence it makes the red become more shocking and foreboding as the red clearly implicates, through its connotations of, danger, sacrifice, anger and blood. This is reinforced by the low-key lighting throughout the entire opening title sequence, giving it a very ominous atmosphere.

Towards the end of the title sequence the sequence begins to increase in pace and the soundtrack crescendos, overwhelming the audience visually and audibly as the editing shots speed up as well, almost as though someone is running out of time. The parallel sound is extremely effective as at the end someone cuts out "God" from a newspaper as the lyrics say "you've got me closer to God", this highlights the presence of this shot and makes it appear significant, heightening the emotions and meaning behind it. Additionally, it suggests an incoming threat before the audience see anything, utilizing dramatic irony and preparing them for something, yet keeping the element of mystery as they don't know what.