Research and Planning: Deconstruction of Se7en OTS

Seven Opening Credits from Kieran Brooks on Vimeo.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/

The purpose of credits within an opening title sequence (OTS) is to create awareness to the viewer on who made the film, who stars in it etc, but also to set the tone of the overall piece to let the audience guess what they are in for. The opening credits for 'Seven' meet the conventions for the thriller genre. Credits will also follow at the end of the film which is why they are named 'end credits' but if a film maker chooses to show the credits in this format it makes the credits almost pointless as many people don't bother to watch the credits so it is a very effective technique to make them within the OTS as this forces the viewer to watch them and can create awareness.

In the opening credits for 'Seven' the audience are shown a person flipping through pages of a personal scrap book of strange drawings and diagrams that look quite sinister. The lighting within the whole OTS is very dark which makes the hand of the unknown psychopath appear in a shadowy form which gives the effect of the hand looking mysterious and monstrous. This sets the tone of the piece from the off set as it gives the film the feeling of mystery and creates an enigma for the audience as they ask who is this person? What are they planning? Why has this book been made? By this point the credits have not begun which makes it seem the audience are watching an opening sequence but gradually the credits appear which informs the audience they are in fact watching the opening credits. The font is made to look as though the unidentified man with the book is creating them and is written in an almost childish fashion which signifies this person can be innocent, but in a child like way. The font switches from bold to lower case which shows an inconsistency from the character writing the book and an almost questioning of his actions, it could also signify a hesitancy as though he can't wait to perform these horrifying tasks much like a child. The font is white to make it stand out from the dim lighting used. The hands within the OTS show the person is male as they are of large structure and are unwashed and damaged something not associated to females in films. The hands being damaged in some way show that they use their hands alot and in mysterious tasks which lead to them being damaged.

The images of the hands informs the audience that this character may play a key part as the face is not visible which again creates mystery and suggests they are the antagonist of the piece. The hands also show this person performs dark actions as the images of him skinning his fingers suggests, this also shows his intelligence as by removing his skin from his fingertips the police would be unsuccessful in their investigation. When the cast appear in the credits Brad Pitt's name appears before Morgan Freeman's which suggests he is the main character but in fact they are partners and they roughly share the same amount of screen time but most importantly Kevin Spacey's name is left out of the credits all together this has been done so that the identity of the killer is not ruined or predicted. The camera then focuses on writing in the book which is shown upside down so the audience question what is being written but the most disturbing shot follows of the picture of the little boy. This is disturbing as the unidentified man is crossing out his eyes which could suggest he has done something concerning his eyes. It is then shown the man crossing out his face in pen this could signify he is completely at peace what he has done and has no guilt towards his crimes. This then makes the audience realize the book is a journal where he keeps memorabilia of his victims and admires the pictures as though they are trophies.


The editing throughout the OTS is very fast which does not leave the audience to

inspect every image in time to create the bigger aspect of mystery. The second to last image of the unidentified man are him sewing the book pages together this shows he is skilled with his hands as not many people can sew and is usually seen as a female skill. The final image is the man cutting out the word 'God' from a newspaper he is shown not picking it up with his fingers this could show he is a religious person and doesn't want to tarnish God's name with his dirty hands or he feels he is unworthy of touching the name. The most important aspect of the credits is the music as it constantly builds tension and make the audience's hearts beat faster as they are lead to believe anything bad could happen any second, this is very common within the thriller genre. The credits are followed with the opening scene of the feature.


The credits to Seven have shown me that many things can be accomplished within the opening credits and that they don't just to be writing on who created the film, etc. I hope to draw ideas from this and would like to include cryptic messages and raise questions in my own opening sequence.