Film Analysis Seven

Evaluation from the film opening of 'Seven'

Seven is a 1995 award winning American film directed by David Flincher. The film was released on the 22nd September grossing  $327 million at the box office internationally, 'Seven' was a commercial success, and received positive reviews.

The opening scene of 'Seven,' begins by introducing the institution.  Doing this will give viewers an insight to the type of film it is going to be and the level of professionalism shown. As ‘New Line Cinema’ is such a big institution within itself it does not require as much promotion compared to other institutions, which are not as well known. These clips last approximately 4 seconds- unpopular institutions will most likely require a further length of time as they want viewers to remember them and promote their status.

The second clip is a medium-long shot. From this viewing point we can see the setting and the back of the characters body, the setting is a gloomy kitchen that holds a very small amount of natural lighting adding suspense to the scene, from the interior design within the room viewers can connote that he isn't a wealthy person as the room encompassing the character could be described as shabby. However the clothing of the man is moderately similar to a suit, this juxtaposes the underprivileged surrounding to the wealthy symbolism that the clothing highlights. The setting within the household implies that he lives on his own, this is because the interior is very manly and one sided and also the majority of the household holds his own belongings and there is no objects you would relate to a female. David Flincher the director of Seven is known for his signature low key lighting and making his scenes look almost black and white due to the metallic sheen.  

The mise-en-scene are all very similar throughout the opening of 'Seven.' The lighting is from natural resources, and because it is so dark this conveys ideas that the scene is set later on in the day. The dimness within the scenes set the mood to be quite gloomy and miserable. The genre of 'Seven' is a thriller, the opening scene portrays this theme through the actions going on for example the person dead on the floor. This is the hook of the film and makes viewers want to carry on as seeing a dead person makes people would how they were killed or who killed them etc. The dialogue in the opening is mainly between Morgan Freeman who plays the detective Somerset and another male character who is not easy to identify in the opening. Detective Somerset is portrayed as the more older wiser dominant character, when the other character is talking to him about the death Somerset asks if the child had seen this this emphasises the sympathy he feels and how he is the caring one. The editing is done to highlight the suspense during the scene, to help viewers understand where the film is going to lead, they're filmed it with a slow pace to allow viewers to understand the concept of the film and where it is going to lead later on. 

The sounds are all very parallel with the scene. The sounds you hear are: footsteps, T.V, dialogue between the characters, police sirens etc. As you can see from the sounds listed all the sounds are very normal however they're emphasising the action as that is all you can hear within the scene as there is no music playing in the background. In the opening there is a lot of diegetic sound rather than non-diegetic. The reason for this could be due to the director wanting to add suspense as there is no music to set the mood it is just the sound of the movements. The police sirens have been added to tell viewers where the opening is set (a city) without actually showing the setting, it also shows what kind of place it is because if there are police cars around the area it conveys ideas that there may be crime and that it is a urban place. This then leads the viewers to reveal the characteristics of the people introduced, such as the fact that it is set in a city connotes that the characters well into business and may have a career within that subject. The sound of the T.V shows that there is movement in the household and that the character is just normal and doesn't own any high authority.

The cinematography in 'Seven' has multiple perspectives and effects on the audience. The shots featured include: a point of view, match on action, low-angle, over the shoulder etc. The point of view shot gives the audience an insight to what the character is witnessing, it also allows viewers to get to know the perspectives that the character is viewing scenes from and what kind of characteristics he possesses, this shot is effective because of these reasons. A match on action shot is used to permit the audience to really understand the movement within the scene, and what is continually happening, when editing the make on action it takes very much precision, as it has to flow nicely when changing perspectives making sure the object is in the same format as the scene before and the one that follows. This shot is also used to highlight the importance of the movement because it is focused on the action, when watching it is the only thing viewers are conducted to look at. The low-angle shot is used to portray the characters level on importance, usually when the shot is from a low-angle is shows that the character has high importance as when viewing it makes audiences feel as they're looking up to the man because he owns dominance. The shot-reverse-shot is used to show the dialogue within the characters, and let viewers get in touch with what is going on within the scene.

The credits are placed just after the introduction, this is where the first piece of non-diegtic sound is placed the music is a song by the band Nine Inch Nails, this particular group are an american industrial rock band putting this genre of music allows the genre of thriller in the film to become apparent as it fits the scene very well. The clips are placed in time with the music as well so when a certain beat is played the scene will change. There is a high range of shots in this part of the video allowing a pace to be built up. All the shots are interlinked with the props that are shown later on in the film for example a journal is shown frequently and later on in the year the same journal is found. Flincher has been very clever here as he is giving the viewers an insight to the motion the film is going to go in. All of the opening sequence of credits is edited in black and white only revealing small spinets of red. The colour red has many different connotations however the fact that the majority of the clips shown are crime related the only assumptions viewers would make is that it symbolizes the danger and blood. The writing has also been edited when on the screen is begins to flash and focus the words also it is being magnified under a microscope.

Overall the film was very successful winning awards for Best Film of 1996, Movie Award for Best Villain, Movie Award for Most Desirable Male, and London Film Critics Awards for Actor of the Year.