Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre
conventions and reaches target audience through technical codes.
Seven is a thriller
film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The plot follows a newly
transferred detective Mills and a soon to retire detective Somerset. Both work
alongside one another after becoming involved in a case of gruesome killings.
Each killing is representative of one of the seven deadly sins. The plot of the
film fits well with the genre as serial killings are a popular convention of
the genre. The film includes a lot of violence and often shows mutilated victims
on camera through which the film also reaches the popular conventions of blood
and gore. The film is full of suspense and the audience is held on the edge of their
sits through the full running time. This is what the audience expects because
the main reason for thriller films is to build suspense, tension and
anticipation often through the use of twisted plots and specific use of
mise-en-scene accompanied by non-diegetic sound which creates the fitting
atmosphere.
The opening credits
are very unique to the genre because unlike most the music rather than having low
sounds and building suspense is an eerie remix. This could disorient the
audience however at the same time it prepares them for the film which likewise
includes a lot of eerie aspects. Every now and again during the credit music
there is a high pitched scream. At the end of the credit music there is a line
with a man singing ‘closer to God’ which foreshadows the killer’s reason for committing
to murderers. Throughout the film sound helps to create suspense and tension.
The non-diegetic music seems to accompany the two detectives every time they
enter a new crime scene although during the opening it’s not as evident because
rather than creating tension the opening introduces us to the characters. The
ambient sounds also play a big role in the film. There is the almost constant
sound of rain, there are creeping sounds when the detectives go to different
locations to find the victims and during the beginning police sirens can be
heard. Because the police needed the detectives it could show that in this case
the police are helpless and it is up to the two detectives to try and solve it.
The opening of this
film mainly focuses on setting the scene and explaining to the audience why the
detectives act in such different ways and have the different points of view.
This will later help the audience to understand why they react to the murderers
differently. At the beginning there are
quite a lot of cuts between the detectives, police and victims. The cuts show
that the pieces are still need to be put together to make sense of the killings
and that everyone has a different opinion on what has happened and led to them.
The shot-reverse-shot also helps the audience to see to what extent the
detectives’ points of view differ. There are also many cuts during the credits
which show different pictures that foreshadow reasons for certain things e.g.
why there are no fingerprints at Jon Doe’s apartment. The little clues in the
credits make the film a little more engaging for the audience. Much like any
other films that aim to scare and excite the audience the film uses a
combination of long and rapid shots. The long shots in the film are mainly used
just before the detectives see the victims and the rapid shots are used
whenever the camera cuts to something or someone unexpectedly. During the first
few minutes of the opening neither are used as much as later on, however the
tension is created anyway through different aspects of editing.
The film opens with a
tilt which shows a body lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The camera then
pans over to one of the detectives who is kneeling over the body. Because the
opening starts right in the middle of the actions, because the murderers have
already started, the audience knows straight away that this film will be full
of such killings because this is what the main characters specialise in. The
opening that exposes the audience to the corpse will most definitely catch the
attention of the target audience and anyone who dislikes gore and blood will
most likely not carry on watching the film. This leaves the film to a very
specific audience who are bound to enjoy the storyline. Zoom in’s are also very
important in thrillers because they focus only what is important e.g. clues,
expressions etc… After each of the victims is discovered the camera zooms in to
the writing left behind by the murderer explaining which of the seven deadly
sins the victim was meant to represent. Other commonly used camera shots are
tracking and panning shot but their use is little in the beginning.
As with every film
mise-en-scene is exceptionally important in portraying to the audience what
film they are expecting to watch. In the opening of seven the mise-es-scene is
used for this very purpose. The lighting is limited and the location is that of
urban outskirts. The dark lighting sets the mood of the film well because the
audience will connote darkness with sinister things such as death. The
location, although seemingly normal, is actually common in thrillers because it
makes the audience think that if the killer was able to get to the victim’s house
there is nothing stopping them from getting to the houses of the audience, this
kind of logic creates a different level of excitement for the audience which is
typical for thrillers. Mise-en-secene also often helps in the portrayal of
characters. For example, at the very beginning we see that detective Somerville
is a very organised man who likes to have everything laid out for him- his
things are all laid out in the morning and he picks them up one by one. The
props, which are his belongings, are very simple and he also has a simple
costume. This tells the audience that he is a collected man who doesn’t like to
overcomplicate things. Then when Mils comes he has a more casual costume which
suggests that he approaches life in a different way to Somerset and we later
find out that he is much less organized or calm then his older partner.
In conclusion, seven establishes
its genre through the opening in the very first few minutes of the film mainly
through the eerie sound and by opening the film using a body covered in blood.
Those two aspects convey the mood and conventions of the film that the audience
is looking for without even having to create the tension and suspense the audience
wants. In this way the people who decide to watch the film can enjoy these
aspects later on and the film can go all out with its gruesome and twisted plot
in order to humour them.
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