Film Opening Research- Yasir

SE7EN FILM OPENING

The film starts with a blank screen. Already this simple edit engages audience with suspense, as they are oblivious to what is about to happen.  Just with this image of ‘nothingness’ it suggests the genre of being horror. This is because it creates an ideal dark mood.  I use the word ideal to justify the mood of nothingness. The blank screen is not accompanied with anything. It doesn’t have any dark music or melody to build on the tension. However, it acts as a vortex, absorbing everything, even the attention of the audience. In a sense it creates the perfect form of tension from nothing. The use of the colour black connotes death and mourning which also suggests that the genre is horror. On the other hand, the suspense and the tension of the colour suggest that it is a hybrid of horror and thriller.

Almost suddenly, a dubious mood is created. The screen has formed a bit of colour, however it is not very bright. It is like the dim light of a lantern, which suggests secrecy. I believe this because – as I stated above – the light is not very bright thus indicating that the person has something to hide. It is almost like they are planning something crude – suggested by the music – and they don’t want anyone to find out. The music is very unique and repetitive. This further illustrates my point of the person ‘planning’, as a plan takes very repetitive moves of gathering more and more ideas, and squeezing out a strategy. However, the melody, being unique indicates that the plan is nothing that the audience have seen before. This engages the audience from the beginning to have that urge of finding out what it is.

The book is the subject of this shot, blurring out everything else in the background. This suggests that the person has all his attention only on the book and what the ‘person’ is planning. However, though the book is the subject, it is not as clear as you would expect if it was something that the director would want you to perfectly see. This builds on the idea of secrecy, suggesting that the ‘planner’ doesn't want the audience to fully understand what he is doing, and in a sense is trying to hide it from them. In the blurred background the audience can see a hand turning the pages of the book. The hands are very dark and ghostly. 

Small credits creep into the bottom corner of the screen. The writing isn’t straight, nor are the shades of white evenly matched. This symbolises something like a past memory, creeping back – with parts hiding or being hidden. The cut from this shot to the next is sudden. The use of this edit is a generic convention of horror as a sudden change brings fear and excitement to the audience. This new shot expands on the first of the opening. Again, the background is black; however, there is writing present as well. The writing is white, a contrast to the colour black. The vastness in their difference suggests that the good and the bad will oppose each other in the film. However, since the majority of the background is black, it shows that the film mainly shows dark scenes of fright and terror, further contributing o the idea of it being a horror film.

Again there is a similar edit of a sudden cut from one shot to another. The use of reusing the same shot suggests that there is a lot of repetitiveness within the movie. Also, in a horror film, unlike thriller, the tension does not build up, however, the fright is sudden. This excludes the sub-genre thriller as from the edit, the audience can see that all the shots are sudden rather than a build up of tension. However, what the opening does build is anxiousness. The whole opening is a mystery. The only thing we as the audience see are glimpses.