Thriller Analysis (Amy)

The thriller opening I chose to analysis was Se7en.

The background music used in the opening of Se7en is very tense, it's quite slow to begin with but the pace quickens towards the end of the sequence. The sound used is non-diagetic as the characters cannot hear the music being played. The music in the sequence ends with lyrics, which makes it more tense as it suddenly stops and words are emphasized in bold letters with the camera panning the page they appear on.

Throughout the opening sequence, it cuts to various different objects such as pictures and books which obviously has some meaning and relates to the story some how. It adds a mysterious edge to the opening, making it tense and wondering what will happen later on in the film. The colouring of the opening sequence was all black, red and white which were strong colours to relate to a thriller as black is dark and edgey and red represents danger and blood. The names which appeared are often shadowed and some of the sequence, for example seeing someone writing on a page, is shadowed too.

There are various different camera angles and movements used during the sequence, like panning over the pages or pictures and writing. The lighting is really dark and typical of a thriller opening. Overall, the mix of music, various different camera angles and shots, and dark lighting make the opening sequence to Se7en a typical tense thriller opening and extremely effective, that leave the viewers intrigued to know what happens on later on in the film.