Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterisation.

Se7en

Se7en is an American film that was released in 1995, the genre of the film is Thriller and it has grossed over $327 million. The film was directed by David Fletcher and written by Andrew Walker.

The film is about two detectives, one a rookie and the other a veteran, they both investigate a series of murders related to the seven deadly sins. They find clues at each grime scene and then realise they are dealing with a serial killer.

I will be looking at how the opening of the film shows the genre of the film using different technical codes.

The film doesn’t start with titles it starts by introducing the first main character which is William Somerset one of the two detectives who is played by Morgan Freeman. The shot shows him getting ready for work and then the next scene goes straight o the first crime scene and it shows a man dead lying In a puddle of his own blood, this instantly shows you that the film has blood and death in it, this gets you in the mood for the rest of the film and it shows you what the film is going to be about.

After this there is a shot of William walking through the hall way into the kitchen, he is looking at everything around him looking for clues, this shows he is always working and is trying everything he can to solve the crime. This also shows that he is in charge and operates the investigation. David Mills the second detective and main character then comes up the stairs looking for Somerset, Somerset is the veteran detective and Mills looks up to him and follows his orders, and Somerset is in charge. Throughout this scene the lighting is dark and the dialogue is quiet, this creates a feeling, it’s a tense place and no one wants to be there. The whole film is pretty much in the dark there is no colourful places and objects in the scenes, creates a feeling for the whole film and makes you on edge throughout the film because you know that something is going to happen.

Somerset and Mills are then walking down the street and the camera is low and it is raining and dark outside, the camera being low shows they are bigger than everyone around then and they are in control, the weather creates atmosphere for the film and shows that it isn’t a happy place.

There is then an establishing wide shot of Somerset in his bed alone, this shows the emptiness of the room making him look small and lonely, he then pushes a hand to makes it start ticking and the tick is louder than it should be, the ticking could be like a timer for the next murders, something bad is going to happen, the camera uses a close up of the timer so you know where the ticking is coming from and it could be related to the film in some way. The ticking slowly gets louder creating tension and it makes you feel uneasy like something’s going to happen.

The titles then play and the text used is bold but it shakes and along with the music makes you feel uneasy and uncomfortable, the music is mainly like sound effects of different noise that you don’t normally hear. There are also images and clips of the seven deadly sins which suits the whole film because that is what the deaths are based on, the titles suit the genre of the film and again set the mood for the film.