Se7en

I have chosen to do my first evaluation on the opening to Se7en, as you can see in this first shot there are several items placed on a table in a very uniformed manner, these include papers and a paper weight, the fact that these items are placed like this could suggest that the person responsible for it is a very tidy person who likes things to be in a certain order, it could also suggest that the This shot is a medium shot of a dead body, the fact that we are not given any clues as to what has happened is very typical of the thriller genre as they like to get you asking questions to keep you watching the film, the lighting in this shot is mostly natural which is used to just slightly illuminate the outline of the body this adds tension to the scene ad we can’t see a face or any injuries so again we are asking question about how this man died.

This shot is a mid to long shot and as you can see they have now moved outside, you would normally expect it to be a bit brighter outside than in but this is not the case this is also shot in a very dark gritty setting in what looks like downtown New York, we can see the yellow police tape in the background of this shot is a bright yellow, this could suggest that the police and the only hope left for the people in the city as yellow is a bright happy colour.

This is a mid shot used to show one of the two detectives that we see in the opening, we can see in many way that he is not similar to his partner as he is shown to be the more laid back of the two this could suggest that he is the new guy in town and has little experience as to the experience of these  cases, we can also see that he is the more casually dressed of the two, this could suggest that he may take things a little less serious than the other detective, we can also see that he is shot in a brighter light than the other detective, this could suggest that detective number two has seen some disturbing things which have changed him completely.

This is a mid shot of detective number two, like I said in the previous paragraph he is filmed in a slightly darker light, he is also wearing the typical detective outfit E.G. the long brownish coat and hat this could suggest that this guy has been in the job a lot longer than the first detective therefore has more experience.

This is a mid shot of the two detectives walking out of the building together and here we can see a clear difference between the two characters age and clothing, there is not much team work displayed which could suggest that they have been newly partnered together or don’t like each other, in many of the outside shot there seems to be rain, this could suggest that this is a very unhappy city, this is an example of pathetic fallacy.

This is a close up of a metronome which they have decided to make a focus point, as the scene progresses we can see that this is the bedroom of the second detective; him playing the metronome as he is trying to sleep could suggest that he has trouble sleeping due to the stresses of what he has had to deal with in his job it could be away of blocking out painful memories from his past.

 

This is a shot from the beginning of the credits, we are looking at the killers preparation techniques, we can see that they have added some obscure elements to these credits such as the use of blood, the credits leave you asking a lot of questions about what is going on as it is not made clear what it is showing until the end of the film.

This is the shot following the credits ad it is an establishing shot of the city showing how dark and gloomy the area is backs up how depressing the city is as they inhibiters struggle to stay out of trouble and try to stay safe.

This is a close up of the detective’s car, it is shown to be very organised in the way that everything has a place and everything is in its place, the shot is showing forensic equipment which could suggest that there has been another murder

This is a close up of the floor in the apartment, as we can see it is very dirty with bugs running around on the floor which could suggest that the place has been abandoned or something has happened making cleaning the apartment impossible, we can only see what they can see as the only light that is being shown is torch light again this leaves us asking more questions as we can only see what the detectives are seeing, which in this case is minimal.

In this shot we see what is thought to be the victim, it is quite a grotesque image as he has clearly been dead for sometime as his skin is starting to lose colour and we can see his veins, this leaves us more questions as we are wanting to know what has happened to the man and who has done this to him.

This is a close up of under the table and as you can see the victim’s hands have been tied together, again the light is minimal as we can only see what is lit up by torch light, which adds drama to the scene as we know as much as the characters in the film, whilst we are discovering more clues to what happened we are getting a running commentary from the two detective about timings and any other clues that they have discovered whilst the camera is still focused on the victims hands.

As we can see in this shot the second detective is looking at the body almost like nothing fazes him anymore as he never shows any facial expression to anything he sees so it’s like he’s seen it all before, this could suggest that the job has forced him to toughen up and not be squeamish about anything he sees else he would not be able to do his job properly.  

person is use to doing this job so know where everything lives and orders these items in this way without thinking about it anymore, we can see that the place that this shot is taken from is very dark, this could suggest that this person like to be in the shadows and not draw attention to themselves, the darkness is typical of the thriller genre.