Opening of 'Seven' - Dani

The first shot is of a modern, clean, white kitchen, containing objects of white or black colour. The only object prominent with colour in this shot is the washing up liquid; a cleaning agent. This suggests certain character traits such as extreme hygiene. This shot also holds surveillance-like  qualities as we see the location from a long shot, from slightly behind a piece of furniture. The non-diegetic sound that can be heard in this shot are FOLEY effects of street traffic, reinforcing the location in which the shot takes place. 

The use of close ups in the scene also helps to further reinforce his cleanliness tendencies.

An over the shoulder shot of him doing up his tie in the mirror in a manicured fashion reinforces his neat qualities. We then pan up to a close up of his face, allowing us to see  his facial expression, emphasising the worried/anxious look on his face.

We then go to a shot of a table where the contents upon it are neatly lined up. As he goes to pick up these objects they are also seen in close up, reinforcing the importance of certain objects. Within these objects he picks up a police badge and a penknife, this combined with his costume, give us knowledge of his job, which in this case is a policeman/detective. A sense of enigma is given here as the audience ask themselves; Where is he going? What has happened? 

His jacket is placed neatly on the bed and he intricately picks off a piece of fluff before carefully placing it on. Once again reinforcing his cleanliness, perhaps now obsessive behaviour.

We go from this location, where he police detective is getting ready for work to, a camera pan up a room in another location, slowly unveiling a dead body. The audience assumes that the dead body holds some kind of significance for the previous character. As we see this, we can also hear the dialogue of somebody explaining what happened, how this dead body came to be. Minimalistic lighting is used in the dark and dingy room to add to the tone/mood in the scene. The atmosphere and bleakness in this second location is reinforced due to the dramatic contrast between this and the first setting; a modern, clean home. 

 

We then see the previous character again, this time in a long shot. This is the first time we have seen the character properly. We then see the character walk towards the camera into shadow and into a medium close up which allows for us to see his facial expression and anxiety about the child. The use of a long shot following this allows us to understand the location of the crime better as we can see a lot more of it, we can also clearly see the blood stained wall, reinforcing the reason that the characters are there. This turns into an extreme  long shot as we then see another character walking up the stairs, also a detective. We begin to understand the layout of the setting which could later become crucial to uncovering the murder case. 

In conclusion, the opening to the thriller, Seven, creates and enigma for the audience as it leaves you asking yourself unanswered questions and therefore builds the suspense. This film also has dark themes beginning to unfold in just the first two minutes which causes the suspense to build up more reinforcing the film genre; thriller.