Textual Analysis 2 - Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)

My second extract I have chosen as the opening 7 minutes of Se7en, which is again a dark thriller that is set out to confuse you right from the start.

The extract is set in an apartment to begin with, and then later goes outside. The two inspectors are at a crime scene, but you do not know any details of said crime scene, which is one thing that instantly makes you want to watch more to find out what happened. The next scene is set outside with the two inspectors talking, with them getting slightly angry with each other. The lighting does not change at all throughout these two scenes. The credits themselves are extremely strange, but if you pay close attention to them, you can see that they sort of follow a story. It shows a man cutting off his finger prints so as not to be caught by detectives after committing a crime. It also shows various other things like a book, and said man blacking out, and cutting out certain words in a copy of a book.

The camera work is mainly medium shots and high angles throughout the whole of the second scene, indicating that the two inspectors are in a place of power over the rest of the people in that scene. The whole of the conversation is made up of medium high angle shots and basically does not change. The first part of the extract shows Morgan Freeman’s character getting ready for the day ahead of him, then switches to the next scene via a straight cut. The camerawork on this part is just basically a tracking shot following him and watching him do what he does everyday.

The lighting in this extract does not vary much at all, which only accelerates the overall eeriness. It is mainly dark with slight bits of light. The scenes that are in daytime are also made dark with the rain that is constant while they’re outside. The lighting is all very dark and dense almost as if there is sun shining through a pair of curtains which is letting the light gradually filter through.

There are a lot of sounds during the extracts length, including background noises such as distant voice, sirens, thunder and dogs barking. This makes the setting seem more realistic and like it is set in the city. As those are things you would generally hear in cities. There is also a lot of diegetic sound during the extract with dialogue between Brad Pitt’s character and Morgan Freeman’s character. During the titles there is a music track in the background that gets faster paced, louder and more bassey as the titles go on. At any point in the extract there is always some kind of sounds to create suspense, as you never know what to expect. There is also a point in the extract where the only sound is that of a metronome and as it is so quiet that there is the expectation that something bad will happen.