Analysis of thriller openingSe7en

In seven there are many shots but all of them are close ups. The fact that they are close ups creates a feeling of claustrophobia as the viewer is unable to get away from the shot.The Mise en scene contains rather disturbing images of medical instruments and scientific experiments. There are needles and razor blades, again this reminds the viewer of pain and possibly bad times as many people are afraid or dislike getting injections. The editing in seven consists of many different images; there is a lot of broken imagery and CGI. The broken imagery links to medical equipment as when there is something wrong with them then effectively aren’t functioning properly, just like the imagery. As the opening titles come on they are written in a messy handwriting sort of style, just like the writing in the book behind the titles. The sound in the opening is very unmelodic and unnerving, much like the imagery. The sound started very conventionally but then became quite disturbing with no order to it.

Dexter

The camera work at the begging of Dexter consists of mainly close ups and extreme close ups, as it goes on the shots become very slightly more zoomed out.During the editing of the opening there is a lot of slow motion used, as well as jump cuts, this is very jarring to the viewer and causes a sense of distress.All the text used in the titles is linked back to blood, as well as death and misfortuneAll the shots are very miss leading at first as you think it is some sort of murder taking place but then it shows it is actually an everyday activity, for example when he is tying his shoe laces, at first it appears that he is strangling someone, or when he is cutting his meat for breakfast and it looks like he is just cutting into someone’s flesh.

No Country For Old Men

As no country for old men starts the first thing you see is production company credit, this stays on screen in white writing on a black background for a few second before going into the beginning of the actual film.

As the film begins we are immediately given a setting, it is in a very remote, desert like and isolated are of America. The sound as the film begins is non-diegetic sound, there is a voice over of a man talking about all sorts of thing to do with being a sheriff, at this point many enigmas begin to arise as you have no idea what he is actually talking about. The shot is an extreme long shot or landscape, as the man is

talking there are direct cuts from one shot to another, showing the same area but a different view as the sun is rising, as if someone is sat watching the sun rise and taking a picture every 10 minutes or so but of a slightly different place.

As the opening progresses we see a man being arrested, we don’t know why he has been arrested just that he was carrying a large gas canister on him with some sort of hose coming out of it. This is another enigma as we are very curious as to what it’s for. The next shot after this is a medium long shot. All sound is diegetic, there is only the sound of the sheriff on the phone talking about the man he has just arrested, as this happens the man who is clearly depicted as the villain as he is out of focus, in the dark and behind the sheriff, creeps up behind him and uses the handcuffs to strangle the sheriff to death. As this happens you can hear the unnerving high pitched squeal of the rubber heels scraping on the floor in the struggle, this is accompanied by another high pitched noise from a string instrument. As this is happening the camera moves into a series of medium long shots, bird’s eyes views and close up shots to show the struggle between the two men.

This shot is a bird’s eye view, it shows the man who just murdered the sheriff washing the blood from his wrists, and this has connotations of washing away all the evidence as well as cleanliness. As he is washing the blood away all sound is diegetic, it focuses on the sound of the water flowing, this sound reminds you of washing which links to him washing away the evidence. By this point you have a pretty clear idea of the genre of the film; it is a thriller, crime.

As soon as the man has washed his hands he leaves sin the police car as no one ells is around. By this point we are very engaged in the narrative, we are very curious as to who this man is, what he’s going to do? What is his gas tank for? Why did he kill the sheriff? This is at the beginning as it engages the audience and makes you want to watch on to find out what is going to happen next and find the answers to all these enigmas.

This is a close up; it’s primarily focused on the gas tank which begs the question. What’s he going to do with it? He has just stepped out of the police car pretending to be a sheriff who has pulled over a member of the public. The sound is his footsteps as he walks to the car; this is creating tension for the audience. It is clear that no one is around by the background which is a desolate wilderness; this again creates tension as it means he could kill the man in the car and no one would find out.

As the criminal walks over to the car he has pulled over an infrequent single drum beat comes in. The criminal asks the man to stay still as he raises the metal attachment on the gas tank to his fore head, we can see the man is now very confused as to what is going on, this links in with the idea of enigmas, the man looks confused and the audience is anxious to see what is going to happen to this man. By the time the criminal has raised his hand to the forehead of this man, the irregular drum beat is louder, faster and more frequent