Untraceable: Synopsis The opening follows two characters. An unidentified killer and a detective who is tasked with catching him. The killer is highly skilled, and frustrates the detective, revealing a “flaw” in the hero not only by covering his tracks well, but with phone calls which taunt him. The opening of the film centres around one of these calls. The film follows a common convention of the killer and detective playing cat and mouse for the duration, with continued taunting on the killer’s part and the detective hitting more and more dead ends in his investigation, in a detective’s office where no one else seems willing to help with the case, and a rival detective who envies our hero’s abilities and does his best to be unhelpful in the case. Eventually the detective’s brilliance and persistence leads to him to discover that his chief detective, who has been discouraging him from pursuing the investigation has been contracting the murders for financial and political gains and has recruited almost his entire police force into the corruption. He is unaware of the phone calls. The hero is forced after a manhunt to confront the chief and eventually apprehends him and a number of other rogue detectives who he thought to be colleagues, including the rival detective whose house, when searched after being arrested, reveals him being responsible for phone calls attempting to throw the detective off the trail. A closing scene reveals the hero acting the new chief of the detective’s office, with a new workforce. Equilibrium has been restored.

Opening to Se7en
Open Seven from Stephen Adams on Vimeo.

Se7en: thriller opening

In this essay I am going to analyse the opening of the thriller Se7en.

The setting and iconography of the thriller Se7en, the first scene is set in the morning this is to denote that it is the beginning of a normal day in the life of our “hero”. It shows Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) in his home. The room is coloured with a soft blue, which connotes calmness and implies Somerset’s character to be a calm, collected one. The scene entails Somerset preparing for a day at work, and has a medium shot of his table with some of his possessions neatly laid out on it. The first piece of equipment he has is a badge, which shows imply that he is a member of law enforcement.  In addition to this he has a pen which suggests that unlike a usual or stereotypical policeman or detective he is more likely to use his knowledge and intellect as opposed to force or violence.  Lastly, he has a pen knife which shows that he is likely to take a more light-fingered approach to situations, but also perhaps an old-fashioned one as use of pen knives is not as widespread as it was in the past.  Other aspects of Somerset’s house seem to connote a more old-fashioned style of life.  For example, the technology we see in the house is very limited, even for 1995.  We see lamps and lights, but we don’t see televisions, radios, or other luxuries which were common in 90’s American households.  This suggests that Somerset is not a man of amenities, or leads a particularly luxurious or wealthy life.  It also suggests that he may not have much of a life outside of his job, as the metronome is the only item we see in his house that isn’t part of his work. The sound in this scene reinforces these ideas.  Particularly the sound of sirens in the distance, signifying crime.

In the next scene the lighting is low key high contrast chiaroscuro, and is set in a dark, squalid house.  We are also shown and told about blood being splattered “up the walls”, informing the viewer immediately that the dead man they saw in a medium-long shot was murdered.   When both detectives leave the crime scene the viewer immediately notices the extremely rainy weather, which is a use of pathetic fallacy to give the conversation and the situation a negative and gloomy feeling. The streets seem to be in a poorer area of a city, and a lot of the windows have bars on them.  Not only does this again show that the area where the detectives are working is not a pleasant place and has high crime, but the bars could also be a metaphor for the situation the pair of detectives are about to be trapped in as the film goes on.  The idea of the city being a generally unpleasant place is reinforced by Somerset’s dialogue in this scene, where he dismisses detective Mills saying he has worked in homicide by saying that he “hasn’t worked here” and therefore may not necessarily be qualified.

In the final scene we are again shown detective Somerset’s home where he begins to get ready for bed. As he does this the room itself is peaceful, however in the background diegetic noises such as dogs barking and sirens are heard, showing that although he has done his best to make his surroundings tranquil, he cannot change the fact that he is close to the unpleasant area where he lives.

The opening of Se7en represents the two characters as not only being in law enforcement, but as being committed to their jobs.  For example with Somerset’s home being so work-oriented, and the fact that Mills moved to the city with worse crime of his own volition.  However, we see differences between the two characters, particularly in their approaches.  Detective Somerset is a man who is shown to have a more careful approach to investigations, asking questions which seem to his colleagues as being irrelevant.   This idea is also given with the view of his tools in his house, where we are shown his pen instead of say, a gun.  Detective Mills is represented in a much more eager and energetic way.  In the conversation he is also very eager and the fact that he chose to move to a harder place to work represents him as a character willing to challenge himself.    For example, when he enters the crime scene he jogs up the stairs and walks quickly into the apartment.  This contrasts to Somerset’s measured and cautious approach.  The dress codes of the characters are also contrasted.  Mills is wearing a leather jacket over his traditional white shirt and tie, which is a change from the suit which you would expect a detective to wear. However, this is a convention Somerset follows; giving the impression that Somerset is likely to be a more experienced and perhaps aged character.  The other characters in the opening have are not named, largely showing their irrelevance to the story as a whole; however the interaction between Somerset and the unnamed detective is an important one as it demonstrates Somerset’s methods being different to his colleagues.  The other character we are shown, besides the dead body, is the murderer during the opening credits.  We are shown only his hands, which are bandaged on the fingertips.  This is a result of him cutting his fingertips off to stop himself being traced, immediately portraying him as a character with something to hide.  He is also portrayed as a mysterious man with some kind of interest in religion, as we see him cutting various pieces of paper, including the word “God” out of a piece of American money.  The non-diegetic soundtrack to accompany this scene is “Closer” by Nine-inch Nails, a song with screeching, industrial sounds which also mentions God, finalising with the viewer the knowledge that religious ideas will play a part in the film.

Preliminary Production

Tom R - Preliminary Task 1 from Tom Ryan on Vimeo.

The preliminary production task was to film two characters arranging a meeting over the phone, and then eventually meeting in a scene where shots/reverse shots are used.  The production also includes match on actions, close ups and long shots.  This means I learned different techniques of filming, as well as different angles and ways to position the camera in order, to, for example show continuity between scenes, or avoid reflecting the camera in glass doors.  I also learned the importance of making smooth transitions between shots, such as when someone is walking through a door from the left, in the next shot on the other side of the door they have to be coming from the right

Something that went well in our task was the variety of shots we managed to include.   We used Long-shot and medium shot of characters, match-on-action of people opening and walking through doors, an establishing shot of the school building the scenes were set inside, and shots and reverse shots of dialogue between characters while observing the 180 degree rule.

Our biggest mistake during this task was probably taking too long to get all the shots we needed to.  Doing this meant that some of our clips seemed rushed, and on the first day of filming we originally didn’t have all the clips needed for the film.  Doing the filming over two days also meant that the people who were being filmed were wearing different clothes, resulting in a few continuity errors which would have potentially ruined the film.

The most productive aspect about working in a group was that each member could be delegated their own roles, which were two people filming and two people being in the production.  This meant we could be a bit more time efficient, as well as having more people to give opinions and ensure the filming was done correctly.  The least productive aspect of working in a group was that it can be harder for everyone to understand what the group is intending to do in certain situations, for example which camera angles are going to be used at different times.  The best way to overcome this problem is with better communication within the group.

I was most pleased with being able to use clips which we had recorded ourselves and edit them in Pinnacle Studio, because the fact we had recorded them personally meant we had a better understanding and could therefore use the clips more efficiently.

The tools we used in Pinnacle Studio were originally quite simple, such as splitting and deleting sections of the film to avoid scenes that were too long.  We also learned to transition between scenes in different ways, such as fading the shots together, or using dissolve between shots to show the passing of time, or a change in location.

I was most pleased about the production with regard to filming and editing the match on action shots for the production.  I think our group did well to record the ‘same’ occurrence from different angles and manage to get a smooth cut from one angle to the next through editing.

Hi I am Jacob Buick, this is my blog for my AS foundation portfolio where I will post all my research, planning, construction and evaluation information.