se7en Title Sequence Analysis

The opening sequence for the film Se7en does not show any long shots that establishes the setting, by the way the props and tools are used in the title sequence the audience would believe that the sequence is taking place at someones house.However, it is not shown, therefore building tension.

All of the objects used in the tile sequence are shown close up, resulting in them taking up most of the frame. This creates suspense as the audience do not know who is creating the file or moving these objects about as they cannot see his face.

Most of the shots are fairly dark, this connotes a sense of danger and that the film will be quite serious. The suspicious feel the the opening sequence is credited to the low key lighting indoors.


The opening sequence is a montage format. This means that it is lots of little clips put together. The fact that the clips are in chronological order gives the audience a sense that the person is doing or making something that will be in important later in the film.

The transitions are varied in the opening sequence. Some are straight cuts and some cross fade to black. The fading gives an eery effect and a sincerity of darkness which will be played on throughout the film.

Most of the shots are fairly short, moreover some of the clips are shot in slow-motion to give them a slower pace. This slower pace gives a sombre tone and gives audience more time to focus on the dark acts that are being performed. The soundtrack used is fairly slow as well adding to the slow paced effect.  As the sequence builds up and gets faster towards the end it creates tension for the audience.

The text of the opening sequence appears to be hand written and flickers on screen. This flickering effect was created by scratching a film reel with a needle to give a rugged raw effect on the titles.

Filming Script

Script:

(Arthur enters room with gun in hand)

Jett: Drink (pushes drink towards Arthur)

Arthur: Im not here to drink i'm here for my money

(Jett puts half the money on the table)

Arthur: And the rest of it

(Jett puts more money on the table)

Arthur: Nice doing business with you

(Both of their guns are pulled and a shot is heard)

Scarface film review

The main character Tony Montana remains in the memory of the audience as you feel his emotions every step of the movie from his introduction to his death.

The opening scene of the film introduces the Cuban punk, Tony Montana and informs the audience when Cuban refugees were allowed into America in 1981. The idea that criminals were along with the huddled masses of refugees into the states is shown largely by Montana's interrogation. Montana slowly works his way into the illegal drug trade in Florida. The film observes a detachment and ' like most crime films were people are labelled "boss" and do everything they're asked to do and behave expectedly. Each specific individual has their own story and background which stop the audience becoming attached to one character but all of them. This at the same time gives an overall detachment as the audience connects and interacts with different individuals if it makes sense.

Monana is a far from sympathetic character played by Al Pachino but the character is someone the audience can identify with in a scary and horrifying way with his aspirations. He shares the desires of the audience of becoming rich , having multiple sexual encounters, living in mansions and having tigers for pets with little to no work. We learn that drug dealing is an alternative lifestyle but it involves selling your soul.

Montana gets it all and looses it. Kind of expected as the thriller/ crime genre implies that there will be a traditional and admiring "rise/fall". But what is so original about Scarface is the fact that Montana enjoys it while he has it. We learn as an audience that "getting high on your own supply" leads to irrational decisions and moves that could move you from the top to the bottom.

The film links laziness and ruthlessness together with pipe dreams and a chronic ability to be happy. The exciting crime picture goes down in the books for me as i was hooked from the first minute to the last minute.

First filming conclusion

I think our filming session went reasonably well with a lot of positive and a few negative notes to take away and work on.


We was very creative in our ideas for each shot and got lots of filming done. However we should be a lot more prepared in our future filming schedules and charge the camera to its full battery before filming as we run out of battery and had to schedule a second date to film the little bit we had left to shoot. This caused a little bit more hard work than is should've trying to get the right lighting same positioning of everything so that it looked the same as the first filming session.

Furthermore I also think we need to plan before hand slightly more and stick to it, me included! Planning ahead better will make our filming durations shorter and easier and will get to grips with what were working with quicker.

Our set ups were good with steady and structured filming and mise en scene set up accordingly.

This shot on the left is where we used car lights to brighten up the lighting of the shot as we had no lighting equipment to use.






The set up on the right are indexual sings conveying things and about the tone and the background of our theme.

Adobe premier and Editing

Being the editor with the group, I would be the one who is going to the use the software the most. As I had minimal experience with the software, I began to teach myself how to use the software and get familiar with how it works. I mainly did this through youtube tutorials and trial and error.

Cutting:
After exporting all of the video files into the bin and onto the timeline, all of them needed shortening and moving so that it ran smoothly from one shot to the next.

This little tool allowed me to cut and trim the lengths of shots with my cursor. This was a quick and easy process and if I accidentally shortened the clip too much, I could reverse the process by doing the opposite action by clicking and dragging away.

Straight cuts:

I learned how to put two different shots together so that they flow as one by myself. I uses the cutting technique and trial and error to narrow the timings and put them together so that they cut right from one shot to the other. These straight cuts put two shots that had been filmed separately together but look and flow as if they were filmed at the same time.

Sound:   

The first and second shot of our footage contained a lot of wind and unwanted noise. Obviously i did not want that to be part of the footage. I moved the audio from each clip that i did not want to be heard into the next sound bar, this allowed me to mute these audio clips all at once without deleting them or it affecting the other audio clips.

This was also an option with video clips but I did not use it as i only used the footage i needed and erased any that I didn't need. This may be helpful in the future as I may need to put affects and locks on certain footage without effecting any other clips. I also added in a royalty free soundtrack in as it gave an eery edge to the footage. This mp3 file was easily placed and cropped to fit the footage.

Gun shot:

I decided to use a gunshot sound effect with a black out to create unknown suspense for the audience. I searched up some royalty free gun sound effects that I could download for free at http://soundscrate.com/gun-related.html 

I easily edited this in with a black out by placing the file in and moving it to its correct position.

How to analyse a scene

To analyse a scene the following needs to be considered:
The focus of the whole essay is how a meaning is conveyed in the scene. This meaning can be conveyed through four technical areas. These four technical areas are Camera, mise en scene, editing and sound. These technical areas should be analysed to convey meaning for the essay.

The essay should be structured in chronological order by breaking the scene into sections. By breaking it down into manageable sections with your note taking allows for a easy paragraph structure and to map out what you are lacking each time the footage is replayed.

I broke the scene down into sections for my titanic essay and found it relatively hard as it was my first semiotic essay. The structure was fairly reasonable but lacked in technical language and detail as it was my first attempt.

My second attempt was progressively harder as I tried to make notes without breaking the scene down into sections and attempted to take notes just in the sections of the four technical areas. This consequently resulted in a very messy set of notes upon which i had to write my essay from and let to me jumping from different bits of the scene to write about the technical areas.

Furthermore my note taking on the doctor who scene was largely improved as I had more technical knowledge and the skill of breaking the scene into sections increased as well. Although we did not write the essay as a class, i felt fairly confident I could write a stronger essay than my previous pieces.

Thriller genre

The Thriller Genre mainly consists of the protagonist in a constant battle with the antagonist character. The distance between these two characters in the diagetic world begins to close, creating large amounts of tension and suspense for the audience. A common feature that follows is a chain of negative/  down spiralling events that add and increase the suspense for the climax. The protagonist character is usually seeking justice while the antagonist does all they can to destroy it.

Common conventions of the thriller genre may include:
-Quick cuts
-Parallel editing- this is commonly used between the protagonist and antagonist.