Adam Bailey

The opening credits to Se7en conform to the thriller genre substantially. The credits have not been given a set font and vary from a formal san serif font to a more hand written look. They also are in a bright white colour and flicker mimicking a light. The shots also cut quickly to flickers of white and film real giving it an old film effect.

The editors have placed quick cuts of close ups and extreme close ups into the credits of a person doing very disturbing such as cutting the skin off his fingers and looking through a scrap book of dead bodies. This gives the audience an idea of what to expect from the rest of the film. This also shows that the person in these shots is not mentally correct; and most likely the antagonist in the movie.

Quite low key lighting is used in these shots making them look almost black and white however there are cuts to red filtered shots. This makes the viewer feel uneasy.

No diagetic sound is heard throughout the opening credits at all. However the editors have placed non diaget sound over the top of the sequence. It has a four-four time signature but instead of using instruments has used frightening sounds and edited them into music. At the very end of the credits a non diaget singer over laps the scene saying “you bring me closer to god” giving the audience an impression that this person is going to be a religious extremist. This is backed up by a quick close up shot of a sheet of money with the word “god” being cut out of the phrase “in god we trust”.

Continuity exercise - The Pursuit

When filming our continuity exercise the main objectives were to experiment with different shots and cuts and more importantly keeping a feel of genuineness. As well as this create an authentic action style chase scene between a victim and an assailant. I believe this was achieved accurately with techniques such as low key lighting, quick cuts, non- diagetic music and experimenting with cuts.

Whilst filming the piece considerations had to be made with clothing and surroundings to make sure the continuity is correct throughout the scene. Because the sequence took over a day to film we had to make notes of the clothes the characters were wearing and all the surrounding objects in the background.

In the editing the lighting was altered to more low key making the scene look more black and white for a feel of good, evil and fear. In addition to this non-diagetic music was added of violins and drums rhythmically punctuating at a high tempo and slowly increasing in dynamics to build up tension.

Finally experiments with different shots were sampled to get an idea of what worked well in action scene editing. We concluded that quick cuts and fades worked best for keeping the tension going.