The genre of this film is a psychological thriller and this is portrayed in the title sequence. The basic narrative of the title sequence is man is filling out/ editing his book which is full of unusual things, such as drawings of obscure injuries and bible passages. Adding the miss en scene and soundtrack creates a dark and eerie atmosphere, thus connoting the genre. The enigma of the narrative is who is the guy in the scene? This intrigues the audiences to watch the rest of the film as they want to know who he is and his purpose. This is one of the reasons which Copper has chosen to use close up in the sequence, in order to hide the person face, which we assume is the villain. The shots used throughout the sequence are POV which means the audience is looking through the eyes of the villain as they can see what he sees.
The music for the sequence is by Trent Reznor, who is a rock musician from the band Nine Inch Nail, and usually collaborates with Copper in the film industry as he has done ‘Gone Girl’ with him as well. I think the film maker choose this track as it creates an eerie atmosphere, with the scratch noises and electronic sound which creates a dark atmosphere. This could connote this villain and how he has a disorientated state of mind. At the end of the sequence, there is dialogue saying ‘you brought me closer to god’, which shows there is an element of religion in the film, which is part of the whole films narrative. The films soundtrack makes the audience feel on anxious as the music crescents which makes them foreshadow something bad is going to happen.
The mise en scene is of rough cuts and close up footage of ordinary tools of reproduction which is all situated around a book the villain is editing. You can see close ups of the villain harming himself with a blade to remove his fingerprints. This tells the audiences that he is smart and cunning. There are close-ups of him blacking out words such as homosexual, transsexual and intercourse, which could mean he is prejudice or has a religious mind-set as the is also bible passages in the sequence as well. The use of these close ups create an ominous and unsettling atmosphere.
The information provided in the sequence is the personality of the villain and shows his unstable state of mind and the possibility that he could be a psychopath. Other information could be that he is a religious man as he has bible passages but could also be a murderer as he is removing his fingerprints and possibly have a prejudice to people who are not following god’s way of life (films narrative). This is seen at the end of the sequence where he cuts out the word god when then the soundtrack states someone brought him closer to him, so the sound contrasts the mise en scene.
The sequence has been edited through a vary of different cuts, fades and impositions to show the villain’s disorientated state of mind and to show the possible themes of the genre; one of them is crime. The cuts are usually fast and can jump (crossing out boys face). There are fade when he flicks the page over in the book or writing in it which connotes time passing.
Overall the se7en title sequence shows its genre of a psychological thriller through the micro features of sound, cinematography, mise en scene and editing to create an ominous and unsettling atmosphere and to give hint to the audience of what the narrative of the film is, combining its themes and genre.
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