Taking place in a city with no name, Se7en is a crime/thriller which follows two homicide detectives, Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) as he gets transferred from a small town into the city in attempt to reach bigger things, and Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a hardened and experienced cop who is a week from retiring but for his last case, gets partnered up with Mills.
The two are put on a gruesome yet curious case where a killer is committing numerous murders who's victims replicate that of the seven deadly sins. The pair must trace all of the killers fine details that they have planned for the pair, witnessing every gruesome and horrific murder the killer has committed, all in rapid succession in that of a week. The pairs discoveries bring them ever close to a unexpected and spine tingling fate that neither of the pair would have expected.
A thriller is identidied in many different variants as there are many didferent genres of thriller which seperates the genres from each other. Jaws for example, is an action/horror thriller as it uses tension in it's scenes in prder to build up the suspense and then hit a climax of when the shark (Jaws) is revealed. This makes Jaws an action/horror thriller as the use of such techniques like suspense, and not knowing what Jaws looks like, brings in curiosity and a slight hint of caution as the audience don't want to see Jaws as they've seen what it's done. As Se7en is a crime/psychological thriller, techinques such as suspense, action, lighting is used to create dark tones within the film following the dark manner of the film. Suspense is used to give a dramatic tension once the scene is building up to who the killer is, and when the audience see who the killer is. The fight/chase scenes give the film an action vibe as the use of fast paced music and and fighting shows the action withing the film.
Se7en also follows the plot of two detectives who are trying to slove a crime. This also means that Se7en is also a crime thriller. The film follows certain instructions that make it a crime thriller:
A compelling and interseting story, that keep the viewers inrigued with the plot and keeps the viewers attention.
A lot of action. The films needs to have intense and fast paced action. This is used to give the name of thriller for the films genre as its a tense and interesting film.
The film has a plot twist at the very end to shock and surprise the audience
The lighting and tone of the film has to be dark and have low key lighting. This is to darken the film and make in more of a tense 'thriller' and keep the audience intrigued.
Websites used for concepts of a thriller and what makes a thriller:
http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-conferencesevents/qp7-migration-maui/10-basic-ingredients-of-a-successful-thriller
http://flavorwire.com/75289/how-to-make-a-su ccessful-crime-thriller-film
http://www.thrillerpress.com/whatmakesathriller.html
In the opening credits of Se7en shows John Doe (Kevin Spacey) preparing for his murders and setting himself for them. Doe is shown doing such things as removing his skin off of his finger tips, which foreshadow what later on in the film and why that has some relevance to the film. Doe is shot writing down onto a notepad, which is later discovered in the film to be about his fellings and that he believes these murders are cleaning the world of sin and evil people. The fact that Doe's face is never shown in the opening credits, suggests that his identity is to be kept a secret, which adds to the suspense and emphasises the eerie atmosphere of the opening credits.
The scene is also partnered by distorted, non-diagetic background music which is used to create suspense amongst the audience. Everytime the visual credits stutter, the music stutters in correlation with the music as they both start to 'glitch out', creating a more dark and sinister tone for the rest of the film.
Opening Titles
New Line Cinema Presents:
An Arnold Kopesoln Production
A film by David Fincher
Brad Pitt - Actor
Morgan Freeman - Actor
Se7en - Movie Title
Gwyneth Paltrow - Actress
Richard Roundtree - Actor
R. Lee Ermey - Actor
John C. Mcginley - Actor
Julie Araskog - Actress
Mark Boone Junior - Actor
John Cassini - Actor
Reginald E.Cathey -Actor
Peter Crombie - Actor
Hawthorne James -Actor
Michael James - Actor
Leland Orser -Actor
Richard Portnow - Actor
Richard Schiff - Actor
Pamala Tyson - Actress
Casting by -Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith and Kerry Borden
Music by - Howard Shore
Costumes Designed by Michael Kaplan
Edited by - Richard Francis-Bruce
Prodcution designed by - Arthur Max
Director of Photography - Darius Khondji
Co-Producers; Stephen Brown, Nana GreenWald and Sanford Panitch
Co-Executive Producers - Lynn Harris and Richard Saperstein
Executive Producers - Gianni Nunnari, Dan Kolsrud and Anne Kopelsun
Produced by - Arnold Kopelson and Phyllis Carlyle
Directed by - David Fincher
Looking back at my groups preliminary task, I am overall quite pleased with the outcome of the clip that we produced, as when looking back at the clip, it flows well, the cuts are smooth the dialogue is acted well and the camera work was well done. The editing of our clip went well as we all contributed to editing some parts of the clip, resulting in us working as a team in order to make the clip look as good as it possilby could look. We included a security camera like shot at the start of the clip to produce the image to look like as if Fred was being monitored on his way to Bossman's room. We achieved this by including a noir tint on the two shots that we wanted to try and replicate a security camera as. We also included text and an image on the two shots that had 'REC' and a full red circle, as this would further replicate the realism of a legit security camera.
Despite the positives in the filming of the clip, there were some slight negatives. While we were filimg the security camera shots, we had to have the camera high up in the corners of a hallway, this resulted in the camera becoming unsteady and moving, as there was no available option for use to make the camera steady at such a high angle, deeming the shot as as not so true looking security camera.
Also while filming the scene that Fred gets shot and falls, the coats that we had put in place for him so that he wouldnt be hurt in anyway, were visible. Even though the coats aren't highly visible, the fact that they are visible in some way is a con as it reduces the realism and and legitmacy of the clip ans scene itself.
For improvemnts we could make for our final thriller clip, we could use more realistic shots or easier shots so that we get more steady and better shots that aren't shaky look better to view. We also could have mounted the camera onto something so that it will have a more steady shot.
Also, to prevent from having props that aren't meant to be in shot, we would have to move everything in the surronding area whic is meant to help protect one of the actors/actresses, which is what the coats were used for.
The clip that my group has done shows the plot of 'Fred', the dealer
who is coming to deliver a package for 'bossman', the package never gets
stated of what it contains. Fred turns out to try and get away from bossman
as he doesnt have the package, so Fred tries to leave as soon as he can.
Bossman then proceeds to shoot Fred for being unable to carry out
specific instructions.
In the start of the clip we used a black and white tint with a high
angle to try and replicate that of a security camera, so that the camera
is tracking Fred as he comes up to bossman's room.
The camera then cuts to an over the shoulder shot while tracking Fred.
This camera shot gradually builds up tension and curiosity as they await
for the unveiling of bossman. Bouncer is deliberately placed on the
right side of the door to ensure that boss man is being shown yet.
An established shot is used behind boss man to further hide bossman's
face, but to also show Fred enter the room but also show bouncer leave
the scene. The camera then cuts to a midshot of boss man talking to Fred
which unveils the identity of boss man.
Later in the clip, an established shot is used again to show both Fred
and bossman as bossman pulls out the gun out of the drawer and then guns
him down. This shot is used so that the viewer sees bossman go to pull
out the gun, whereas Fred doesn't and is unaware.
The final shot is a low angle point of view shot as it is taken from the
view of Fred as bossman proceeds to shot Fred. The camera then focuses
on the gun as it is pointed at Fred and then the camera cuts, fades to
black and the sound of a gunshot is heard, which produces the titles of;
'The Package'.
My group was asked to brainstorm ideas on our movie clip that we were doing. We as a group came together and gave suggestions on the concept of the film so we ended up with the title: 'The Package', the plot is based around a package that is expected to be delivered to 'bossman'. We also set characters for each other in the scene. We made 3 characters for 3 of the group, 'Un-named lad' played by Freddie, 'Bouncer' played by Chris and 'Bossman' played by Megan. We used a prop in our movie, which was a toy gun to play as our gun in the clip. We also discussed the lines that we will be having for each character to ensure that we knew what we were going to be saying. I had the role of playing the camera man when Chris wasn't the camera man when he was acting. I was initially playing 'Bossman', however Megan took the role she is a more complete actor. This picture that is included on this blog shows my groups planning in coming up with the final idea and what the dialogue would be as we created a draft concept of the dialogue.
