Evaluation of "Se7en"

(This evaluation is only of the first 3 minutes of this extract from the opening scene of "Se7en")

In this essay I will be evaluating the opening scene of ‘Se7en’ Directed by David Fincher in 1995. In the very first shot we are shown a medium shot of a character (played by Morgan Freeman) from behind washing a cup up. We get a sense that we are simply observers in this particular scene because of the way the camera is positioned behind objects like door frames etc, so it helps us focus on the bigger picture and makes the shot feel even more isolated. Perhaps reflecting the characters life. All through the beginning minute of the scene when the character is in his room, there is diegetic off-screen sound of people talking and TV’s blasting out. This suggests that his apartment has thin walls which could be implying he is of the working class, living in a shabby flat. In addition, there are occasional faint sound of cars and sirens which indicates straight away that he lives in the city. We then cut to a shot of the character putting on his tie, solemnly as if he’s dressing for a funeral, though it’s just a usual day. Then we get an eye line match as the character looks down and the camera cuts to a close up shot of objects lined up perfectly in a row. This is very important in portraying the character because they’ve shown us that he is extremely organised, that he clearly lives on a everyday routine, it also implies that he could be a loner if he has the time to be so precise. We also know straight away that he is a policeman because one of the objects he picks up is a police badge. The next shot again, implies all of these things as he picks a spec of dust of his cleanly ironed blazer, clearly he has the time to make everything perfect.

We then cut to a different scene of a body lying on the floor in a pool of blood. This is elliptical editing as we have essentially gone from the characters home to work, just missed out the journey in between. As the diegetic off-screen sound of a man talking about the crime scene, we cut to a medium long shot of Morgan Freemans character walking down the hall. As the other policeman says “yeah well this is a done deal, I’ll do the paperwork”, Freemans character seems to be still looking closely at things for clues, which implies he is a heavy thinker and perhaps gets himself involved in the cases more than his co-workers. In addition we discover that he isn’t liked very much amongst his colleagues, as the other policeman says “you know we’re all gonna be real glad when we get rid of you somerset.” Though he doesn’t seem phased which could mean he’s above all the mindless insults.

This is when Detective Mills enters the story. He walks up the stairs with a wrinkly un-ironed shirt on and a leather jacket, insinuating his rebelliousness and care free, young persona. Then we cut to a low angle shot of him and Detective Somerset coming out a building. Det. Mills instantly does something to show his character, he checks out a woman walking past while talking to Detective Somerset. This represents him being not completely focused on what he’s doing. He’s distracted by anything and everything and by checking out a woman shows his immaturity to constantly be thinking about women. The as they start walking and the camera tracks them to the left, a man walks in between the two characters and lightly nudges Det. Mills. He instinctively turns around to look at the man and has an annoyed facial expression for a couple of seconds. This shows his short temper, his inability to stay controlled and perhaps not think reasonably. He also seems fidgety and very confident. He seems to be exactly the opposite of Det. Somersets character.

The whole tone of the film is set by the dim colours, and dreary feeling of the atmosphere. You instantly know it’s not going to be a happy funny film because there’s nothing vibrant about any of it, or distinctively fantasy about it. You know it’s going to be a down to earth thriller. In addition, There is no non diegetic sound in any of the beginning 4 minutes which is unusual for the opening of a film. Though this might be because the director is making it seem as real as possible by only including real sounds. He wants you to feel like it’s real life, and we don’t have soundtracks in real life.