Analysis of "Se7en" opening sequence

Many elements of the narrative for my thriller opening were inspired by the movie "Se7en," where the protagonist, played by Brad Pitt, hunts down offenders of the seven deadly sins. The ways I have taken inspiratoion from the narrative are that the protagonist played by me is harrasing others online because of things they did wrong. I decided to analyse the opening sequence of "Se7en" to gain further inspiration for my own thriller opening.

Mise-En-Scene
Throughout the opening title sequence, some elements of mise-en-scene that were most prominent were papers, notebooks, writing and photographs. We see who we can assume to be the protagonist, based off of what we know as the narrative, to be profiling his "victims" through writing and photographs. Quite eerily, he crosses through the eyes of a photograph of a young boy with a marker pen, depersonifying the boy in the photograph and as we don't see the eyes of anyone in this title sequence, a quite isolated and eerie atmosphere is created. I will take inspiration from this in that I will have shots of photographs of my catfish "victims" and to make my own narrative more clear, I will have pictures of myself with this victims also, and of them together, to suggest there is a motive for my character. Also throughout the title sequence, we see a mise-en-scene of weaponry, suggesting death and violence are prominent themes throughout the movie. We also see some drawings of body parts, coforming to typical conventions of the thriller/horror genre.

Camera
Throughout this particular title sequence, there is a lot of use of extreme close up shots, typical of the thriller genre but perhaps untypical, because while usually extreme close ups are of faces and people to portray emotion, these extreme close ups were of the razor blades and inside barrel of a gun, highlighting these propps are improtant and significant to the narrative. We also see a sideways extreme close up of a notebook being written in, further suggesting the idea of profiling anf note taking on his victims. I find these narrative enigmas extremely engaging to the audience.

Sound
The entire sequence begins with a soundbridge of low, creaky music from a black screen to the extreme close up of a book. This music instantly connotes the thriller genre, setting the audience up with a tense atmosphere. The music throughout progresses to a high pitched screeching sound, that progresses to be louder and more intense as the sequence goes on. Due to the fact that my thriller opening will also feature a voice over monologue, I want my non-dogetic music soundtrack to be quiter but eerie and high pitched, but less intense as I want the atmosphere of my thriller to be on-edge and jumpy.

Editing
The typography of the titles we see throughout the sequence is a brihgt electric white, that connotes technology and is very sharp, the type of typography I want for my thriller opening as it will correspond well to my technological themes, and if I place them on top of outdoor shots showcasing nature, the juxtaposition of settings will alienate the audeince and keep them interested and on edge. While this is true for some of the typography, names are in a seeminlgy hand-written font, corresponding with the mise-en-scene of notebooks, pages and writing. The quick cut editing of shots is in time to the music, and the fast paced editing creates confusion and suspense.