Thriller Opening Analysis, Seven - David Duffy

Character types:

- stereotypical experienced detective paired with inexperienced young detective

- Older Morgan Freeman character teaching Brad Pitt character, older one in charge

- Morgan Freeman dresses smarter than Brad Pitt, also more organised

- Older protagonist has more of an obsessive nature, younger one perhaps more naive

- Older protagonist sets off ticking noise whilst he is sleeping, cuts off noise from the outside - perhaps trying to protect himself


Camera Work:

- a lot of camera work restricts the view of the viewer to provoke curiosity

- Slow pans and tracking shots to give the impression that somebody is creeping up on the characters

- In title sequence there is a lot of extreme close ups, mysterious and disturbing

- Long panning shot through the fence looking at both of the protagonists, gives the sense that someone is creeping up on them - useful for us as there are many fences of a similar kind in our area which we can use

Restricted/unrestricted narration:

- When they are in the dark room with the first murder, we only see what their torches reveal, so our view is restricted

- Due to the use of extreme close ups, it is difficult to establish any story in the title sequnce, there are many enigma codes in this title sequence - who is this man? what is he doing? ect the audience does not know

Setting:

- Dark city - always raining - connotes a miserable tone and quite sinister as there is always a noise in the background - useful as we can add in storm effects in garage band

- dark room - only visible through lights from characters torches - creates suspense and shows how both of the protagonists are venerable


Binary opposition:

- Sequence not so useful for this aspect as it is only the beginning of a thriller and it would be difficult for a director to establish a confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist, although we do see glimpses of the antagonist and we know as a viewer that he is the one who the protagonists will be facing
Sound:
- Good use of diegetic and non-diegetic – sounds from rain being diegetic and use of dialogue
- Non-diegetic sound is useful as it is parallel with the mood set by the images on the screen, especially during the title sequence – the music matches the mysterious and disturbing images on the screen. Good for us to take tips from on matching music that is parallel with images – although need further understanding on how to use contrapuntal sound.