Alex Lloyd's Textual Analysis of 'Seven'

It is part of our independent research to analyse two different thrillers and the techniques used, as I have already explained how Sound and Editing were used in the ‘Usual Suspects’ to establish the situation and the characters, I will now do the same for the thriller, ‘Seven’.


In one of the opening shots, there is a male character in bed, the length of the shots in this scene are long lasting building suspense, due to lasting a while this gives a chance for the audience to really look around the room and appreciate the mise en scene. In this time you also hear the sound from outside, this is diegetic sound meaning that it can be heard from the character and is part of the ‘real’ world. It includes the sound of dogs barking and the close by trees blowing in the wind, this creates realism and connotes a sign of loneliness as well as telling us it is set in an urban setting. Quick cuts are used throughout this opening sequence in order to not distract the audience and interrupt their viewing by slowing things down. He lays his glasses on the desk and turns on a metronome, this makes a ticking sound going at a steady pace, as well as the outdoor sounds, this is all that can be heard within the next few shots. These shots cut between the character with his eyes closed and the metronome whilst slowly zooming in on each shot, this creates tension and suspense. The slow zoom in on the metronome as it ‘ticks’ makes us believe something may suddenly occur and make us jump, it is edgy but no sudden disturbances happen therefore we are never fully calm throughout this scene. The slow zoom in on the man in bed with his eye closed puts images in our head that include him suddenly opening his eyes for example, as it is a long lasting shot using a slow zoom in, we feel the character could jump up causing us to jump with shock. It then cuts to a black screen with the sound of thunder playing, this is a slight enigma raising questions in the viewers head such as ‘what might have happened?’ and ‘what was that about?’

The scenes before tell us alot about the character being played by Morgan Freeman, the film starts with a shot of his behind in a room. It is a long shot showing how spacious the room is, this tells us he is quite a wealthy man with a nicely decorated house. He wears smart clothes also telling us he is of middle class. The next shot is of him putting on a tie, again showing class and wealth. The next shot shows a load of objects all in line on a table, these objects connote that he is a Policeman including a badge for example. The fact that they are lined up shows that he is a very organised man, he has his shirt nicely laid on the bed, goes to pick a hair off it showing that he likes it to be spotless and smart.

In the next couple of scenes, Brad Pitts character is introduced, he wears more old looking clothes, dusty looking showing that he isn't as into his looks as Morgan Freeman's character is. He has a moustache and beard also making him look as if he doesn't put special attention to his looks. In the next scene, they are walking along a path next to eachother, the camera tracks following them. The whole time, Morgan Freemans character is walking slightly infront of Brad Pitts character, this shows that he is higher in rank and more dominant.

A quick cut from the scene of him in bed with the metronome takes us to a shot of a book, the sound of a symbol goes off introducing a soundtrack using a lot of percussion, this is all non diegetic and due to the steady beat of the symbols this creates a chilling mood fitting well with the genre. The font of the opening credits is spooky in the style of handwriting, with a white crayon on a black screen, this makes it easily visible and highlights it in our minds. The editor has used the font and the titles to create a ghostly atmosphere, the opening credits come up on screen and shake a little making us think of a poltergeist or something similar. All the shots in this sequence are of short length and are quickly cut to the next, this creates a fast speed but gives us enough time to see the props, of which can be seen as quite haunting such as the fingernails being wiped across a blade. They have used a lot of FX playing alongside the soundtrack, this gives us a little more to listen to so that we are not bored with the same percussion bass line. Some are rather ghostly connoting and working well in time with the images seen on screen, they use some sound effects in order to make us mistake them for being something else, such as screaming. There are a lot of shots all including different props and activities being done, these are not shown in chronological order, the editor skips time cutting from one activity to the other, such as photos being developed and books being read. Later on, you come across a moving image which has been slightly faded so that you can see a different moving image behind it at the same time. This creates quite a ghostly shot, with the fast cuts and some of the images shown, this can be quite horrific.


About half way in to the opening credits the music gets louder and a bigger texture in instruments is introduced. This starts on a shot including a picture of a boy with his eyes being crossed out, all of a sudden there is a cut to the next shot including the picture being completely scribbled over so that you cannot see the boys face, this also creates an enigma and raises questions along with the rest of the images used. ‘What do they mean?’ and ‘What is happening?’ for example. Shortly after this an electric guitar is introduced to the orchestra as well as a classical drum kit, these help to make a more rock theme with faster pace, you can tell the opening credits are coming to an end. Vocals are then used in the song for a short time finishing the soundtrack, it slowly fades out and whilst this happens, the noise of police sirens fades in. This creates continuity in music, the sirens connote crime and thriller also.


I have found many similarities between the ‘Usual Suspects’ and ‘Seven’ as well as many differences also, they both use continuity in their music but also use soundtracks as well as FX sound effects to create a chilling mood within the audience. They both use long lasting shots during some part of the opening sequences but ‘Seven’ included more quick cuts and short lasting shots that the ‘Usual Suspects’. I feel the editors and sound producers of ‘Seven’ did very well in creating a good opening sequence full of suspense and keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. The camera work and editing lead us to believe the man at the beginning is lonely and upset, it then creates a fast, chilling credit scene with many horrific images finishing off a good opening sequence.