Opening Analysis

Se7en Opening Sequence Analysis 

The opening sequence begins with a close up of a book, thats appear to be blank pages being turned, although the rest of the body of the hand turning the page cannot be seen. This consequently makes the audience begin to question what is actually going on. Close ups are used for the duration of the opening to keep the audience's attention and interest and also for the producers to allow the audience to see only what they want them to see, which further raises questions in the audience's mind.

Throughout the opening there are many disturbing scenes, for example a character is seen using a razor to shave their fingers, a close up is used to present this to the audience in order to draw attention to this and show the gruesome action in detail. This raised questions as to who the character is a and why they are doing it. The many questions posed relate to the movies theme of a psychological thriller as the many questions confuse the audience much like the characters will be confused.

The typography used for the opening is a gritty, scratch style of text this relays to the audience that something is not quite right and the flickering motion of when the text appears s

Barthes Codes

Types of Barthes Codes:

- Hermeneutic
- Proairetic
- Semantic

Hermeneutic Code

The Hermeneutic Code refers to parts of the story that is not properly explored and is a mystery to the audience.  The true story line can be hidden through the use of different techniques, such as: - Snares: deliberately avoiding the truth. - Equivocations: partial or incomplete answers. - Jamming: openly acknowledge that there is no answer to a problem. The purpose of this is usually to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off

Proairetic Code

The Proairetic Code is any plot action that does not directly raise any particular questions - it is simply an action that is caused by a previous event, indicating that something else is going to happen, building tension and making the reader wonder what is going to happen next.

The Hermeneutic and Proairetic Codes work as a pair to develop the story's tensions and keep the reader interested. Semantic Code

The Semantic Code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.  It is by the use of extended meaning that can be applied to words, that can inform the audience to a greater extent with relatively limited text or dialogue

The Hermeneutic Code

The Hermeneutic Code refers to any plot point that is not fully explained and is a mystery to the audience, it is used to keep the audience guessing and unaware. It is typically used at the beginning of a film this allows for as much suspense of possible to be built up and then later on in the story line the questions posed will usually be answered.