Movie Opening Proposal

My thriller opening will show the activities of a man that lives in a London estate, and seems to be a normal citizen by day but at night he murders the youths, believing that they are the problem within the area. Although the killings of the character will be seen the actual face of the killer will not be shown as to keep the mystery and enigma of the story

Settings/ Location

- London Estate ( Day and Night )
- An Alley Way
- A House - Living Room
- Local Shop
- Bus

Props

- Knife
- Police Uniform

Characters

- Middle Aged Man ( The Killer ) ( The Police )
- People of Various Ages ( The victims of the killer)

Typography

The scratchy or etched type of font used for the film 'SE7EN', conveys to the audience the type of thriller/film it is. The font conveys feelings of a disturbed nature, maybe hinting towards the film being a sort of psychological thriller. This type of font can be seen in other psychological thrillers such as 'Flesheater'

'The Exorcist' uses a fairly simple font but it is coloured red. This conveys a sense of danger, especially to what would otherwise appear very regular, the red could also represent evil or hell - linking to the theme of the film. The font its self is slightly gothic is style this makes it seem quite ancient. The mix of the red's danger and the the font's gothic style, it makes the audience think the threat may be an ancient evil or spirit of sorts 

This font is made up of letters that seem to be cut out of several different mediums such as magazines and newspapers. This font portrays a sense of criminality as this type of font is very closely linked to the letters criminals would make to avoid being traced, this may allow the audience to know that the film is a criminal thriller. 

Mood Board

This mood board shows the posters of some of the most famous thriller films, such as, The Silence of the Lambs, The Usual Suspects and Inception. There are also words showing some of the key themes/features of a thriller film for example suspense

Treatment

An eerie sound track plays in the back as the title appears from the dark in a bold font. As the opening scene commences the main character is narrated in first person by his own voice as he walks down a dark street “I’m a man of the law, my job is to keep people safe at any extent, so that is what I’ll do.”. While he says this camera is focused on his black polished shoes as we hear them clap against the pavement. It then quickly cuts to the officer dragging a youth in a hoodie by his arms along the floor who is perceived as dead.

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.