9 frame structure analysis
- 3. FRAME 1 • This is a close up of an open book being flicked through but where it is or who is flicking through it is shown. The titles are shown in the bottom left corner. The title ‘new line cinema presents’ appears and is slightly distaughted showing the thriller theme. The frame is quite dark and shadowed again suggesting the thriller theme. Again just like in frame 2 one of the corners in the frame has been blacked and in this frame its on the left side of the book and the lighting gets lighter across the screen.
- 4. FRAME 2 • In the second frame the title ‘a film by David Fincher is shown. This frame is a birds eye view of two hands which have been drawn very dark on graph paper. The right side of the frame is shadowed black. The title is like a white scratchy small font with the ‘film by’ layered. The David Fincher title stands out clearly against the black part. Again the thriller theme is shown by the darkness of the shot. All of the frames of the opening sequence fit together, there all sketched designs and books to suggest that there's a character creating something. Also the font of the titles go with this ideas because the font is like someone has sketched them.
- 5. FRAME 3 In this frame it’s an extreme close-up of a characters fingers holding a blade. All of these frames are very similar and tend to puzzle each other together. This frame is also darkened and really focus’ on the blade and that they are holding which has shaved off some of the skin on their fingers. This frame shows the weapon convention of the thriller genre as a blade can be used as a weapon.
- 6. FRAME 4 In this frame the movie title is shown ‘se7en’. This frame is an extreme close-up again which seems to be used in most of the frames in this opening sequence. The frame is very dark where you can barely see what's being shown which shows mystery and allows the audience to guess what's going on. The opening sequence is showing the conventions of a thriller because its frame by frame giving you close ups of what's going on and makes the audience puzzle it up together or even confuse the audience which is used in psychological thrillers.
- 7. FRAME 5 In frame 5 it’s a close-up of fingers measuring something onto a book which loads of hand written writing on. It shows a bandage on one of the characters fingers which was not shown in frame 3 with the blade which makes it kind of intense. Also, like in most of the other frames one side of the screen is blacked out which makes you focus more on the fingers and the book or what ever is shown on the light side of the screen suggesting its all very important. This frame also gives more clues as you can see it’s a small picture that the fingers are holding and underneath the book you can see a few pictures of other people and it really makes you wonder what’s happening and what the character is doing.
- 8. FRAME 6 Frame 6 is a lot more darkened than the others and shows a few more titles than the others. This is because the titles stand out clearly a lot more against the dark background and also makes the drawing and pen stand out a lot more. It also makes the audience wonder who the character has drawn and why the eyes have been crossed out. The scratchy title ‘casting by Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Borden flashes in and out with this background frame like in the others of the opening sequence. The darkness and the shot types really emphasis the fact that the film really is a thriller.
- 9. FRAME 7 This frame is an extreme close-up of bandaged fingers and pins on a piece of a paper. This frame is not as dark and shadowed than the others which could suggest that this is a more important clue. Also as the frames go on we see more bandages being added onto the fingers suggesting the character is doing dangerous work even though its showing sketching and designing which makes the audience puzzled even more. The titles ‘Production designed by Arthur Max’ flashes in with his frame.
- 10. FRAME 8 Frame 8 is an extreme close up of the fingers again holding either tweezers or metal which the character is adding to the paper. One by one the frames are showing the process of whatever is happening and once again the left side of the frame if light and the right side is shadowed and blacked out where the fingers are. This frame mainly focus’ on the metal tool that the character is using.
- 11. FRAME 9 In frame 9 another tool like scissors are shown with what looks like an old piece of paper. This is again an extreme close up. By this point we still don’t know what the character could be doing so it makes the audience continue watching and guessing and confused.