Textual Analysis of Se7en

The Pre title sequence shows the main character Lieutenant William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) standing in his kitchen the atmosphere is dark and sterile, which makes the character have a sense of mysterious about him, he is looking mysterious in the first scene and you can also tell a lot about the characters personality by just looking at the props within his kitchen. On the side there are animal ornaments, which could show, the character is well travelled. There is ask a chess board on the table which indicates he is very intelligent. There is only natural light used which a appears to be shinning through the windows, however the kitchen is still dark and not much light i shown. The scene is set in the morning before the man is going to work, we know this because he is dressed in a suit and is tipping his coffee/tea down the sink, this could show he works in an office and doesn't want to be late for work. There is ambient sound playing through out this scene of people talking,this could show he might live in a city.

On the side board he has a various range of old objects such as an American police badge, Switch blade, pen and glasses. Each item is placed with the same amount of space between them, this shows he is well organised and has an OCD when it comes to things being done. Also, the neatness of his bed, could indicate he has a military background and picked up habits from his past. The clothing the mysterious character is wearing isn't modern, however it is old fashioned, he is wearing an old detectives coat. Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt),  He is wearing a leather jacket and has some facial hair which could shows he is a rebel and is laid back and modern appearance. It goes straight into a two shot camera angle of  Detective David Mills and Lieutenant William Somerset, from this we see the distance between both characters and there body language towards each other, It is also showing the age difference and ethnicity. Detective David Mills has his arms cross showing he is getting annoyed and defensive.

Lieutenant William Somerset is shown to be siting in his bed reading a book listening to the metronome to drown out the ambient sound of the fighting and dog barking outside his flat. Everything goes calm before the storm, this indicates that things are going to change for Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in the next seven days. From just watching the Pre title sequence it has told us a lot about the characters,and draws the audiences attention.

There is non-diegetic music playing over the top of the opening credits, this music has a high frequency. The opening credits aren't calm, its rushed and makes the audience jump, and it doesn't let them focus on one thing in the book as it goes to quick.  It focuses on a detectives book, we can tell this by the detective pieces which are being added into the book. There is an extreme close up of a man shaving his finger tips, the camera angle could be because they don't want the audience to see the surroundings yet. The fact the man is shaving his finger tips could indicate that he doesn't want to show his identity. In the book there is also pictures of naked children in black and white and the 'man' is gathering pieces of hair, which could be from victims, he uses a black pen and draws over the people eyes, this gives the audience the impression his guilty of something, or what his become and he can't look at the eyes of the innocent children. At this point the music becomes up tempo. He spells the word 'god' out of  dollar, this could show he has issues with religion, and doesn't like how god is linked with greed.

After the opening credits, it goes straight into a dark atmosphere, the prop used is a torch this indicates back to the opening credits of a detectives book. The light is shined on a man sat down with his hands and leg tied up, and he appears to be dead. The rain outside shows its not a happy place to be. There is ambient sound of a police radio. Greed s written on the floor in blood, this links back to the dollar in the opening credits, which shows a religions link.