Opening Sequence- Se7en Part 1

1) What does the set up reveal to the audience about setting? Where is this place? What gives you information?

The setting of the film is quite clearly in a city and is very urban. The first shot we Get is of Detective Sommerset in his flat getting ready for work, he puts on very stereotypical detective outfit and then heads out. We are then abruptly cut into a apartment where a murder has been committed and we see a dead body lying on the floor, this instantly sets a story line in place and also a question, who killed him? Detective Sommerset and Mills then exit the apartment and they come onto a street where we hear cars and see lots of by-passers, this is how we know it is a very urban setting.

2) What does the set up reveal to the audience about characters? Choose one and explain HOW the set up reveals this information.

We see from the very start that Detective Sommerset is a very old fashioned detective, he plays by the rules and has done for his whole career, which we find out later is coming to an end after this final case. This is shown first by his very specific and very stereotypical detective outfit, the main part of this outfit would be the long trench coat he has on him. It is then shown when the new detective shows up on the scene and Sommerset tries to put the young detective in his place by acting almost superior then him with his many past experiences in the field.

3) What does the set up reveal to the audience about interrelationships between characters? 
About their goals? 

The relationship between the two detectives in the set up is very rough, they are both trying to establish a chain of command between the two of them and both of them wish to be at the top of the chain. The two detectives come from two very different generation of detectives and this is what causes the problems between them. The very obvious goal for both of the detectives is to find the killer and stop him before he hurts anyone else.

4)What is this ‘world’ like? Safe? Happy? Dangerous? How do you know?

The World that both detectives live in is quite obviously dangerous but for detective Sommerset i think that it also quite lonely. We know that the world is dangerous as we see the crime scene with the murder victim lying still on the floor and this clearly indicates danger. But the thing that made me think that Sommerset may be lonely is that when he goes to bed the only sort of comfort he seems to get is the ticking of an old metronome.

5)How does this film opening fit with the codes and conventions of a thriller film?

The opening credits of Se7en are very clever and also very stereo typically thriller. The credits consist of bits of quite eerie footage but this i think that it is just the detectives making sort of portfolio on the killer. This would be a Red Herring this is the case.

Detective Sommersets face is concealed for the 20 seconds of the footage and this often used to keep a characters identity hidden, but in this case it is shown and we see that he is a detective.

The lighting is very dark to begin with at the crime scene, this gives it a more mysterious feel. This is commonly used in thriller films.

The Costume that Detective Sommerset wears is probably the most iconic 'uniform' for a detective to have in any thriller film.