Se7en Essay
Introduction: the question is ‘what makes a thriller and how is this evident in seven?’, I am going to answer this question by exploring macro elements and in that I am going to analyse micro elements. In my microanalysis I am going to add mise-en-scene in this I am going to analyse costume, light, props, production design and space. I will be analysing cinematography, in this I will be analysing angle, movement of the camera, position of the camera and space around the subject who is in the shot. I will be analysing editing in this I am going to analyse the pacing, SFX (sound effects) and video FX (special effects in video). In sound I am going to analyse diegetic and non-diegetic sound. In macro analysis I am going to analyse the narrative and narrative structure, audience, genre of the film and the representation of the character.
Institutional research: the film seven was released on 5 January 1996 in the (UK). The director of this film was by David Fincher. He as directed other films such as, Alien 3 (1992), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Dangerous (1993) with Michael Jackson the short films, Aerosmith: Big Ones You Can Look At (1994) and some of his most recent films are Panic Room (2002), Zodiac (2007) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The film Se7en features actors such as Brad Pitt who plays the part detective Mills and Morgan Freeman who plays the part of detective Somerset they are the two main protagonist in the film, Kevin Spacey the antagonist who plays the part of Jon Doe these are the main characters in the film. It also features actress Gwyneth Paltrow who plays the part of Detective Mills wife, Tracy Mills. The film seven was written by Andrew Kevin Walker, produced by Phyllis Carlyle and Arnold Kopelson. The budget of the film was 30 million dollar. It made gross of 100,125,000 million dollar in United states. In United Kingdom it made £19,234,230 (17th March 1996), £17,834,902 (19th February 1996), £11,434,343 (21st of January 1996) and £19,500,000.
In 1996 the film seven was nominated for Richard Frances-Bruce in the category for the best film editing in Oscar. In 1996 it was also nominated for Andrew Kevin Walker in the category of best screenplay-original in United States. In 1997 the film won an Empire Award for Morgan Freeman in the category of Best Actor. It also won the award for best film in Empire Award. In 1996 the film won the award for best movie, best Villain by Kevin Spacer and most desirable male by Brad Pitt and was nominated for best On-screen duo by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in MTV Movie Award. The film was produced by new line cinema which is a subsidiarie of major Hollywood industry Warner Bros. The film was rated 8.6/10
Audience: I think that the target audience of this film are from 18 to 30 because the film is categorised as '18+' meaning only people over 18 can watch it. Also the people who are interested in a hybrid genre such as horror, crime and psychological which are sub genres of the thriller convention. Male audience might be interested in this film because its horror and mostly male audience watch horror. Female audience might be interested in this film because of the actors such as Brad Pitt. They might be his fans and just want to watch the film just because
Narrative: The film seven uses linear structure. We denote the film going in the order we do not see any flash backs or flash forwards but we hear the characters talking about what happened in the past. We denote that the characters talking about what happened in the past in the interrogation room when they are talking about what happened in the place where lust murder happened. This connoted that the narration of film seven is shown in order.
The todorov’s theory is that every film has an equilibrium this is when every thing in the beginning is normal we denote that detective summerset id shaving and putting his clothes on in the morning to go to work which is normal for him as he goes to work every day, we connote that every thing is fine and it just another day. Then it has a disequilibrium this is when something has gone wrong, then comes the attempt repair this is when the characters are solving what’s going on and then we move new equilibrium this is when every thing is back to normal but not exactly how it was in the beginning.
Narrative: The film seven denotes restricted narration. We denote when the investigation team goes to the antagonist's place but no one there accept from the dead body just like the characters think that the person laying there is dead we as audience think the same, but the person who is laying there is not dead he suddenly takes a deep breath. As audience we don't know that the person is dead or alive.
The film seven uses omniscient narration. This is when the audience see more then what the characters in the film see. Towards the end of the film seven, as Jon Doe and detective mills are having a conversation about detective mills wife we see detective summerset opening a box then we see him running towards detective mills this shows that its something to do with his wife, because the edges of the box were covered in blood we know some thing happed to her wife.
Genre: as the audience of the film we can classify this film as thriller with its sub genres, which are crime horror and psychological. We can say that the film has a crime genre this is when we denote police involved in the murders this connotes that its a crime thriller because there is a scene of investigation. We can also notify this film as a psychological, the audience denote that there is a man who is going around killing people based on seven deadly signs by this we connote that the man is mentally disturbed by that we know the film covers psychological issues. One other sub genre which it covers of thriller is horror we denote that when we see the head of Tracy Miller. As audience we don't actually see the gory and blood coved bodies but we get a sense of what going on. It does not challenge the convention of the thriller genre because there is a sense of investigation, crime, horror and psychological. This also challenges the thriller convention because stereotypically you would find that the thriller convention contains lots of action but the film doesn't accept from one scene when detective miller is following Jon Doe. This is shown by fast pacing and tracking shots.
Representation: the character of detective mills is represented as fiery angry and short tempered person. On every thing he does he is always swearing we denote him swearing at the cameraperson who wanted to take the photos of the crime scene and the investigators but he didn’t want ant photos taken so he started to wear at the cameraperson. He is also shown as a middle class detective because of where he lives. He lives near a sub way so every time a train goes by their whole house moves. Detective summerset is shown as a calm person who doesn’t panic. Whenever he does something he thinks first. We denote him in the office and thinking what they are going to do next where as detective mills is going in circles shouting and thinking what are they going to next and detective summerset is thinking where to go which is better then sitting in their office doing nothing, this shows that he thinks what is going on what happened and he also thinks ahead.
The character for Tray miller is represented as a panicky person who loves her husband but doesn’t like his job and where she lives we denote that they are having dinner together and suddenly the whole house starts to vibrate we see the close up to see her expression she didn’t look happy but the every one started to laugh about it. This connotes that she is a cheerful person but doesn’t like where she lives. We denote her calling detective summerset at night time telling him she wants to see him in the morning when they do she tells him she is pregnant and she was panicking about it.
The character of Jon Doe is represented as a calm person we denote detective summerset saying who ever it is he or she is a very patient person this Connotes that he is a very patient person also we denote the way how talks and acts we know that he is a well educated because as the are reading his profile and detective summerset says who ever it is he is well educated. We denote him wearing bright red orange colour prison clothes which could signify danger
