HG- Analysis of Title Sequence: Se73n (1995)

Se7en- Analysis of Title Sequence

Order of Titles:
0:11-0:13- A Film By David Fincher
0:14-0:16- Brad Pitt
0:18-0:20- Morgan Freeman
0:23-0:29- Se7en
0:30-0:32- Gwyneth Paltrow
0:34-0:36- Richard Roundtree
0:38-0:40- R.Lee Ermey
0:42-0:44- John C. McGinley
0:46-0:49- Julie Araskog Mark Boone Junior
0:54-0:57- John Cassini Reginald.E Cathy Peter Crombie
0:58-1:01- Hawthorne Jones Michael Massee Lelond Orser
1:04-1:07- Richard Portnow Richard Schiff Pamala Tyson
1:11-1:14- Casted by Billy Hopkins Suzanne Smith Kerry Borden
1:17-1:19- Music by Howard Shore
1:22-1:24- Costumes designed by Michael Kaplan
1:25-1:27- Edited by Richard Francis-Bruce
1:28-1:30- Production designed by Arthur Max
1:35-1:38- Director of Photography Darius Khondji
1:40-1:42- Co-producers Stephen Brown Nana Greenwald Sanford Panwitch
1:43-1:47- Co-executive Producers Lynn Harris Richard Saperstein
1:51-1:54- Executive Producers Gianni Nunnari Dan Kolsrud Anne Kopelsun
1:55-1:58- Written by Andrew Kevin Walker
1:59-2:02- Produced by Arnold Kopelsun Phyllis Carlyle
2:04-2:08- Directed by David Fincher

Typography:

The font changes throughout the clip, however, throughout, the font is always white and the background is black making it vivid and evokes the mood. I say this because the black background creates a sense of darkness and uneasiness for the audience. Predominantly, the letters are lower-case in a sanserif colloquial style, also, in terms of positioning; the text is always positioned at the darkest part of the frame contributing to the uneasiness of the clip. The animation is very effective in this clip, in most of the frames, the text jumbles up and is moved around the frame in a very quick motion, this is effective as the fast-pace editing engages the viewer and creates the feeling that something is about to happen. In the clip, the role of the person in the credits is written in capitals (e.g EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) and the name is written in lower case (e.g David Fincher), though, despite this it is still the same font and is conventional of horror title sequences.

What have I learnt from this?

From this exercise, I have realised the effectiveness of the black and white colour scheme as it adds to the sense of uneasiness revolving this genre. Additionally, the black and white scheme makes the font rather obtrusive and therefore attractive. Also, I have discovered that several title sequences use the 'capital letter for role and lower case for name' typography which is very effective and conventional of horror, therefore our demographic would be able to familiarise with our clip. I liked the idea of the text being positioned at the darkest part of the frame and I personally believe we should include this in our clip.

How can I use these effects in my production?

It would be very easy to incorporate the black and white font and background effect into our production as it is the simplicity of this effect that makes it successful, also, we could just take a picture that is solely black and put in the white font in post-production with our chosen font. Also, it would be relatively simple to position our font similar to how it is done in this clip as we would take our shots as normal and input the font at the darkest/most effective part of the frame.