RESEARCH - Conventions of Film openings used in 'Seven'

Conventions used in 'Seven'

Music: mainly an electronic sound is used. This gives the viewers a creepy and uncomfortable feel to it. The music is quite heavy as opposed to being soft and light which builds tension and gives us a sense of suspense as if something bad may happen.

Titles: In the beginning of the film the company ident is shown so everybody knows who the production company behind the film is. 

Then the producer of the movie was shown to the viewers followed by the director

 Then the stars of the film was shown (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman)

Then the movie title itself was shown:

Then a few of the additional stars were shown, here's an example: 

Establishing the genre: They established the genre by showing cut out newspaper articles, weird writing/drawings, close ups of a person doing certain things etc. this hints out at whats to come and creates suspense as to why these things may have been shown to us at the beginning. Doing this would hook the audience into watching the rest of the film to see what happens and why the opening could be linked to the story line of the film.

In the opening of Seven, a lot of rapid cuts are used. This creates tension within and makes us think that something bad may happen. Also the special FX and lighting add to the tension. The lighting throughout the opening sequence is dark. Darkness connotes bad, evil and possibly death. The special FX used in this makes some of the pictures and writing look fuzzy and appears to shake. This adds to the eeriness theme to the film