Nine Frame Analysis -

‘SE7EN (1995)’

Mujammil Ali

Shot 1:

In the first shot, the production company name is shown first rather than the name of the film. The words are placed between the pages of the book connoting secrets that could lie within the book itself hence the reason why the this shot consists of an extreme close up of a book from its side. A shadow of a person's hands are shown flipping the pages as well which could make the audience become suspicious. The shot has low lighting suggesting to the audience this film could be frightening. This idea is extended through the writing being in upper case and starts to shake making it eerie.

Shot 2:

The director name is presented in spooky fonts and this could be so the audience recognises the director. The shot shows a close up of a drawing of wrinkly hands which makes it the make focus of this shot. What makes the shot different is that the hands are drawings on a piece of graph paper and a red line is marked in the middle. The colour of the hands contrasts each other with one being a lighter colour than the other. This could suggest a difference in something such as a victim or enemy. There is also a shadow covering the hands which could connote the hands are a piece of evidence that could be important. This shot creates a feeling to the audience that there are mysteries involved within the film.

Shot 3:

This shot is an extreme close up of a character peeling off their skin using a blade. This could potentially be the villain cleansing himself after having a battle with the hero. The dirty fingernails supports this proposition and as it seems muddy it could suggest the villain had a fight in a field or muddy area. The villain of a film usually is seen applying a bandage on places that the hero attacked if they survive. The low lighting supports the idea of the villain peeling his skin with a blade because it suggests gloominess.

Shot 4:

This shot is also a close up but with the title of the film showed as well. The title of the film is zoomed in and then out while the text shakes. The font makes it seems spooky and sinister. The title includes a ‘7’ which replaces the ‘v’ in the word ‘seven’. This makes the film seem unique and stops it from having a simple name. The number ‘7’ could refer to something that is significant to the films plot. This shot follows from the previous shot as a finger is shown with a bandage on. This supports the idea created before as it makes the audience seem it could be the villain again.

Shot 5:

This shot is a close up of someone cutting up a picture with a book below it. A book is shown being opened by someome and this suggests that the book could have something special in it and be used as evidence. The pictures being cut up could make us assume they will be stuck in the book. By doing this, the audience may think they are victims as there are other pictures below the book. The dark shadows make it seems daunting, this makes it seem more thriller.

Shot 6:

The shot consists of someone highlighting a young boy’s face which could suggest to the audience that the villian could perhaps be finished with this victim. The whole face is then scriblled off which could suggest this boy must be special to whoevers scribbling his face otherwise one scribble could have been enough. The drawing is black and white which could suggest evil. The shot makes the audience think what could be wrong and it seems to be a mystery which makes the film more thriller.

Shot 7:

This shot is a close up of the characters fingers. This makes us want to focus on whats happening within the shot. The audience will assume this character is the character from before due to the bandage over the finger. He is holding some pins which seems like he’s going to stick it on paper. Regardless of the bandage on his finger, he is still enduring the pain and using the finger. This suggests he may do anything to get what he wants. He may be using the book and paper he was writing on before.

Shot 8:

This shot is once again a extreme close up of the characters fingers. Here, he is seen sewing paper. As he is sewing two papers together, it suggests he may want to hide something which is on the other side of the paper. All the shots involves the character doing werid things which could suggest he might be a psycopath. The needle represents sharp things which a villian could like and so this suggests the villian isn’t afraid of using sharp items.

Shot 9:

This shot involves the word ‘GOD’ being snipped out of a dollar bill. The word makes the audience feel the character may be a believer however as he is cutting the word out it immediately makes us wonder that he isn’t a believer but dislikes religion. The existance of this shot could be because religion plays a big role in the film. As the shot it an extreme close up of the dollar bill, it wants the audience to focus on the word ‘God’.