Se7en:
The film, Se7en, is a thriller film about two police detectives working in a crime-filled city, who become deeply absorbed in a case involving a series of sadistic murders. Each murder corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins: Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Greed and Wrath.
Something I initially spotted from the credits of Se7en is the size of them. The credits do not take up a lot of the screen and are not big and bold like most credits. They are more reserved which may link to the serial killer and how in a lot of films the audience already know who the killer is, but in this particular film his identity is kept hidden and reserved. The small font of the titles may also relate to what a small chance it is for the detectives to find the murderer.
Another striking feature to the credits is the colour of them. They are not in the clichéd colour red representing danger and death which would fit in with the genre of the film. However, instead they are coloured white which usually represents peace and new life. Therefore the colour of the titles is juxtaposed with the style of the film, which creates confusion amongst viewers.
Some of the titles that appear are backwards which may be linked to the backwards nature of the crimes the serial murder is committing. Many of the titles that appear are also blurred. This affect may have been used to create confusion and suspicion amongst the audience. The blurred credits also fit in with the psychotic nature of the film and may be used to represent the killers mind and how its is clouded and he is clearly not sane. Soon after the credits appear blurred they become clear to see. This may be associated with the storyline of the film and how at first the reason for these murders is unclear but towards the end it all becomes evident.
The credits to Se7en have many impressive editing skills that grip the audience from the very start. There are various features to the way the titles have been done that I feel would be appropriate to duplicate for my opening to a thriller coursework. Firstly I would like to make the titles appear in a similar way to how they do in Se7en because in Se7en they do not just appear on the screen but they flash onto the screen which creates a sense of mystery. This would work well in my opening to a thriller because our aim is to create a sense of mystery and keep the audience in suspense. Each technique used in Se7en is applicable to the film and I hope to keep this same relevance when creating the credits to my own thriller.
Flightplan:
The title sequence order is as you’d expect from this film. It begins with the publishers, “Touchstone Pictures” as they are the biggest company there. Next is then the production company, “Imagine Entertainment”, then onto the director, “Brian Grazer”, and then the main actress, “Jodie Foster”. This is the normal order for most films in order of importance. They are set out like this as for the film to be a success it needed those names in it’s order to obtain it.
I think the effects on the titles are fairly basic, and haven’t had much thought put into them. The reason for this is, the only effects they have on the titles really are at the beginning, whereby there is a wipe from the train for them to come on, and the reflection of the titles on the train later on. The most disappointing part of the titles was the effect on the actual name of the film itself. It just popped up on screen, and was in the bottom-right corner of the screen, giving it no significance at all.
I also think the font of the titles was poor. It looks to be the standard “Arial” font, which is quite boring. However, I think white was the right colour to use for the titles as white has an element of mystery about it, and symbolises innocence, which reflects Jodie Foster’s character in this film as they keep blaming her and complaining about her actions on the plane. Again though, I feel some of the titles should have been bigger in the circumstances they have the titles appear. At the beginning with the main titles, when they appear on screen, the background is just black, so had plenty more room to make the titles bigger.
If I were to make the titles for this film, to go with the theme of the plane, and to make them more interesting, I’d have the titles look like they do on departure lists, much like the comedy series “Come Fly With Me”:
And as these titles would not fit into the shots in the opening sequence, I’d change them so she is in the airport with her daughter, and the scenes that are in the actual title sequence we see as flashbacks.
Overall, I think the tiles for Flightplan are of poor quality.
Final Destination:
Final destination 3 is a thriller film about a group of teenagers that go to an amusement park, they all get onto the “Devils Flight” rollercoaster but then Wendy, a girl from the group has a premonition and for various reasons 8 of the group gets off the rollercoaster. Wendy’s premonition becomes a reality killing everyone that stayed on the rollercoaster.
All the titles are in the same font which could link to the fact that everyone that got off the rollercoaster is in the same position because they all seem to be having freak accidents or extremely unlikely occurrences surrounding there lives which will eventually lead to the death of all eight people that got off the rollercoaster. Furthermore all the titles are in certain objects which seem fairly normal like a rollercoaster, a sun bed, a drill etc. but this is foreshadowing the future events as each one of the normal objects results in a freak accident later on in the film, for example one of the eight that survived the “Devils Flight” decided to get a sunbed, but whilst in the sunbed a shelf falls onto the sunbed trapping her inside and burning her alive.
At the very begin we see the Theme Park which relates to the theme park the teenagers are in at the very beginning but this is a juxtaposition as in the theme park a whole rollercoaster carriage full of people die yet they look happy in the titles, this could be to show the confusion that the eight survivors must go through knowing that they too could have not made the decision to get off the “devils flight” rollercoaster which could’ve lead to all their deaths.
The Titles to Final Destination are not the most technical but sometimes the more basic ideas can actually result in better work, I personally think that they work really well because the ideas behind them are very clever for example the “death objects” being around the titles themselves and the juxtaposition that the theme park at the start looks extremely happy yet the whole film is about death. All the effects that the editor has used are very relevant to the film and hopefully I can achieve the same goal in my Thriller Opening.
SamLane 
Leave a comment