Director:

David Fincher

Opening title
designer: Kyle
Cooper

Laura Collins
The opening works as a prologue for the film in that
it introduces the character of the killer (John Doe,
played by Kevin Spacey) and hints at the story. In
just over 2 minutes, title designer Kyle Cooper and
director David Fincher set the tone and atmosphere
of Se7en as the disturbing and horrific experience
that it is. Se7en is a psychological thriller with
horror and neo-noir elements that ultimately make
the film unique and memorable.
The opening sequence is a collection of about 70
extreme close-ups that works like a montage. This
serves to simultaneously intrigue the audience with
minute detail and distance the audience by not
showing any wider shots that would give a clearer
view of character.
 The opening sequence was shot over two days and took a
further five weeks to edit.
The editing is fast-paced and consists of several dissolve
transitions, which are used to create a sense of disjointedness.
Cooper creates a stylish texture effect which gives the
entire sequence a washed-out, sepia-like tone. The general
colour used connotes a lack of feeling; flashes of red appear
intermittently, connoting violence. These connotations create
a sense of foreboding for the story’s dark subject matter.

A dissolve transition 
 The incidental music used is a remix of Nine Inch
Nails’ ‘Closer’ (from 1994’s The Downward
Spiral). Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial
rock project which is associated with dark and
gruesome imagery.
 The music is gritty and reflects the overall
disturbing tone of the film.
 The sequence is rich with hints about the
characterisation of the film’s antagonist. For
example, the audience is shown the word ‘God’
being cut out of a dollar bill. This single image
conveys a lot about the antagonist; it suggests that
the character believes he is God. This idea is
supported throughout the film in the antagonist’s
judgement of his victims and his use of the Seven
Deadly Sins as punishment.
 Cooper and Fincher created effective and unique title
credits; ‘[Fincher] actually scratched all the credits on a
scratchboard and then scanned them back in’ (Cooper).
 The scratched, handwriting style of the credits was created
entirely editorially and without use of After Effects that
filmmakers are so used to now.
 The credits twitch and flicker in and out of shots to
emphasise the disjointed and unsettling atmosphere. The
handwritten style of the credits was used also to ‘suggest
the dark part of John Doe’s personality and his obsession’
(Cooper).
 Overall the opening sequence of Se7en was ground-
breaking; the New York Times deemed it as ‘one of
the most important design innovations of the
1990s’.
Cooper and Fincher managed to evoke a sense of
enigma which succeeds in enticing the audience.
The themes of the film are hinted at in the use of
connotation and suggestion yet very little of the
plot is given away. The audience are prepared for
the gritty and uninviting representation of New
York City and the overall bleak tone of the film.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_(film)#Producti
on
 http://www.empireonline.com/features/david-
fincher-fight-club-opening-credits
 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-
art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/
 http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00184-
Kyle_Cooper_interview_pt_2_2