SE7EN opens with a deep bassy thunder sound score which is timed with a page turning in slow motion (extreme close up shot) with a hand out of focus in the background showing a mysterious identity. This creates an uneasy feeling for the viewer as the unsettling thunder sound is overlaying a steady rhythm of synthesised beats.
The main actors are titled on a cut black background with animated text (position, outer glow and size all animated for a 'glitchy' text effect) off center and skewed to give a the audience an uneasy feeling as there is no rhythmic transitions. For an example Brad Pitt's and Morgan Freeman's titles are shown below. Accompanying these twitching text effects are diagetic sounds which are computer generated. Because these post production sound effects are so 'jumpy', high pitched and 'jerky' the (hand in hand with the text animation) make the title sequence seem more unpredictable; suggesting an uncertain story line to come.
Below the screenshot shows use of video duplication (where there has been a copy of the shot is overlayed with a lower opacity over the top of the main shot) which make the viewer feel confused and uncetain of what's going on ( it feels almost as if you are the camera) because it gives the impression someone is watching the pen write in confusion.
Still images like the ones below used for only one or two frames (out of the 24 frames per second film use) which make them seem as if the pop up and they shouldn't be there, making the viewer feel 'uneasy' as unexpected things are flashing up on screen.Image one is of a disfigured woman which is quite disturbing - this makes the viewer think this is one of the victims or predators (as we assume that this is a crime based thriller from the shots we see). All of the pop ups (image one, two, three and four) are revealed in no definite pattern with the parallel music as all of the images in the picture below are randomly revealed furthermore adding to the suprise and on-edge feel. The straight cuts abnormally are used to created a disorientated feel for the viewer, where this technique of cut is usually used for natural looks, its use in the title sequence for SE7EN makes an unpredictable, suspense built credit sequence.
The frame below shows a finger being swiped across a sharp picture frame edge as we are led to believe, which shows no blood as the finger is cut. This is because showing blood on the finger would slow down the disorientation methods of the credits sequence which is constantly in motion making sure the viewer doesn't get time to settle on one particular shot. So the editor has used a separate shot of blood dripping from from a finger and straight cut it to after this shot shown below. The use of the shattered glass on the picture frame subliminally reiterates in our mind that the frame edge is sharp, however when you look at the individual frame itself you can see it is only a normal wooden / plastic picture frame.
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