Media Studies

Opening sequence on 'Se7en' (mise-en-scene)
Here i am going to write about the Mise-en-scene in the opening sequuence of the film 'se7en'.

The costums in this particular film are very important as it gives the audience a clear view of the characters and straight away we can tell their charactistics.With Detective Summerset (Morgan) everything has to be perfect and in order, we know this because at the begining his coat is folded on his bed and he picks some fluff or something of it, and he makes sure his shirt is tucked in with blazor done up and tie right to rim of shirt, all this connotates that he is a professional detective, who doesnt like to make mistakes and is always very serious.
However Brad Pitt (other detective) is completely opposite, his shirt is not tucked in and creased and looks very rushed, and very scruff looking which shows the audience that he is not as professional as Detective Summerset and that he is very casual.
The public costumes are very casual however it is very noticable that they all are wearing dark dull colours, that could relate to the weather; rainging and relates to the setting as a rough area, quite denced and costofobic.

The Propsimetry had played a small part in the mise-en-scene, we, the audience felt that Freemen wanted to look to impress and quite layed back however Brad Pitt is deperate to atherity also what Morgan wants and also Pitt thinks high of himself and thinks he deserves Morgan's status.Whilst these two main characters were walking i noticed that they both were trying to walk in frount of each other to try and have more power and frount of fame.
They both walked very differently; Morgan walks at the same paste down the street and steady in rymthem and quite professional however Pitt walks quite lazy and with a slouch and bad posture.

Props are also important because it also shows the audience certain details about the characters involved.Morgan as iv already mentioned is very organised especially with his equipment needed with his job such as his badge, which has to go in his back pocket and most of the equipment is hiding (everything has a place) so people wont notice he is a Detective, which yet again is proffesional and secratative however with Pitt, he makes sure all his is on show.
Another prop is the blood splatter on the blind, which is not a focus with the camera conditionally it does show us that the murder was a close shot to head or body connotates a really bad incident, also in the background there is a picture of a child which could mean that there might be a child involved, or seen the crime happen.
These props helped our imagination with the sence about a child might have seen a horrific something.

The colour is the opening sequence straight away that gives the impression of something bad because the colours are mainly dull and dark.There is functional furniture in Detective Freemen's house, all his furinture is baige and cream, and lacks life and colour like no life excisist's there, which might have something to do with his job.Also at the end of the opening sequence is the killer, not face but we see his fingers and what he is doing, for example making his own document of his victims and also he cuts off layers of skin on his fingers so that there no way of getting his finger prints, is all in black and white, cold, lifeless and dark colours.The lighting sets the mood as dule dark and sad.Dectective Freemen lighting is very persific in his house, showing different shades of his face, slao he sleeps with his bed side lamp's on witch could be a cause from his jobs and the hiddious crimes he has faced, might of made him scared of the dark.

Overall, the Mise-En-Scene in this film is very persific and easily understood from different veiw and straight away gives us the genre of the film and what it might be about.