Crimes in Se7en

Crimes of Se7en

The crimes that had been committed in Se7en were all done by a man named John Doe (Kevin Spacey) I psycho who believes in justice. All the crimes that he committed were based on the 7 deadly sins from Christianity.

1. Pride is an excessive belief in one's own abilities.
2. Envy is wanting what others have, be it status, abilities, or possessions.
3. Gluttony is the desire to eat or consume more than you require.
4. Lust is a powerful craving for such as sex, power and money. 
5. Wrath is the loss of rational self-control and the desire to harm others.
6. Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain.
7. Sloth is laziness and the avoidance of work.

From the order of the killings in the movie, it started with Gluttony where a man was force to eat spaghetti to death and was also kicked to the side during eating which caused internal bleeding leading to his death.

Greed was the second killing where Mills and Somerset discovered a dead body aside with a pound of flesh in a lawyer's office. The lawyer was forced to dissect a pound of his own flesh in payment of the greed he has shown in his career as a lawyer. He died of blood loss afterwards. 

The third was Sloth which was one of the slowest and most painful death by far in my opinion. A drug dealer was drugged by John Doe and was tied to a bed for a year whilst under a overdose-like coma. When Somerset and Mills arrived, he is surprisingly STILL ALIVE but only just. This scene also reveals the only jump scare seen in this movie and is also the scariest crime solving scene out of all the killings due to the rise in suspension from the previous killing leading to a surprise jump scare to finish off.

Lust was the fourth killing in se7en. In this crime scene, a man was force to wear a custom made bladed cod-piece and was forced to have sex with a prostitute while having a gun pointed at his head. The final outcome was the death of the prostitute and the man left traumatized by his own actions. Lust was a sin reflected on the desire of men and the "disgusting" occupation of women who is willing to give up her body in exchange for money whilst spreading infections to others, in summary being a "disease-spreading whore" as John Doe has clearly quoted. 

After Lust was Pride where John Doe cuts off the nose of a model and was given a choice to either call for help or taking an overdose. In the end, the model died of an overdose. Pride is used to reflect on one's beauty and the pride that she takes to become beautiful in order to hide her weakness emotionally and choosing to die if something ever happens to her it in any shape or form. "A woman... so ugly on the inside she couldn't bear to go on living if she couldn't be beautiful on the outside" highlights on how people judge and take credit each other not from their emotions and personality, but more of their outside looks and clearly reflects on how serious an issue it is and the choices that one makes in order to prevent critique and negative comment. 

Envy is John Doe himself because he envies the life of a normal person and envies troubles that Mills have gone through being in the world of se7en. Doe wanted to experience what it would be like to have a family like Mills so he decided to visit Tracey and decapitated her in the end. Doe wanted to be like Mills, having a beautiful wife, beautiful family living a good life, Doe was jealous of these values and wanted to take it all to himself. He states that he tried to "play husband" with Tracy that day but it didn't work out and he took a souvenir instead: "her pretty head". It was Doe's plan that Mills kill him, as he was guilty of ENVY. He also reveals to Mills that Tracy was pregnant.

Due to the actions of John Doe, it drove Mills mad and seeking revenge. In the end, he killed Doe and became Wrath the last sin and killing of the movie. 

What I liked about the 6th and 7th killing is that it was unexpected and at the same time interesting from the way that Fincher presented it. He used the characters of John Doe and David Mills to build tension and suspense throughout the movie, and in the end, created a perfect ending and a solution to an enigma thought by the audience and making the last 2 killings being the peak of all the others due to its unique twist in the plot where the main protagonist kills the antagonist in the end and using the character of Somerset being the one to try and stop Doe's "mind games" that he tries to play on Mills who is already in a vulnerable vengeful state. 

In conclusion, I really liked how Fincher creates meaning on each of the killings and created also a moral to each of them reflecting what society in a whole is like and in this world, there is always one of the seven deadly sins hiding on the streets. 

Credit Opening: Panic Room

Credit Opening

Order of Names:

1) Columbia Pictures (Ident)

2) Product Company

3) In associations with... (the support company/ companies)

4) The main character roles(Jodie Foster, Forrest Whitaker, Jared Leto etc.)

5) Title of the movie (Panic Room)

6) Supporting character roles (Kristen Stewart etc.)

7) Casting manager

8) Costume deisgner

9) Music manager

10) film editor

11) production designer

12) Director of photography

13) Producers

14) Script writer

15) Director (David Fincher)

Se7en Analysis

Se7en

Director: David Fincher=> Gone Girl, Fight Club, Alien 3, Social Network, Panic Room, The Game, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Benjamin Button, Zodiac

Setting and Location

Location: Place Geographically

Setting: How its portrayed atmosphere time period

Scene 1

Location: City=> Diegetic noises of sirens and noise
                             Busy; Hustle

Setting: 90's
             polluted- buildings are locked, rusted and gross
             rain- Dirty "dirty green" "dank"=> dead body being wheeled out

Crime- siren (diegetic sounds)
"the real world"- realistic
Rough Area; people seeing dead bodies on a daily basis
                     Apartments have bars and wnidows <= not a pleasant place to live in

(0:27) Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) gets bumped into a person from the area- no one flinches/ apologizes/ reacts. This gives a sense of aggression and we can see that Mills is not from around here.

Scene 2: Somerset's flat

Somerset's flat may be one of the neatest and clean scenes and location in the movie. His flat is decorated with antiques and old furniture, fit for an old person who has been in the world of Se7en for a long time. Somerset lives alone in his flat and does not seem to worry about the violence that is happening around him. This is evident when we can hear the non-diegetic sounds of banging, sirens and construction that is going on around Somerset's flat. However, during the scene when we see him putting on his badge and coat, there is a flip up knife as well on the side of the bed where Somerset is going to pick up next.

A flip up knife is a weapon that policemen and detectives don't tend to use, it is a weapon more fit for a burglar or an outlaw, someone that commits crime usually holds this weapon due to its stealth and quickness. Further on in the movie, we also see Somerset throwing his flip-up knife to a dart board, this emphasizes that Somerset is detective but will still use outlaw tactics and thinking if neccesary which is shown near the ending of the movie when he slaps John Doe. Moreover, the editing of the diegetic sounds of the honking of the car creates an image of reality. Somerset's apartment may look peaceful and classy on the outside, but really, it is still located in the world of se7en where crime never stops. In addition before the ending of the video, Somerset resets the metronome in order to mark a new day of crime solving. He uses the metronome as a reminder to not be consumed into the world of se7en and to stick with his own thoughts and calm mind. Moreover, it is used to cut out the sound of the outside world whilst Somerset is sleeping.

Scene 3: Tracey and Somerset scene

In this scene, we see Somerset and Tracey having a serious conversation about Tracey and Mills' future at a downtown diner. Tracey told Somerset about the baby that she's going to have a baby soon. However Somerset gave Tracey 2 choices to either keep the baby but also strongly suggests her to get an abortion before its too late.

This conversation tells a lot about the setting and the world of se7en. Usually, when someone is pregnant, she would not get depressed that easily and have to make choices in keeping it. However, the choices that Somerset gave to Tracey gives us a clear image on what the world of se7en is like. It is a place full of crime and killings, everywhere you go, it is always unsafe and  furthermore, nobody wants to have a baby in a place like this because they can't imagine what their child's life will be like if they have to grow up in a horrible place like the world of se7en. This scene also highlights on the character of Tracey. She cannot handle this place and thinks that it is miserable. Tracey struggles to find a job here and feels insecure. Fincher made Tracey's character insecure to foreshadow here fate. Her insecure character creates vulnerability to John Doe and is also the key to Mills' becoming the 7th sin. In terms of camera work and editing, the use of a close up shot and following the 180 degree rule creates tension and depression which does not fit in a typical conversation that normally has good news like someone being pregnant. Moreover, in every setting of se7en we will hear the diegetic sound of sirens to remind the audience all the time that the characters are still in a world of crime. This is also supported by use of dull colors and dim lighting to create a grim mood in the scene.

Dexter Credits

Dexter: Credits Connotation and Denotation

Dexter is a TV series about a person who works at a Miami police department and at the same time, living a secret life as a serial killer in the evenings hunting down murderers who have slipped through the cracks of the justice system. In this video, it shows Dexter's morning routines but everything that he does seems to be in a violent way. 

Denotation	Connotation
Slapping of the mosquito after it sucks Dexter’s blood	There are evil people in this world who are trying to kill Dexter, but he is also a serial killer capable of killing and doing violent things
Shaving his beard, cut on skin from razor blade	Using sharp everyday objects with power like using a knife to kill people. Blood being shed
Wiping blood off and putting on band aid	Covering up his crimes and wiping evidence.
Cutting up meat and searing	Process of killing and deforming body to cover evidence and identity. Slowly cutting a person limb from limb.
Eating ham	Joy of killing his victims.
Cracking Eggs, slicing eggs and squirting of ketchup	Physical violence and quick slicing. Squirt of ketchup suggests blood being spilled during process.
Blending of coffee	Blending flesh of victims to avoid any evidence
Crushing orange	Gouging victims from the inside
Wrapping dental floss and ropes around finger tying shoe laces	Slowly choking victims with rope tightly. Tying shoelaces suggests tight wrapping of ropes when covering victim with a body bag.
Shape of face and putting shirt on	Covering up identity
Walks out of apartment door with smirk	Suggests that he knows that he will get away with the killing

Se7en: Characters

Characters in Se7en

There are 3 main characters in the movie Se7en that plays an important role in building up tension and suspense but also balancing out the tension to create an equilibrium. 

William Somerset: Morgan Freeman

David Mills: Brad Pitt

John Doe: Kevin Spacey 

Point Break: Sound editing

Sound editing

In this lesson, I had a chance to use Adobe premiere again, but now, I learned how to transfer audio separately and learned how to adjust audio and blending them all in to create one group of sounds best fit for a video. 

There were many sounds to choose from and they came separately, but in this video of Pointbreak, it was a scene of a crime and the an was chasing the burglar into boulevards to department stores and into houses. Sounds such as screaming, foot steps, dishes crashing, windows shattering and car horns were used effectively.

Here's an example of the original footage from Pointbreak:

Western Credits

Western Credits

Last Friday, I got the chance to play around with Premiere and edited a credits scene inspired by the 1966 film The Good, the bad and the ugly. 

This was what the original credits looked like:   

I tried to achieve a more simpler version of the credits by adding fonts available on Premiere and the Colour Matte option to create a colour back ground to my black images.

Overall format of the editing grid

Selections of images and motion picture

Sequence of shots and audio

After that lesson, it made me realize that editing was not an easy task, it takes a lot of practice and a lot of time to learn the basics.