How the openings of both films attract audiences - Love Actually and Se7en

How the openings of both films attract audiences

Love Actually and Se7en

The most important thing that the opening of a film must accomplish is to establish a tone so that the audience fall into the same mood as the film they are watching. Most openings leave their target audience desperate to know more about the story and the characters therefore more intrigued about the film and will most likely enjoy it more. It subtly introduces the tone of the film and the basic storyline, which will be explained throughout the film, they also introduce the characters.  I am going to compare the films Se7en and Love Actually through the mise en scene, camera shots, lighting, characters, genre, the sound and the editing of the first couple of minutes of both films to see how they draw in their target audiences.

           

Se7en is a horror film, based on the seven deadly sins, so immediately we know that it will be quite sinister.  In the opening of the film, we are not shown the setting, this is because they have used close up and extreme close up shots throughout the opening of the film, this is beneficial as the images we are shown will be explained later on in the film and makes viewers concentrate and recognise what is happening in the film.  Love Actually is a romantic comedy that is set around Christmas time, in the opening of the film viewers are shown at the arrival gates at Heathrow airport with families and friends greeting each other with welcome, warm and loving hugs, the shot then cuts to a male singer recording a song, immediately we know that he is comical, opening the film with a light-hearted beginning has a good advantage as it sets the mood for the film.

The mise en scene in the opening of Se7en is very effective, this is because there are images such as dead people, which we assume are people he has killed, or pictures of people he may be setting up ready for him to kill. This automatically intrigues the viewers as we wonder what he has done or what he is going to do. In complete contrast Love Actually has people embracing each other in the mise en scene, the rest of the shot is blurred as they are obviously focusing on the love that is occurring, but we are able to see suitcases. When the shot swaps to the singer, the mise en scene emphasises that they are recording a song as it is in a real studio which makes this part more believable to the audience.

The lighting used in the opening of Love Actually is relatively light, this is because it makes the shot have a soft, warm and relaxed feel to it which highlights the fact that the genre of the film is a romantic comedy, so overall it gives quite a calm image. Whereas the lighting in Se7en is quite dark this portrays that the film is dark, evil and creepy. The use of dark lighting adds tension to the overall view of the opening. The sound in Se7en has a non diegetic backing tune, this is quite low and starts of being quite heavy which builds faster as the opening of the film goes into the start of the film, the beat gets faster and there is a screeching, possibly a female screaming, which adds tension and anxiety. This backing music sounds vaguely like a heart beat monitor, some viewers may think that this backing music sounds quite mechanic and technological. The music is quite abstract and eery which resembles what our first impressions are of the character shown. Contrasting from the opening of the film Se7en, Love Actually has backing music throughout the opening clip, this music is soft relaxing and slow also being quite quiet you would only really notice it if you were listening out for every sound. We then get one of the main male characters talking over the top of the music, talking about love which links to the opening shot of friends hugging. The music is of a piano, which is relatively calming, this also emphasises the feeling of love in the film.

The editing in Se7en is extremely effective, there are many shots all of them are cut to be really short so viewers just see a glimpse of the objects as they don’t want to give away any of the story in the first two minutes of the film. The colour is edited to be a sharp sepia effect this emphasises that the storyline is based on the seven deadly sins as the sins were first around a long time ago, so using the sepia colour gives an aging look to it. The cast names are edited in between shots of flashing images, the names are made to look extremely technical and fit the music as they look very scratchy. Whereas in the opening of Love Actually there isn’t much editing, just the changing of shots however the shots are all resembling the same subject so it isn’t as severe as the editing in Se7en.

The target audience of Se7en is young adults to teenagers, this is because the storyline is quite complicated and would be easier and more enjoyable for the younger generation to watch as it obviously involves a lot of dirty deaths. In contrast to the target audience for Se7en, Love Actually has a extremely wide range for their target audience, as there is hidden humour for adults that would slip by if a young teenager were to watch the film, however also there is comedy for all ages that are used throughout the film.

Love Actually draws in there audience by starting with a slightly simple more relaxed opening, this would draw in their audiences as the mood of the opening fits in with the rest of the film, so it is preparing them and getting the right frame of mind flowing. Whereas Se7en uses a more upbeat and fast opening, similar to Love Actually’s film opening they have done this to prepare the viewers and so they can get into the mood of the film quickly, as this implies that the film needs a lot of concentration throughout to understand the overall story.