The opening of The Shining starts off with an extreme long shot showing the viewers the secludedness and opens of the setting. The camera floats above a lake before focusing on a car driving along the shoreside road. The camera followers the car and this establishes the main characters in the movie without even seeing their faces the camera follows as the opening credits start to roll upwards in a bright neon blue typical to the era of which the film was made. The mood of the scene is reflected by the non diegetic music being played. It juxtaposes the potential serenity of the scene, if it was played with some happy and/or upbeat music the whole mood of the scene could change but its change by the low unsettling brass instrument, and almost white noise type voices. The music intensifies and the car gets closer and closer to the house, it becomes unsettling for these us watching these characters as it seems like there’s a sense of impending doom.
The camera work teases the audience. At one point it fly’s down and looks to be as if it is going to look into the window but at the last minute it pulls away as the car enters a tunnel. This will keep the audience interested and hooked into finding out who these characters are and what is going to happen to them. The camera always cuts back to the countryside really showing how far out these characters are from society.
After following the car there is a pan of an old lodge which is an establishing shot for the rest of the film. The house seems eerie straight away., a huge gothic looking building made from wood. A short echoing voice similar too an angels is played over the shot signifying the significance of the building and its potential. The whole opening sequence manages to introduces the characters and setting really well, and starts the story off well giving the audience a basic understanding of what has happened so far and what is yet too come.
In contrast, the opening title sequence too Se7en does set the scene and type of film but in a very different way. Se7ens sequence starts with a very dark clip of a man folding pages in a notebook then to black screen with the first set of credits on. Back to another clip of photographs of a set of hands with some credits actually on the clip. Then it cuts to a combination of clips in rapid succession, all very eerie which starts to set the mood for the film. Then back to a black screen with one of the actors names on, which pulses white so looks like it has been carved into the black screen. The entire sequence flips between all of these quick short moments, so that the audience never really gets to see anything too specific. However they are introduced to a character. The guy that is writing, and is supposedly the antagonist of the film. There are also certain words placed in the frame for the audience to catch a glimpse of which can often for-shadow many of the events of the film. The clips are mostly black and white however for split seconds an edited version of them are shown in red, insinuating blood or rage/anger which is the typical use for that colour.
The music used is also fast with high frequencies used aswell as low changing the mood at speed. These reflect both the shots and the type of movie. The audience subconsciously isn’t sure of what kind of emotion to feel and this allows the director to induce the slightest amount of fear slowly creeping in.
In comparison, Se7en really is the definition of thriller. Since there isn’t much suspense apart from wondering what/who this guy is. The fast pace is unsettling and creates a different kind of tension that is put in The Shining.
The Shining’s long drawn out shot of the car could be described as being a psychological thriller. You're constantly waiting for something to change. The music reflecting that, the slowness and randomness changes which completely contrasts too Se7en which constantly changes and so creates a good amount of suspense and confusion deliberately for the audiences to want to want more of the story.
