Comparing the two thriller opening sequences, "Fight Club" and "Se7en"

During the opening sequence of Fight club there is the credits showing the audience the director and the actors in the film. As the credits roll, it shows the brain at a microscopic level which throughout the credits rolling "pulls out" to show the characters face through the sights of a gun, which is in the characters mouth. As this happens there is a soundtrack (non-diegetic sound) which gives tension before the film starts indicating to the audience something drastic maybe happening (when the camera gets to the sights of the gun, the credits stop). At the point of the camera reaching the sights of the gun, looking at the character with the gun in his mouth there is a voice over from the narrator (non-diegetic sound) and then some dialogue (diegetic sound) once this begins the camera "jumps" to a side view of the gun in the characters mouth and the dialogue continues. At the end of this shot there is some mumbled sound from the character with the gun in his mouth, for obvious reasons, which then leads to another voice over. The camera then "jumps" again as the gun is removed from his mouth and shows the character on the floor with the other towering over him. Again more dialogue follows.

Fight club opening sequence

The conventions of a thriller film in this opening sequence are:
Crime - which the character may or may not be able to fathom his way out of.
Confusion - why is this happening/what is it about?

During the opening sequence of Se7en, it shows a male sitting in bed reading a book, he puts the book down and takes off his glasses and places them on his bedside cabinet, which the camera jumps to a close up of him placing his glasses. He places them in front of a metronome. The camera follows his hand up to the metronome and he starts it, the camera stays on the metronome for a few seconds before jumping to a shot where it zooms in at a steady pace on the male in bed. With the ambient sound of dogs barking and the metronome ticking it shows him trying to get to bed, the camera then jumps to a closer view of the metronome and slowly zooms in, the camera then jumps back to the male in bed and then to the metronome, each time zooming in slightly more to give it continuity. After which the credits roll and show a series of events, pages of a book turning, cutting finger tips with a razor blade, writing in a book, cutting pictures and negatives, during which a sound track is playing building tension and giving an eerie feeling that something mysterious might happen. At the end of the credits there is ambient sound of police sirens as two people wake up in bed and the male then leaves.

The conventions of a thriller film in this opening sequence are:

Mystery - during the credits as whilst watching the credits you want to know more about what is happening.

Crime - during the credits you get a sense that a crime is going to be committed/has already been committed

Confusion - what is the connection between the male in bed and the couple waking up?

A theme of identity -  the male on his own in bed maybe the protagonist/antagonist (the same with the male in the couple).

Both of these give a sense of Mystery and Crime as most thriller films do. However with Fight club the credits are at the beginning and illustrate the crime and beginning scene from the start, but with Se7en there is a scene then the credits which then leads into a different scene which builds confusion as there is the scene with the male in bed, snip-its of something happening during the credits and then the scene with the couple in bed, all within the first 3 minutes of the film, this brings added confusion to the audience as whilst watching it they are constantly trying to connect the first 3 scenes (including the credits scene).

By Jake Barrett