Sequence Comparison: 'Legally Blonde' and 'Seven'

'Legally Blonde'
Shots...
- CU of hair, nails, shoes, necklace shows the characters attention to detail and how self-perfection is a key part of her personality.
- Establishing shot of her on the bike shows us the surroundings and what the campus looks like, introducing us to the scale and look of the area that the narrative will be based.
- Arial Shot of the stairs give us a glimpse of the size of the area where the girls stay, which we would immediately associate with the students having a lot of money
- The sequence also uses shots which do not show the whole of the main character straight away. The character is withheld until the end of the sequence.

Character + Narrative...
- The characters we see are all university students and are very stereotypically shown. The girls are all spending their time looking good, whilst the boys are playing like guys would and looking at the girls.
- Shots showing the homecoming banner indicate to the audience that the main character is very popualar. We are also shown this by the fact that everyone is signing her card.
- No-one on campus seems to be working, but rather, working at looking good. This suggests that physical perfection is a very high priority for these students.
- Some of the shots are in slow-motion which builds up anticipation to the main character the the big event that is about to happen.

Visuals + Music...
- The soundtrack used is an upbeat song with lyrics 'perfect day' whose connotations are self-explanatory. The song also names a number of brand names, adding to the feeling of wealth and exclusiveness.
- The visuals are very bright, with high-key lighting used throughout.
-Colours are very prominant, for example the pink is bright and always stands out connoting girls and thus the theme of colour links into the main character and the narrative.


'Seven'
Shots + Character...
- Establishing shot of Morgan Freeman in the house in his bed gives us the feeling of loneliness and isolation for his character.
- CU of his belongings shows how he has a very specific way of organising himself and he is very much set in his ways.
- The way his bed is made perfectly shows how tidy and disciplined he is.

Soundscape + Visuals...
- The soundscape particularly in the main characters house is very much background noise and silence giving the character a sense of isolation from the world.
- The ticking of the metronome to get to sleep also has connotations of precision and accuracy and conforms to the characters set way of life.
- The colours are very tonal and mostly dull, adding to the realism and suggesting a sense of darkness and mystery.
- The choice of clothing on the two main characters is very deliberate and shows how one is layed back and modern wearing a shirt and leather jacket whilst the other is very serious and old fashioned wearing a trenchcoat and hat.

Title Sequence...
- The title sequence itself is very abstract. The black white and red colour scheme suggest themes of murder, horror, and thriller elements.
- The images used in the background show us sections of a character who is working with forensic evidence. Also having pictures of the murder victims, we suspect this to be the killer by the nature of his actions.
- The music is very modern, electronic and fragmented, suggesting tension and a thrilling and haunting narrative.

Overall Comparrison:

While 'Legally Blonde' presents a world in a bright, expensive, and almost unrealistic fashion, 'Seven' does the opposite by showing us the opening of a dark, haunting, and realistic thriller. The upbeat soundtrack of 'Legally Blonde' brings life to the opening of a very busy sequence with lots of characters, colour, and action, whereas 'Seven' is a total contrast with an edgy soundtrack, dull tones, and a narrative focusing mainly on one character.

These styles, altough very different work perfectly to open the films as they are immediately indicative of the films genre. Both openings set you up for an enjoyable two hours and leave you wanting to carry on watching to explore the narrative that you are set up with at the start.