ABSTRACT
Selective focus techniques are used to direct the audience’s attention to a narratively important area of the frame; this is one of the reasons why, for instance, character closeups routinely feature a blurry background, so that nothing will distract viewers from noticing every detail of an actor’s facial expressions. Movie audiences are familiar with this practice, and therefore assume that anything in sharp focus must be inherently meaningful and deserves their attention, and anything out of focus can be safely ignored. A great example of this technique happens in David Fincher’s neo-noir crime thriller, Se7en , the story of Somerset, a detective on the verge of retirement, and his partner Mills, a new arrival set to replace him, as they try to catch a deviously sadistic serial killer before he completes seven ritualistic murders corresponding to the seven deadly sins.
