Sometimes inspiration just strikes, I guess.  I was doin’ some work, listening to my iTunes music collection on shuffle when The Pointer Sisters’ “Pinball Number Count” from “Sesame Street” came on.  The number they sang was definitely not “seven,” but it instantly hit me that, if I could somehow find the “seven” version, I could cut it to David Fincher’s “SE7EN,” a film lodged solidly in my all-time top ten.  Seconds later, thanks to YouTube, I found “Sesame Street” clip dedicated to “seven.”  I was able to pull an mp3 of it and I was ready to go. 

Though I cut it in one night in about four hours, it was tough.  My original thought was that I could show the seven dead bodies, the seven Joe Doe-scrawled sins and the seven (titled) days of the week every time they sing “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...” The first problem was that you don’t actually see all seven dead bodies.  On top of that, you don’t see all seven sins written out.  And, finally, the biggest problem, I felt, was that they sing the full pinball count until “twelve.”  So what would I show for “eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve?” After a few attempts at tryin’ to make that original idea work, I realized I should not be so literal and just cut the movie.  Somewhere along the way, I came up with the idea of flashing the title “SE7EN” every time they sang it and that seemed to work-- possibly even better! 

Realizing that I could cut the famous title sequence to the opening of the song was a fantastic.  And being able to fit the film’s big scares to the moment the Pointer Sisters scream “seven” was also an added bonus.   

I think “SE7EN!” came out really well.  What makes it work, I think, is the juxtaposition of the song and the movie.  You have this chilling, dark, horror movie, full of disturbing images, being cut to that kids’ song that everyone knows.

THE MOVIE: “SE7EN” directed by David Fincher

THE SONG: “The Pinball Number Count” by The Pointer Sisters