Memento

The film, Memento is a psychological thriller distributed by Newmarket film studio. This studio is an American film studio found in 1994. In the film, Memento the logo of the studio is shown for 6 seconds at the beginning of the film.

Titling: The film’s titles are shown for 1.30 seconds at the beginning of the film. He credits appear according to power. The film’s finance company’s name comes first and the actors being last. Each credit lasts for 3 seconds each. However, the name of film is in capital letters and last for 6 seconds.

Camera Angles/Movements/Shots:

The film starts with an Extreme Close-up shot where the camera focuses on a specific picture in the hands of the opening character.

There is then a Tracking Shot used which tracks up to the main opening character’s face. The tracking shot allows the audience to see the costume of the character, and because it slowly moves up to him, it shows the importance of the character.

Miss-en-scene

The miss-en-scene used in the opening of the film, helps hint out the character’s role in the film. The character could be seen as the hero or the victim of the film, because of his costume. The colour of his suit is light beige, as oppose to a violent colour such as red or purple which would hint out that he might

be a villain. However, the gun in his hand and the blood on his face could represent

him as the villain as he also has a dead body’s picture in his hand.

Lighting: In the opening of the film, there is only low key lighting used which represents the victim’s emotions, the victim‘s facial expressions are sad and worried and this is shown through the low key lighting as it creates a sinister feeling about the victim.

Editing: There is a simple Cut used at the opening of the film, where the screen moves from the titles of the film to the opening scene.

Sound: There are two types of sound techniques used in the opening of the film, Digetic and Non-digetic. Non- digetic sound is used through the music which is played at the background, when the titles are shown at the beginning. Whereas, digetic sound is shown through the sound of the objects such as, the camera flashing sound.

Narrative Theory:

1) Who is the hero and who is the villain? How do you know?The hero could be the character shown at the opening scene of the film, as he is covered in blood and looks worried however, this could also be used to see that the same character is the villain.

2) Where is the story set and what does this tell you about the genre of the film?From the opening of the film, it cannot be said where exactly the film is set. However, it is only shown that the film is set in a city. Because of the location, it is clear that the genre of the film is a psychological thriller as most films with the similar genre do this.

3) How many principle characters?From the beginning, there is only one principle character introduced, which is seen as both the villain and the hero.

4) How is the story told? Chronologically or not? What is the effect?The story is told chronologically, as an innocent person is attacked by the villain, which causes the hero to become the villain however in the end the real villain is defeated by the hero. The effect that this has is that audiences know what to expect from a film such as this.

5) What questions are you left with?From looking at the beginning, we are left with several questions, such as; Why did the opening character have flash backs? Why did he kill the man? Who is the hero, is it him? If so, then why is he killing the man?