Analysing opening sequence to "Memento"

Film: Memento (2002)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Lead actor:Guy Pearce

Titles: There is blue writing on a black background for the opening titles which emits a cold feeling and shows the cold emotion. As the titles are black and white you as yourself is he dreaming? and also the black and white represents that the color has gone from his life.

Shots:Over the shoulder lets us see what he is seeing and this with a extreme close up as the opening shot are confusing as you cant see around that shot so you dont know the location of the shot or whose point of view that you are seeing. Also , after the opening shot we see close up shots that look like crime scene pictures. This shows mystery and makes you want to know what has happened. Also , there is a worms eye shot of the main character which makes him look very dominant and powerful.

Movement: The camera stays consistently very steady and we also get the feeling as if we were standing with the main character.

Generic themes:There are no voice overs at first .We then get a voice over later on from quite obviously the main character as he speaks as "me" and it is as we see his vulnerability. And we automatically know whose story that we are following as he is in the second shot and the camera is very focused on him. We also then progress to see him and where he goes so you know within a couple of minutes and shots whose story we are following.

Sound: Always low and classical yet eerie in the background and it is so quiet that we can hear the main character shaking the picture that he is holding. The music peaks as the opening title comes onto the screen as if to show its importance.

Mise-en-scene: Naturalistic as you can hear him shaking the keys and the photo and the traffic. Also he is staying in a grotty hotel room which is old and dirty which shows the main characters anonimity.

Introduction to Thriller codes and conventions

Thriller codes and conventions are basically Mise-en-scene.Its how you use objects, colour , costume or setting to establish a mood or tension etc. for example, if you were to decorate a restaurant in red for a romantic film and send a couple into the restaurant, red can resemble love and passion and having this colour in the background will set the mood that you want. This can also work with music. If you were to put a heavy beat into a film it is most likely to resemble action or danger and is set to raise your heartbeat and that is the purpose. Also , if you were to put a certain piece of music on every time the villain of the film were to enter the room then your audience will recognise this and sense the danger and add tension. You are teaching the audience to feel fear every time that they hear that music and creating a mood of tension and fear.

An introduction to Thriller Films

We were introduced to Thriller films by looking at last years media class groups opening sequence to a Thriller film that they made.They only made the first scene and titles. Looking at these gave the class an idea of what was to be expected from us ourselves and also to the idea of music and shots that we could use.

One opening sequence that i would like to comment on in particular was "End of the line". This is the one that i watched the most amount of times so got the chance to evaluate better.They used one amazing shot that stays in my head and that was the shot of the London Eye sped up.This was effective as watching the transition of time in a quick and interesting way made the opening sequence a lot more intriguing as you ask yourself, "Why are we watching the London Eye revolving quicker?" and also gives you the location of where the Thriller is likely to be set or connected to as why would you have a shot of the London eye revolving sped up if your Thriller was based in America and has absolutely nothing to do with London?

An introduction to me

Hey =)

I'm Paige Lee-Edmund's and I'm studying theatre as my strand and media is my only option. I did a Media GCSE at the BRIT school for two years and got a B grade.

I chose to do media as i really want t go into a profession in media. i would really like to study media at a university as i really enjoy it.Something media-related that i am particularly interested in is film work as i enjoy being behind a camera as much as i enjoy being in front of it! I love using so many different shots to create the right effect and my favourite shot is either an over the shoulder shot or a worms eye shot as both can show so many different views and convey so many different meanings and i love getting the camera into the right position as when you get the perfect shot its so satisfying.

My favourite film is "Hot Fuzz" . I really enjoy it as i love the plot and the thrill you get from watching it. I also really love the way it is filmed, in a similar fashion to "Shaun of the dead". They both use short sharp shots with very dramatic music to show the simplest things, i.e the main character getting ready for work. It is a very effective and clear way of getting something across (like the characters job) in a fast way so that no time is used that needn't be.