Memento directed by Christopher Nolan, is considered to be a highly classed thriller, and is considered a phsycological/mystery thriller. The word memento is a reminder, an object of importance that signifies a reminder of some sort, this simple title is broad and open to interpretation. It links beautiful with the film, it's quite common that thriller titles are very short and sum up the film in a subtly underlying way. This film does not follow the conventional narrative structure as it begins with the 'disruption'. Audiences are immediately 'thrown into' the film. My thoughts on the opening and first half of the film;
Credits appear in a simple black background with blue fonts all very centralised, the diegetic music builds quite epically yet this is all very conventional to a thriller opening. We then see a long first shot, as an audience we begin thinking what the significance of this could be and instantly begin trying to create an idea of the theme/mood of this film.
We realise the picture is being under developed, it shows a rewind of time. This slow fade allows the audience to absorb the moment and to recognise this film will require your absolute focus. It's as though this idea was set to subconsciously implement this message, that audience members must prepare to unravel this plot. As the audience heavily focus on this first shot, there's a surprise/shock element when the realisation occurs that this is not in a chronological time pattern. This shock and enigma created within the first few seconds instantly brings attention to viewers that this is going to be a good film.
The film is very cleverly constructed and so requires full audience engagement (which is the cause of any success) yet as the plot slowly unravels in a rewind time frame this causes tremendous enigma's to arise which creates endless enigma's as to how? And why?
A voice over is used as a narrator, this helps us to keep track of what's occurring. It also helps the viewer to see a clearer perception of the character, and as like Leonard, we took may begin forgetting our short term memory as through the film get reminded on what we just sore. This follows a similar convention of Thrillers where audience's no only as much as the protagonist.
As the film progresses, it becomes less about knowing the story and the unraveling of the plot but our thoughts are centralised about Leonard and his journey through his 'quest'. We feel sympathy for him and fully engage in his frustration and whirl wind emotions. We would classify him as the Hero as we are on 'his side', yet we're unsure as to weather the extremity of his vengeance is justified by what happened, as we are 'in the dark' is to what really happened. Thrillers tend to have ambiguous characters and with Leonard's 'condition' there's much ambiguity as to wether he's morally right or wrong. This brews endless enigma's to his characterisation and we're constantly doubting our own judgments as the story progresses. Unlike the standard/conventional hero we don't have complete trust in him, as there's no certainty or reliability to anything he says or does (he's a confused hero). The basic structure of this plot is filled with ambiguity and accumulating enigma's causing it to be a massive success (this all sparks suspicion of a 'twist ending') and accomplishing the Thriller element to the film.
Memento is a good film to look at, i was blown away by the beginning and the whole film. It's very cleverly constructed and i felt inspired to take the elements of this film and create my own response if you like. I loved the idea of not having a chronological time pattern, this would work very well with adding that physcological element to the film. The visuals are quite abstract and the use of narration is essential in allowing the audience to understand. This idea is again a very good one as it would conquer the problem of background noise (wind and other noise pollutions). Having a naration would allow us to be more creative in our project and this enforces our direction of a British style. The abigious and confused character really engages with audiences on a wide sectrum as it relates to almost any human being who's been in a situation before that they've never really understood. Character development is a big thing we must look at as it's essential to having a good script.
A good script is essential, the Uk Film Council stress on the importance of it as there's no grand budget to work with so there must be clever ways to reach your target audience. We must keep this in mind when we begin brainstorming.
Credits appear in a simple black background with blue fonts all very centralised, the diegetic music builds quite epically yet this is all very conventional to a thriller opening. We then see a long first shot, as an audience we begin thinking what the significance of this could be and instantly begin trying to create an idea of the theme/mood of this film.
We realise the picture is being under developed, it shows a rewind of time. This slow fade allows the audience to absorb the moment and to recognise this film will require your absolute focus. It's as though this idea was set to subconsciously implement this message, that audience members must prepare to unravel this plot. As the audience heavily focus on this first shot, there's a surprise/shock element when the realisation occurs that this is not in a chronological time pattern. This shock and enigma created within the first few seconds instantly brings attention to viewers that this is going to be a good film.
The film is very cleverly constructed and so requires full audience engagement (which is the cause of any success) yet as the plot slowly unravels in a rewind time frame this causes tremendous enigma's to arise which creates endless enigma's as to how? And why?
A voice over is used as a narrator, this helps us to keep track of what's occurring. It also helps the viewer to see a clearer perception of the character, and as like Leonard, we took may begin forgetting our short term memory as through the film get reminded on what we just sore. This follows a similar convention of Thrillers where audience's no only as much as the protagonist.
As the film progresses, it becomes less about knowing the story and the unraveling of the plot but our thoughts are centralised about Leonard and his journey through his 'quest'. We feel sympathy for him and fully engage in his frustration and whirl wind emotions. We would classify him as the Hero as we are on 'his side', yet we're unsure as to weather the extremity of his vengeance is justified by what happened, as we are 'in the dark' is to what really happened. Thrillers tend to have ambiguous characters and with Leonard's 'condition' there's much ambiguity as to wether he's morally right or wrong. This brews endless enigma's to his characterisation and we're constantly doubting our own judgments as the story progresses. Unlike the standard/conventional hero we don't have complete trust in him, as there's no certainty or reliability to anything he says or does (he's a confused hero). The basic structure of this plot is filled with ambiguity and accumulating enigma's causing it to be a massive success (this all sparks suspicion of a 'twist ending') and accomplishing the Thriller element to the film.
Memento is a good film to look at, i was blown away by the beginning and the whole film. It's very cleverly constructed and i felt inspired to take the elements of this film and create my own response if you like. I loved the idea of not having a chronological time pattern, this would work very well with adding that physcological element to the film. The visuals are quite abstract and the use of narration is essential in allowing the audience to understand. This idea is again a very good one as it would conquer the problem of background noise (wind and other noise pollutions). Having a naration would allow us to be more creative in our project and this enforces our direction of a British style. The abigious and confused character really engages with audiences on a wide sectrum as it relates to almost any human being who's been in a situation before that they've never really understood. Character development is a big thing we must look at as it's essential to having a good script.
A good script is essential, the Uk Film Council stress on the importance of it as there's no grand budget to work with so there must be clever ways to reach your target audience. We must keep this in mind when we begin brainstorming.
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