Analysis of opening of Memento!!

I’ve decided to analyse the opening of memento, a typical thriller film; in this analysis I decided to focus more on the credits and the introduction of characters as opposed to focusing purely on the camera, lighting and editing etc. I will still be including these aspects but mainly to show how the characters are introduced.





Credits:

The credits are very simple, and they begin straight away with the first clip, along with the beginning of the music. The title of the film ‘Memento’ is the first credit that comes up, and in the background there is a picture of what seems to be a person on the floor surrounded by blood. This immediately sets up a violent and gruesome atmosphere, but it’s also mysterious as many questions arise from the picture. The colour of the text is light blue and the font is very plain and simple, also the text is in the centre of the screen so we are drawn to the title. In our film we could integrate the title at the beginning along with a certain background picture to set a certain atmosphere; we should also think about what colours and font to use if we want to portray a certain image of the opening.

How characters are introduced:

‘Leonard':
The first time we see Lenny is a close up of his face, which seems to have blood on one side – straight away from this we assume he has killed someone as he is also looking down perhaps at the victim, but as we don’t know if he is the antagonist or protagonist we cannot make an assumption of if he is likable or not. This shot is also at a slightly low angle therefore making him look important, this establishes him as character with power. Also this first shot we see of him has chiaroscuro lighting, this type of lighting usually connotes mystery or a hidden narrative linked to this character. We then see him shoot a man; therefore we conclude that he is probably an antagonist as we don’t know why he shot the man. As there is a lot of narrative retardation it’s difficult to come to a clear conclusion about this character so far, however this makes the audience want to watch on to find out everything about this mysterious character.

The scene then changes into a black and white scene – this is quite unusual for a thriller film, however the black and white suggests that something in his world is not normal, and I think the use of black and white in these shots to show when we are listening to Lenny’s inner monologue is used very well as it shows the audience must focus on what he’s saying in these scenes to find out about the storyline. Again chiaroscuro lighting is used on a close up of his face, so although we feel close to him and we can see his emotions – he is still mysterious. The high angle shot of him sitting on his bed changes the way the audience have seen this character so far – firstly as it is a high angle shot, he looks belittled and weak so we begin to pity him, also his costume adds to him looking belittled as he is in his pyjamas looking scruffy – a complete contrast to the suit he was wearing in the last scene. The black and white in this scene could connote darkness or depression, so we link this character – who now seems quite important as we are hearing about him – with depression and mystery.

When he says “It’s Leonard.” In an assertive and confident tone to the man with glasses, we assume that he is a confident man who stands up for himself; also he seems to reply with a serious tone of voice to the joke of the man who says “Lenny!” this makes him seem extremely uptight and we feel slightly scared of him. In the next clip Leonard says “it’s not good to make fun of someone’s handicap” – this reveals something about him that the audience didn’t know before, and as we know he has a handicap we feel sorry for him, but now we know slightly more about him we become attached to this character as we want to know everything about him and the clips we have seen beforehand.

The fact that he drives the car as opposed to the man with glasses suggests he’s the leader in this relationship and the man with glasses is his sidekick. In the car park at the abandoned setting, Leonard walks away and the camera follows him instead of staying on the man with glasses – therefore showing he is the more important character and the
audience should pay attention to him. We then see him looking through pictures that seem to remind him of certain thing, we figure out that he perhaps has some memory problems – this makes the audience respect him as he seems to have a respectable job with a handicap problem.

From the first 5 minutes or so we learn a lot about Leonard – he is a stereotypical male, with some sort of detective job or goal, and we learn that although he is a conventional male in
a thriller, his handicap means that information is held back from the audience also, almost like we only know what he can remember – therefore we are supposed to sympathise with him and we will probably go through the film following him.

Man with glasses:

The first shot we see of him is an eye level medium shot, suggesting he is equal to Leonard. He is chewing gum throughout the clip which often connotes that the character is relaxed and laid back. The first thing he says is a joke; “LENNY!” so straight away he comes across as a fun person, so the audience like him, also he pats Leonard on the back so we think they are close friends – making us like them as a pair. His clothing is not as smart as Leonards, so we assume he isn’t as powerful as Leonard and his perhaps just a sidekick. Throughout the clip there is key lighting on the man with glasses, bright key lighting is usually used for protagonists so we think he is a good guy – because Leonard thinks he is a good guy. However as soon as Leonard knows he is bad, we are led to believe he is bad through dark shadowy lighting on him.

As soon as Leonard realises he is the man he needs to kill, the camera angles change so that we see the man with glasses like Leonard does – not as an equal but as an antagonist. For example the whole way through the clip there are eye level shots on him, however when he is on the floor with Leonard pointing the gun at him there is an over the shoulder high angle shot on the man with glasses. From this short clip we have two completely different views of the man with glasses – at first, from the camera angles, his costume, lighting and miese-en-scene we are led to believe firstly that he is a protagonist and then contrastingly that he is an
antagonist.

I think all the techniques used in this short clip are used really well to show that Leonard is the main character and that we are supposed to follow him and figure out his storyline. The characters are introduced to how Leonard see’s them.

:D:D:D

My individual job roles :D

As we've assigned all our roles now, I can look into exactly what I need to do for each of my jobs and start coming up with ideas, or things that I specifically need to do for my role!

Storyboard artist: So even though i'm a terrible drawer, i've been picked to do the storyboarding for our film. I thought about different ways in which we could present our storyboard and i've decided that I will draw out an initial storyboard, and if the drawing isn't up to a high standard I may collaborate with another student or friend that I know is good at drawing to draw the shots for us - therefore when we come to film our thriller opening it will be much more organised and we will get it done a lot quicker as we will understand exactly what to do! Another idea I came up with is that we could go to the setting where we plan to film our opening and take pictures for each shot, this will give us a deeper understanding of exactly what our setting is like and any restrictions we may have with the setting. It will also help the lighting and set designer to plan exactly what they need before shooting!

Director: In my role of director I will be telling the actors what to do, where to stand and what to say during each scene. I will have to use the script to enable me to direct each scene and I will need to use the storyboard to help me direct the scenes too. I'm unsure of who is writing the script as that was not one of the roles we assigned, due to this we will probably work as a group to write it! To complete my role well I will need to know the script well and what each person is supposed to be doing in each shot, therefore I will need to listen closely to the rest of the groups ideas throughout the process and filming, also I will need to work with the lighting director and sound director and whoever is filming to direct each scene as we want it to be filmed!

Costume design: I asked to be the costume designer as I think sometimes when I'm analysing a piece of media I don't feel like I fully grasp the use of costume in it. So I think by actually designing the costumes to connote certain things or portray characters in a certain way, I will have a greater understanding of the use of costume in the media! To fulfil my role I think I will make a short character profile for each character, outlining who they are, age, gender, and what their role is in the story, and also how we want the audience to see them. Once i've done this I will come up with ideas for the costume they can wear, then supply the costume!

Make-up: I think doing make-up ties in with my role of costume designer nicely, as once again it will enable me to understand the use of make up in the media. I will need to work with the lighting designer to decide on certain types of make up, and go through the storyboard to see what make up each individual character will need.

I think now I will be able to focus on exactly what I need to do for each of my roles, and work with the rest of the group to get some ideas from them and see what they're doing in their roles that can help me! :D

Byyyyeeee x

Job Roles!

So in class we've had our initial discussions and started storyboarding, but we need to assign roles to certain people. We all agreed that as it is a team project we will help each other out and give tips or ideas in every aspect, but each of the assigned people will have the final say and be in charge of that role.

Storyboard artist: Carla

Camera operator: Everyone will shoot different scenes to gain experience, but Ruby is the leader

Director: Carla

Editor: Ruby, but everyone will help and have a go at editing at some point

Sound design: Ruby

Continuity: Ruby

Actors: We will work as a team to find actors, but Carla will be in charge of informing them about filming days and times etc

Set design: Kath

Props: Kath

Costume design: Carla

Title design: Kath and Ruby

Lighting: Kath

Special effects: None needed!

Make-up: Carla

We feel that the assigned roles have equal responsibilities and amount of work, therefore everyone has the same amount of work!

Now that we've assigned roles, we can each individually begin getting ideas and planning for each job! :D

Our initial story ideas - Picture form!

Hello once again!

These are our initial story ideas for our Thriller opening! I drew a mind-map as we were having our discussion and this is what we came up with.

First idea:

Second idea:

Third idea: ( and our chosen idea!)

Fourth (and last) idea:

So, that's what all four of our ideas looks like on paper! This a picture of what it looked like altogether, just so you know we did them all at the same time :)

In the end and after a lot of discussion, we decided to go with the hostage situation because it's most challenging o the four ideas that we came up with. Also, it fit with most of the questionnaire results, so we decided to go with the hostage situation.

Thank you! :)

hello everyone!

So this is my first post because my laptop doesn't seem to like blogger too much... but now its finally working!

So, for my film analysis, i chose one of my favourite thriller films, Law Abiding Citizen. i analysed the opening 3 minutes or so and saw how it fitted in with the classic thriller codes and conventions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FAyARAVVI&feature=related

^ here's the youtube clip i used :)

the opening titles are displayed in a quite official font, but the letters are cracked and warped, which could hint disruption or damage which could be foreshadowing of the opening sequence. the first scene we see is a scene between the Gerard Butler and Ksenia Hulayev, who play a father and daughter. Both characters seem to be making something, extreme close-ups are used to show what they are doing, and because they are doing similar activities, this could show the closeness between them. In the background there is ambient music coming from a radio. This gives a homely innocent feel to the scene and leaves the viewer relaxed. After the close-up shots, there are then medium shots of the characters, which also shows their surroundings, because of the casual normality of the scene, the knock at the door seems innocent and unsuspicious, shot reverse shot is also used very effectively.

The father then walks up towards the door to open it, the atmosphere is happy, and an over the shoulder shot is used. light is ambient and natural creating a sense of false security for what is about to happen. When the door is opened and the father is smashed in the face with a baseball bat, the family atmosphere then turns very dramatic, the editing is a lot faster and moving constantly, the ambient music has turned to non-diagetic cold sharp noise creating suspense. There is a close-up shot of the intruders tying up the fathers hands, showing power for the intruders and helplessness for the father. An effective jump-cut is used when his wife walks in, and her echoed screams creates a loss of hope for the viewer.

her echoed screams continue and she claws her fingers across the floor to try and escape, also a stereotype of thrillers. There are now many close-up shots on the victims faces, emphasising their pain and desperation. the music also also becomes a higher pitch and faster tempo, to build tension and insecurity. The fade to black transitions used effectively as if they were blacking out. Although this is the same setting and place as when it was peaceful the lighting now seems to be darker than before, creating a change in the mood and emotions of the characters. The shouting of the criminals combined with the sobbing of the victims also helps to create suspense. Focusing is also cleverly used here to reveal something in the background as the music also comes to a halt. As the little girl comes into the scene, there is a low angle shot of the criminal, showing his power and dominance over the little girl. The end of the scene is an extreme close-up shot of the man's face, he is clearly in agony and struggling to stay conscious. The scene ends with high pitch music fading to sirens, and the cut into blackness as the man shuts his eyes, symbolising his unconciousness.

In my opinion for this type of scene to be the opening one of a thriller is very unconventional for a thriller movie; thrillers usually build up tension throughout the film to keep you watching from the edge of your seat, but this film literally catapults you into the action! Also there are many elements of a thriller in this opening scene, it is unusual for it to be so dramatic so fast, but i do think this is a clever and diverse way of performing this. I know the whole point of a thriller is to keep wanting to watch it, and even though this goes at it from a different angle, i certainly want to see the rest of movie, and this is definitely a fantastic example of a thriller. - definitely worth a watch! :)

thankyou for reading! :) :)

Initial brainstorming!

In our group we have begun brainstorming our thriller opening yaaaaay!!

Ruby will upload our fantastic spider diagram of some different ideas we had but we also wanted to write up our ideas in writing! So here are some of our initial ideas for all aspects of our opening!! (Also added some nice pictures to show how happy we were during our discussion)

So to begin with we needed to come up with some different storylines that we could possibly work on, we came up with these 4;

1. A family hostage situation (our research showed people enjoy watchning hostage situations!)

2. A code cracking situation where a man is being made to crack a code before a deadline (our research suggested our target audience think deadlines make the opening more tense)

3. A pyschological theme in a mental asylum (according to our research, pyschological genred thrillers were peoples favourites!)

4. A stalker situation (once again, our research showed people thought stalker situations were good to watch and appropriate in thriller openings)

After discussing which storyline we would all enjoy working on most and which one we had the best ideas for we decided to go with the family hostage situation - we feel that even though pyschological was the favourite sub-genre, we could do more with this storyline and all had some fantastic codes and conventions to add into the filming!
So then we dived deep into this storyline to come up with an in depth (well sort of in depth) storyline that our opening will consist of;

A family are taken hostage apart from the dad, who we see waking up in the morning and searching for his family; when he realises they are missing he becomes frantic and runs around the house looking for them or any clue to where they may be. He comes across a RANSOM NOTE (we're not sure exactly what it will say yet- but it's going to be pretty tense) giving him a clue to the whereabouts his family are, and a DEADLINE saying when he needs to get them- as soon as he reads it a countdown clock will start in the corner. When he finds the note we begin to see short clips of the family in the place they are being held. We then follow the dad as he thinks he knows where the family are being kept - this is when it gets realllyyyy tense! The dad gets out of the car and runs to the door of where he thinks his family are, the clock is around 00:05 now. He opens the door and turns out he's in the wrong setting, he becomes enraged and scared as the clock turns 00:00.

- We think this is a good storyline which we can build suspense and tension throughout, whilst using a huge variety of camera shots and movements, lots of meaningful props and costumes, tense music and a lot of other stereotypical thriller codes and conventions!
This is how happy Ruby was after we came up with our storyline....yaaaay;

So after coming up with the storyline, we wanted to figure out exactly what narrative techniques we could actually use in this opening;

Narrative techniques we could use:

* Plot twists and turns = dad going to wrong setting, audience won't expect that.

* Cross cutting = between hostages and dad in family home

* Narrative retardation = audience will want to know who the antagonist is and why he has kidnapped the family!

* Pursuit = dad trying to get rescue family

* Deadlines = the ransom note, and the countdown clock

Camera techniques we can use:

* high/low angles to show power of certain characters (high angles on family as they have no power)

* POV of antagonist to create tension as we never see his face.

* Over the shoulder of protagonist, therefore the audience will feel like we are in his place and sympathise with him!

* establishing shots on house to show setting clearly

* close ups on family as hostages to show their emotions - audience will sympathise and understand how scared they are, therefore they will want the dad to rescue them

* long and mid shots to show certain scenes or certain actions of characters.

Sound effects and music we can use:

* Gravel path sound, for when dad is running to his car

* Tense music begins as he finds the ransom note

* Loud sounds of struggling when we see hostages, makes it tense!

* Subtle stereotypical 'morning' sounds at beginning - false sense of safety for audience.

* Music which becomes more tense as the opening goes on

Little picture of me and Ruby doing interpretive dance (not in a media lesson obviously, we never mess around in media)

Settings we will need:

* family home and garden

* 2 warehouses, or similar settings where hostages will be

* car for when dad is driving to find family

Lighting we can use:

* Exaggerated shadows in warehouse (connotes mystery and evil)

* Lighting in warehouse will be dark and sinister

* Bright outside, especially at beginning to create a contrast between normality and when dad finds note

* chiaroscuro on hostages

* key lighting on dad

* bright lighting on dad throughout - shows he is protagonist!

Costumes:

* dark for antagonist, prehaps scruffy or leather - connotes evil!

* casual and light colours for dad - shows he is protagonist and audience will immediately know this

* family in scruffy clothes or pyjamas- shows they were taken in a rush and forced to leave!

Props:

* rags to tie up hostages with

* ransom note

* car

* photos of family together

Editing pace:

* slow at the beginning when dad gets up to show he thinks everything is normal

* when he realises family is gone, editing gets faster - builds tension!

* slow long shot as he finds and reads ransom note - shows seriousness of note!

* quick shots of family from then on - audience want to see more shots, builds suspense!

* fast cuts as dad gets in the car and drives to setting

this actually is in media, this is how happy me and Kath are when we do media YAAAAAAY!!!

Hope you enjoyed our initial ideas, we know there aren't looooaads at the moment but when we focus on each individual aspect we will go into thorough detail so we use techniques which will be most effective! The other girls may comment on this post but we wrote it together in class as a group :D

Byeeeeee x