Analysis of Memento 1

From the opening of Memento we see that it is a thriller by the mood set and also by the establishing medium close up shot of the scene.
We see a hand held picture of a crime scene which has what presumably blood scattered over the wall. This camera shot makes the audience straight away ask questions which a thriller intends to do


However, we see the criminals face which creates more questions for the audeince to ask due to the fact that thrillers do not normally reveal who the killer is untill the end of the movie. This is what makes Memento such a good thriller due to the amount of questions and dis comfort it causes the veiwers.

From the opening sequence of Memento I can tell that it is a thriller by:

1.Cinematography- It has a Close up of a crime scene picture fading away. Close Ups are used in thrillers so that they do not reveal much evidence to the audience and it keeps them guessing and wondering.

There are also Close up shots of :

The man's face with blood.

The Mans Glasses

Blood Drooling on the Floor

Mans Body

Bullet - This is a imoortant close up as it reveals the weapon which was used

Gun Firing

These Close Up make Memento come across as a thriller straight from the start due to the crime scene which is a big convention in the Thriller Genre.

Mise - en -scene -The Scenes are very dull and dark which is very unrevealing and causes a sense of fear. When We see him in his bedroom it is almost black and white.

EDITING- The opening is played in reverse order ( Rewinding) makes uswonder why it did not just start off with it. Also, we see a master shot of the criminal engaging in a shooting of supposingly the victim which also makes the audience wonder why he is commiting the crime , what has the victim done to deserve this. -

Flashbacks Keeps going back to the black and white scenes that are in chronological order

SOUND- Eerie , Creepy Music Straight from the start , Loud Gun Shot Noise , Man Shouting Out - Dialogue.

Brief

As a particpant in AS media students we have been set a task to create the title and opening of a new fiction film to last a maxium of 2 minutes we have been split into groups of three my group is me, Emma Martin and Paige arnold. Even through the project we will be working together as a group , the final cut of the editing of the film will be done individauly so we can express our idea's and add what we feel goes best without feeling held back and give our self the chance to get the best grade possible.

What i Learnt Last Lesson

In my last lesson of media studies with Ms.Cunliffe , I learnt quite a few things that benifited me and which also set my mind upon what i need to do within the space of now and june ( when our exams will be sat). I firt took intrest in our practical assignment brief of in media which is worth half/ 50% of our overall grade. The brief stated for us to get into groups to make the opening of fiction film of our own which should last a maxium of 2 minutes. Alongside the brief, we was given a mark scheme which had the diffrent criterias I need to meet in order to get the grades i myself will like to get. As i always stride and aim to get the best which i can get, i aim aiming to get the level 4 target which is the highest i could get. Where it says level 4 on the criteria it tells me what i need to do in order to get this particular grade. To do this i need to make sure the quality of my work it to an 'Excellent' standard. Hopefully i will succeed and get this grade i am stiving for.

Also During my media lesson , we was on the topic of Thriller movies. Many individuals such as myself got the conventions of Thriller movies and Horror movies mixed up.
From my point of view, i will say that thrillers are more movie based on suspense, showing especially the victim's point of of view. To me, horror is more about showing "horrid" things on screen such as murders or torture. The suspense in a thriller does not necessarily result in gruesome acts.
Thrillers are quite sophisticated which means that they are aimed at more of a sophisticated audience

Reflection on Planning

As we got put into groups of 3, each individual had their storyboard which we put our ideas on. As a group , we had to put and merge our ideas into one big main storyboard which will will film. At 1st it started of slow due to the fact that we never really spoke to our group memebers at all. But after a few minutes we graduallly got speaking and got along with each other quite well.

Preliminary Task

The theme of our preliminary task was to . . .
* Enter a Room. We could of run , walked , limped , crawled etc
* Sit down opposite to some one in a chair
* Engage conversation between each other.