Nicole's Second Essay

Editing and Mise en scene in thriller opening ‘Memento’

To continue to develop a wider understanding of the ways in which thriller openings establish the situation and characters, I am now going to analysis two different elements which are involved in the thriller genre, these being editing and mise en scene. I shall also investigate into these elements through a different film, very contrasting to ‘What lies beneath’, so I have a range of ideas and storylines to learn and progress from. The mise en scene used in any film is the main key to distinguishing the genre, mood and storyline of the production. Editing is a significant emphasise to this, as the cuts used and the technique/pace of these can change and have a big affect on the atmosphere created throughout the whole production. Memento is a very unique thriller opening with a unusual opening style, so this shall hopefully widen my ideas for our main production and allow my group to think of wider and wilder ideas.
The first shot is a clear shot of a hand holding a Polaroid. The whole shot doesn’t reveal a lot, as it just focus’s on the Polaroid until about 1:11 minutes into the film. But this makes it clear that the Polaroid is a important element in the opening, as the amount of focus drawn to it is vast. The picture isn’t clear at all, but it is clearly something dark and dramatic due to the shadowed figure on the ground with what looks like blood surrounding him. This brings up questions already and intrigues the audience to grasp a better understanding of the events at hand. It is clearly a man’s hand due to the masculine features, and this together with the dark surroundings already suggests a hypothesis arising - has a murder taken place? Every so often within this 1:11 of the opening, the hand shakes the Polaroid, but this through the sound and movement of his hand is done in a strange manner, suggesting something isn’t quite right. By strange manner, I mean it seems the shaking is too abrupt and the movement appears unusual. Another reason to emphasise this is the fact the picture appears to be fading gradually rather than progressively becoming apparent. The length of the cut is used to keep the audiences attention on the Polaroid’s content and probably focus on the opening credits. I would think this due to the boldness of the titles and how they are centred in the frame.
The first cut made into the second shot is a match on action shot of the man who was holding the photo to him drawing up the photo and into the camera. You can now definitely establish it is a man. The first thoughts I had on establishing the character and his involvement in the film is through his clothing. His long brown jacket to me suggests the thoughts of a detective? As this is the type of clothing stereotypically associated with detectives/investigators. Furthermore, the type of camera used suggests a investigatory atmosphere, maybe even set in a earlier period of time.
The end of this shot pans up to the mans face as he takes the photo. The lighting is still dark, which cleverly shadows his face, causing questionable suggestions. The close up of the mans head is helpful in discovering the events occurring. The man is quite young, with a slight confused and taken aback expression. You cannot establish why this is or his involvement in what’s taking place yet but from the scratches, blood and sweat from him it suggests many possibilities. His eyes are clearly looking down towards what he was taking a picture of, but it is still unclear as to what this is. But this consequently stresses the significance of the content of the Polaroid. His body language from his expression and movement suggests tension within him and highlights the fact he is not at ease. It is made clear at this stage of the opening, that the sequence of events is being done backwards, which is a very clever way to edit the piece. The shots lengths shorten and quicken the pace gradually, with no establishing or wide angle shots, so the surrounding and location of the action is not known to the audience. This emphasises the tense feeling and emotion of confusion to the viewers. The cuts for the next few shots are of little subjects which build up to the knowing of what is occurring, but in-between these it goes back to his reaction and expression.
The shots contents are very important, like the trickling of blood and the bullet. The whole piece has now been established as a murder. The focus on the bullet emphasises this. The most important shot of a object is the broken glasses surrounded by blood. The birds eye view shot of the dead man is also significant. All the lighting and set ups of the shots have been dark and shadowed, which fits in nicely to the murky impression trying to be created.
The backwards theme of the opening is a very clever editing technique and is used throughout the film, so it already creates the atmosphere for the audience at the beginning, creating a confused basis for the film.
After the man is backwardly shot and killed, the scream fades and is drawn into a cut of pure darkness, even though just for a few seconds, this brings a good climax to the pace and style of the first lot of action which occurred. Everything changes rapidly in technique and movement, as the next shot is a close up tilt up of the mans face. It is done in black and white with a voice over of the man. The next few shots drawn out length allows the built up tension from the first lot of action to be relieved and calmed down. The voice of the man fits in to his actions, suggesting it is his thoughts occurring at that précised time. There are many pans and tilts establishing the surroundings and setting.
From the first two minutes of this thriller ‘Memento’ I have discovered a variety of clever techniques and tactics through editing and mise en scene which emphasises the thriller genre, creates the atmosphere and sets up the storyline. The way in which this film carries out its opening creates a lot of unanswered questions and confusing queries, which intrigues the audience and consequently wants us to watch further.

I used this youtube clip to analysis the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kN_fCm4I6Q