Memento

The part i am analysing of Memento is the violent flashback that Leonard has when his wife gets brutally attacked by a masked man in the bathroom. I am also going to explain how we are going to incorporate some of these techniques into our own thriller opening.


During this series of 11 shots there are loud pitch, dischordant sounds which sound like screams which have been played in reverse. What this does is make the audience feel on the edge and confused about what is happening which screams. The 11 shots are played over 8 seconds therefore you can see that they are each less than a second long and also they speed up at the end which makes the audience feel unrelaxed as if it is building to something they don't want to see. Also what happens is that fast moving, dynamic shots go into move slower moving, still shots for example the one when Leonards wife is breathing in the shower curtain. What this does is cause confusion and uneasement in the audience minds by changing the pace. Furthermore they're also lots of extreme close-ups on objects such as tiles and mouths. The effect this has is not to reveal to the audience what is happening and to put them on edge. The lighting in the shots go from dark to light across the sequence and has the classic convention of thrillers of under the door lighting.



We are going to use these techniques in our thriller by having a series of flashbacks to the main character getting beaten up. We are going to use the same techinques for the lighting under the door and fast paced action and extreme close-ups. Also this being the opening to the start of the thriller it will automatically put the audience on edge from the very start.