Memento



Mr Ellerington showed us the opening to the psychological thriller Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed the worldwide smash hit The Dark Knight. A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife. He then asked us to answer these questions regarding the film to help us with our coursework:


1) What ideas does the "memento" make you think of?


Memento makes me think of specific moments that will always be remembered. As it is used as a title of a film, before viewing it I would just presume that in the context of a film, that there could be key moments in the film that will always be remembered in the audiences mind. When I found out what the film was about I associated the word memonto with his lack of short term memory.

2) What sort of a character is Leonard?

I believe that the audience sympathises with Leonard. He suffers from anterograde amnesia which means he has problems with keeping anything in his short term memory although he is able to remember things from his long term memory. To cope with this condition he is forced to write notes and tattoo these on himself in a bid to remember the important facts. Leonards main purpose in the film is to find the person that murdered his wife and kill them.
It seems that the whole purpose of his existence is to find his wifes killer.

3) What flaws are there in Leonard's character?

He can't put new memories into his mind and therefore he trusts no one. Although this may cause him troubles,he uses clever techniques such as tattoos and notes to help him and suprisingly enough they work!

4) How does the audience feel about Teddy?

Personally, right from the beginning I liked Teddy and I thought he was Leonards friend, however later on we found out that Leonard doesnt trust him and eventually he kills Teddy. The audience feels that Teddycould be a threat to Leonard as we find out he is a possible suspect for the murder of his wife.

5) What narrative enigmas are created in the opening few minutes of the film?What happened to Leonard? Who is Teddy? Why did Leonard kill Teddy? Who is Natalie? Who put the tattoes all over his body? Is Leonard justified in killing Teddy?

6) How is non-digetic music? What sort of mood does it help to create?

The music is eerie, and mysterious. Sets a mood of possible danger to come ahead.

7) How would you describe the opening overall? Does it set up any sense of equilibrium or begin with disruption?

It begins with instantaneous disruption as we see Teddy being shot, and this is quite a sudden piece of action but not unexpected as it is a thriller.

8) Think about the following aspects of mise-en-scene. How does one help us with ideas about either narrative or character?

Our first impressions of Leonard were a bit weird. Everything around him seems unnormal, the "no questions asked" motel, the European car, the tattoos, the notes on the wall.
This all creates a sense of mystery around Leonard for the audience.


I think that the opening of Momento helped our group and made us think of different camera angles and story enigmas that we could add to our filming. I feel that we could try to aim for a similar effect on our audience, to the effect that this film had on me. I will suggest this to my group and hopefully we will try to use the techniques used in this film to create a more interesting opening.

Soundtrack Research- Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence Of The Lambs

When Thomas Harris's novel, The Silence of the Lambs, first came out director Jonathan Demme wasn't interested. "Young female FBI agent hunts down serial killer with help of demented psychiatrist...it wasn't the kind of thing that I find interesting.", he said. But after Demme read the book and met and spoke with screenwriter Ted Tally about the story, he immediately signed on.

Silence of the lambs(1990) is regarded as one of the best psychological thrillers ever made. It won Oscars for best actor, actress and film.

The Opening- We see a character running through a wood on an assault course. The music from the start is an eerie piece of classical music which is immediately unsettling. In fact we are waiting for something to happen. This music makes us predict something in the visuals.

The Interview- Soundtrack plays as she walks towards Hannibal Lecter.It is used to unsettle the audience without going to its full tempo.

The Escape Scene- The scene opened with diagetic classical music playing. This suggests a peaceful scene. Cut joins two different sounds together, classical moves into soundtrack. High tempo soundtrack creates immediate anxiety/tension. Then the soundtrack stops and the classical music comes back.

Bufallo Bill is killed- As Clarice staggers around in the darkness the soundtrack builds again to a Crescendo until she shoots him and then dies down. The audience is familiar with the soundtrack from its use at key moments in the film. Its very loud which can be draining.

My group will be following very similar techniques used in this very effective opening. For example the landscape shots are very effective and personally beautiful to watch. Although I dont think we will be able to create such shots as the neccessary equipment would be required.The character is in an isolated location and appears vulnerable. The music is very distinctive and sombre. we will try to replicate the overall atmosphere given through these shots. From this opening I have learnt that the use of soundtrack can build up tension and create a sense of mystery for the audience. When we want to choose a soundtrack, we can take many pointers from this opening as the soundtrack and good use of camera shots made it very effective and enhanced the sense of tension for the audience. The silence of the lambs is a good example of how effective music is used to heighten tension in Thriller films. I will do more research into soundtrack research and see what type of soundtrack I will consider using on our film. The character of Clarice (the woman running through the forest in the opening) is female, and so is the woman that gets kidnapped in our opening. I think using a female character immediately shouts to the audience, VULNERABILITY!

In most thrillers, there's usually the character of a psycopath man who attacks a vulnerable female. Although we used a stereotypical plot of "group of psycopaths attack young girl"we feel this is very effective in this type of thriller, as the audience are expecting this sort of plot. However, to make it interesting and thrilling for them we have to add unexpected shots to suprise them.

Script part 2

(2sec shot)- Guys in the van, a short shot of there hands about to open the door,audience is given idea that something bad's going to happen.

(1sec shot)- A close up of Shadei's face for just less than a second,more of a flicker of her face rather than an actual 1 second shot. This will help to create a sense of fright as it is going to be such a quick shot.

(1sec shot)- Guys jump out of van, (maybe this could be a tracking shot) grab Shadei and struggle to keep her quite while getting her back into the van as she is fighting them of.

Shadei: "Velaaaam Kon!Naaaa!Velam Konid!Komak!HELP HELP!" (speaks inforeign language, when she shouts "help"- she says it with an iranian accent.)

(while Shadei is shouting, the camera could slowly drift of towards the van driver, and then slowly drift back, but we still hear her voice in the background.)

Van driver: "Shut the fuck up!Shut her up Ted!" (Ted is a temporary name for one of the guys.)

Ted- 'Ted slaps Shadei'

Ted: "Shut the fuck up!"

Shadei is crying as she tries to hit back but Ted grabs her arm and forcefully gets her in the van.


NEXT SCENE-LOCATION:(van)-

Ted's hand is covering shadei's mouth, but we still see her attempting to scream. Guy (2) passes rope to ted. Guy (3) holds Shadei as guy (2) and Ted try to wrap the rope around Shadei's mouth to stop her from screaming.

Ted: "Get me something to cover her fucking face! Now!"

A conversation between van driver and guy (3), saying to move location.I havent decided the exact conversation.Car screeches to new location. Short shots of girl/van driver etc.

(2secs)-A short shot of Ted getting tools ready.

Shadei hits Ted and hurts him. Ted grabs Shadei's face,forcefully squeezing both her cheeks with one hand, really hard and then tries to lick her cheek.
They come to a sudden stop,get out the car.

Pre-Lim Task

For our pre-liminary task, we (Ali, Usman, Shadei and Daniel) made a storyboard about two friends who decide to meet up and play a football game on Daniels playstation. The task was meant to be set in his bedroom,however because we couldnt use his bedroom we located it in a classroom and made it as realistic as possible. Daniel, Usman and Shadei were acting for this pre-liminary task and Ali as directing it. For editing , we went to Enfield CLC to edit our pre-lim task. We had some difficulty as the film didnt seperate into small chunks so we had to do this ourselves, however we overcame this and edited it.

We then decided to work on the opening of our story, and try to write it in further detail, this was initially started of by Daniel, and I finished it but the whole group sat down and changed a few parts of it and we made it a group effort:

PITCH: Vulnerable foreign girl walking home gets abducted by males at night with a van.

TREATMENT: 3 men getting prepared, with balaclavas and masks. A women who is talking on the phone in another language finishes her conversation and begins to walk down the street. A van is lurking around and startsto move sneakily behind the girl and is decidedly sinister. The eerie looking van has darkened windows and as the girl looks behind her, she feels insecure and quickens her pace when suddenly 3 men burst out with masks and all black clothing, grabs her and pushes her into the van. The van begins to shake as the men do something to the women and eventually take her to a park and attack her further. They hurt her really badly and rip her clothes of, they rape her and leave her to die.

THEMES:

• Sexual assualt driven by sexual fantasies,
• Psychological thriller
• and a sad perception of reality.

AUDIENCE: It will be an adult audience starting from 18 years to 35 years.

Script part 1

I have decided to make a basic script but also include the narrative in the script, as there will not be much speech included in our opening, this way the rest of the group will understand what I mean in the script. I will also state how long some of the shots may be, as this is vital to the effect because it will give a clue to the audience as to what is about to happen. I will now write out my script and afterwards will show it to the rest of the group and see if they want to make any changes:

SCRIPT:

(2sec shot)- 3 men getting prepared for something, looking dodgy.Audience is left in uncertainty as to what.

(5sec shot)- Girl walks along a road at night, talking with her mum in a foreign language (subtitles are included in shot). The girls name is Shadei.

shadei: "Salam maman, "(mum speaks)" are residam ghorbunet, nigaran nabash enghadr. Dirooz saate 11 sobh residam Landan, mehdi omad dumbalam foroodgah.

(2sec shot)-men putting on gloves/shirts.

shadei: Na maman nigaran nabash pool daram. Alan dooste Mehdi mano davat karde restaraunt, daram miram sare kare mehdi ke ba ham berim restaraunt.

(2sec shot)- Men putting on balaclavas/masks/aprons.

shadei: man bayad beram maman, mobilam battery nadare, az restaraunt residam khone ba telephone khone behet zang mizanam".

(2sec shot)- one of the men is shown holding a tool (maybe he could tap the tool on his hand or stroke it, creating tension and a sense of fright).

(3sec shot)- Girl still walking down the road, girl looking slightly frightened, and looks behind her to see if anyone is following her.

Our group has decided on a basic idea of what our film opening will be about:

1. Girl walking along a street at night, speaking a foreign language.
2. Men putting on gloves, shot doesnt include there faces, creating uncertainty for the audience.
3. Men take the girl.
4. Girl struggles.
5. We see another shot of men putting a balaclava/mask/something to cover there face.
6. Van screeches of.
7. Mens identity still not identified.
8. Van parks near a park.
9. They drag the girl into the middle of a forest like park.
10. They really hurt her, rip her clothes, rape her...and leave her to die.

Developing knowledge of the Thriller:

• The Thriller works by creating an air of suspense and mystery.
• Music is used to reflect mystery- (non-diegetic music is important e.g, sound effects or soundtracks)
• Narrative Enigmas- Questions in the audiences mind that need to be answered.
• Charcter function- Do we have a clearly identfied hero?, ambigous character- are they good or not?, Is the character flawed?

Narrative structure:

Equilibrium-There is often immediate disruption in Thrillers.

Disruption

Development

Resolution

In order to make an effective thriller opening our group should:

• Build up enigma, making the audience wonder what will happen next and make them uncomfortable because of the uncertainty they are made to feel. Therefore when they find out and get scared/shocked, it causes them to have a thrill.
• Use effective shots to scare the audience. A director could have the perfect story in front of him, but without the correct use of camera shots it could be worthless as the story wouldn’t be portrayed correctly. Examples of shots that I think would work well in our thriller opening would be extreme close ups, helping to build up tension and Claustrophobic close ups creating tension and unease within the audience and helps the build up of something unexpected.
• We can also create tension through the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music. Diegetic sounds are used to emphasize on realism. Diegetic sounds that could be included in our opening could be the sound of the van starting up, sound of the characters communicating, sound of tools etc. Non-diegitic soundtracks can help to build up tension and also create a shield between the audience and the action on screen. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can also be used to create ambiguity.

What makes an effective 'Thriller'?

• Martin Rubin suggests that there is no such thing as a 'Thriller'. The 'Thriller' is in fact a Meta genre that gathers several other genres under its umbrella.


• Thriller components work better with some genres than others. It works well with spy; crime; horror but not well with musicals or war films.

In my opinion an effective thriller film should:

• Only tell the audience as much as the characters know.


• Have music building tension/mystery.


• Should keep the audience in a state of suspense and uncertainty.


• There's always unanswered questions(narrative enigmas).


• Thrillers play with the mind of the audience.
  

As our group have chosen to make an opening for a Psychological thriller, I will do some research to see what things I can learn about psychological thrillers. One film I would like to look at is Psycho (1960) which is a masterwork of suspense and horror. The acting, cinematography, editing and music in this low-budget film helps create the huge effect it makes on the audience.It shows two murders and paints a paints a disturbing portrait of a psychopathic killer.
Anthony Perkins gives a brilliant performance as Psycho's main character, Norman Bates. At first Norman seems to be an attractive, vulnerable and likable man living with his mother. But as Norman says, "We all go a little mad sometimes."
I am not sure wether Alfred Hitchcock's powerful, complex psychological thriller, Psycho is in fact a thriller or whether it is a horror. Although in essence it is still a psychological thriller, when I saw the "shower scene" I think I could seriously argue whether I would still classify it as a thriller. I think that Mrs. Bates is the antagonist of the film, given the films twisted ending, and Norman is the protagonist, but that Mrs. Bates is a true horror symbol as a knife-wielding killer.
I dont understand how they cannot classify Psycho under the Horror genre with scenes like the part when Mrs. Bates kills the investigator at the top of the stairs. I think this film definitely makes an effective thriller.

Shane Meadows- British Social Reality Dramas

Shane Meadows grew up in Uttoxeter but moved to Nottingham when he was in his 20's. Nearly all of his films are set in Nottingham. His films recall the kitchen sink realism of filmmakers such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, with a post-modern twist. Shane Meadow's films have won a few awards such as the Douglas Hichkox award at the British Independent film Awards. A room for Romeo Brass and Twenty Four Seven were inspired by Shane Meadows youth. Shane Meadows has a relaxed directing style, encouraging the actors to ad lib in order to create a better sense of reality. He is known as one of the rising stars of British Cinema. Shane Meadows constantly delves into his background to make boisterous, jovial, sometimes poignant films that only tenuously resemble anything else in the cinema of British working-class realism.

Shane Meadows uses different techniques to depict a sense of realism to communicate to his audience. The idea of local settings and use of unknown actors obliges the audience to pay attention to the storyline whereas in modern films, were big stars are used, the majority of the audience watching it are there to watch the star on screen rather than pay attention to the movie itself. This is also a technique that our group is focusing on, as we want the audience to pay attention to our story. However, our category of audience may be different to that of Shane Meadows as our story is concerning a young woman that gets taken by a group of men and is abused. The focal point of our story (like many of Shane Meadows plots) was to show a social reality, a build up to scenes of obscene abuse. This depiction of reality is used to mount up the Thrill. With a combination of narrative and camerawork, our group can create a similar realism to Shane Meadows films. Shane Meadows illustrates that major effects and huge budgets are not needed to have a huge effect on your audience.

The bourne identity was directed by Dough Liman, and was released on 6 September 2002. This movie is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum in the early 1980's at the height of the Cold War. The book has also spawned a television series and several more books. The opening of the film contains fast-paced and exciting action sequences.

Genres that are at work in this thriller are:

1) Action- Adventure:

• Stunts
• Car chase
• Violence

2) Romance:

• Love story
• Increasing danger

3) Crime:

• Identity crime
• CIA- Central Intelligence agency
• Global Crime

The opening that my group are producing uses genres that are at work in this movie. Through watching the opening of the Bourne Identity I think that it is very successful in creating tension and leaving the audience in suspense as to what is about to happen. Its use of unexpected storyline adds to the sense of tension and leaves the audience wanting more. This portrays the success of the film as it has entwined special effects with great camerawork to ensure a sense of realism and belief for the audience. Our group is aiming for our opening to have this effect on our audience, as this portrays that it would have been successful.
I noticed that the opening of the film had a constant use of darkness. I witnessed as a viewer how effective this was to watch and the group agreed about using this in our opening as it would work well with our story. Also the use of music was amazing, it fit so well with what was going on in the background and accumulated the thrill for the audience. For the audience the non-diegetic music acts as a way of distancing themselves from the events that are happening on screen. Another factor that we will consider using (that is also used in The Bourne Identity) in our opening will be the use of foreign language. We as a group believe that it makes the audience wonder in suspense. In our opening, the character of the girl that gets taken is from Iran and has come to visit someone in England, so therefore is not fluent in English. She makes a phone call to her mum back in Iran, which we were going to use subtitles for to let the audience understand what she is saying. However, we have decided to do a version with subtitles and see how well it works. If it doesn’t work we will not be using the subtitles.
It was interesting to observe how they used the car scenes and which camera shots were used. This gave our group ideas on camera angles that we could possibly use for the car scenes to create the effect that we wanted.