Textual analysis of the opening 2 munutes minutes of "Memento"

"Memento" is directed by Christopher Nolan in 2000 and is a mystery Thriller based around the Psychology of memory loss.
In terms of Mise-en-scene we come across a Polaroid picture of a dead body which slowly reserve develops back to white which suggests that the audience is being shown ending at the beginning of the film. We can also link this to our thriller due to the use of technologies such as the Polaroid camera used as the main prop, although we used a more modern form of camera which is the web cam as the main prop.

In terms of camera work there is an extreme close up on a hand and a Polaroid picture of a dead body. This makes the audience ask questions such as "Who is holding the picture?" and "Why are they holding that picture" to create a sense of mystery and draw in the audience. We are also seen a slow tilt upwards when the character "Lennard" is finally revealed and introduced to the audience as a main character by being the first person shown. We use aspects of this in our thriller as our main character has his hand over the web cam and is slowly revealed after he takes it away and makes the audience ask questions such as "Who is he?" and "why is he on web cam?".

In terms of sound right from the beginning we can hear orchestral music which is calming yet sad music using instruments such as violins which sets the theme for the disturbing image of the dead body which we are shown which lets the audience know that something bad has happened for example a tragic murder. We have been considering using some mood setting music for our thriller opening as an improvement and may take on a more modernised piece of music as our technologies are more modern then that of memento.

In terms of Lighting and editing we are shown natural lighting all through the first two minutes of the film which suggests that it is trying to be realistic to the real world so that the audience can relate more to the thriller. In editing when we are shown the hand shaking the picture, which is set outside it then cuts from point of view and graphic matches to Lennard inside shaking the picture in the same way which makes the audience ask questions and suggests that there is confusion over what tense the film is in (past, present or future or maybe a mixture). In our Thriller we decided to use naturalistic lighting to create realism so the audience can connect more to our thriller.

Please note that we only used up to 1 minute 20 of this youtube video