The title of the film when and how does it appear on the screen?
The title of Memento appears after a couple of seconds, it immediately fascinates out attention by the shifting colour transition from royal blue towards a pale blue colour. The background of the title is firstly black; however the title softy overlaps a moving image of a male’s hand holding a picture. The way the title, Memento blends in with the image in the background gives us, as an audience a feel of stiffness as the colours clash. This creates high standards for the film as the director has played a lot of attention towards the detail of the title.
When and how is the setting / location revealed to the viewer?
Following on, the setting of the film Memento is not discovered in the first part of the title sequence as it is not reveled heavily of the location or where the film is set. The dark, but bloody colour scheme may be the cause of a viewer being led to confusion. On a basic note, the use of the close up shots makes it harder for us to piece together the setting as it gives us a smaller frame of what is happening in the film. As an audience we feel annoyed at the directors decision on the constant close up shots, however this leaves us in integrity of why it has been constructed in this way and what is going to unfold in the story.
Key props – what shot types are used to reveal these to the viewer?
In more depth, the use of the close up shots of various props such as images, a camera, and glasses add a certain gloom towards the audience, we begin to believe there is a murder investigation due to the stereotypical crime scene props. However the prime give away towards the suggestion of a murder investigation is for the reason that we see a large amount of blood dripping down a wall. This may make an audience feel at ease as this is not an everyday setting which is portrayed in films.
How do the actors’ names appear on the screen?
The title font is not so clear though it looks similar to Times New Roman font. The style of the title font could connote that the film Memento may be of an old fashioned style as that font style is less commonalty used. The actor’s names appear in the same way of the title Memento though the actor’s names do not start off as being royal blue; they are pale blue and fade in to one another. As a viewer we get the impression that there could be a series of stages to conclude the climax of the film. Not only do we gain the sense of an old fashioned style film, we also may believe that there are flash backs within the storyline as the text flash out at us before fading into another actors name.
Describe the overall camerawork and editing in the opening sequence of ‘Memento’
Camerawork and editing in the opening sequence plays a significant part in setting the atmosphere of the film. The fast motion of the rewinding scene of the male being shot is a good example of they way editing sets a gory atmosphere. As a view we believe that the murder doesn’t really add up correctly as it rewinds, this gives an audience a sense of a murder being recounted. The close up shots of vital props, for instance glasses and the clothing which the characters are wearing, correspond as evidence as what a viewer may conclude the ending of the film. As opening sequences usually have a soundtrack to set the tone, Memento follows this editing rule of adding a soundtrack. The soundtrack gives us a thrill as it seems very daring and makes us feel uncomfortable as an audience. Similar to the soundtrack, the slow paced clips hooks us in to establish the ominous mood.
How does the opening sequence relate to the rest of the film?
The opening sequence fairly relates to the rest of the film due to the key props, these props give us clues to how the several characters are portrayed in the film. As a viewer may perceive there is a murder investigation for the reason that there are gory shots and tools which a crime scene investigator would use. They stereotypical long coat used by the blonde male also plays on a viewers mind that maybe that could be related to the crime scene.
