frame-by-frame

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z87iY8rPJF8

I have chosen to do my frame-by-frame analysis on the opening sequence of Memento as I find it very interesting because of the way it is structured. I have also chose to analsis this film as it contains some very obvious thriller film teqniques.  

The first frame to Memento involves somebody looking at a photograph waiting for it to develop. You can make out the photograph has been taken of a body surrounded by blood, this instantly sets the tone to the film, showing the audience that it is going to include the genre, murder. It makes you question what has happened, how and why. After a while the photograph turns white which suggests the next frames are going to be reversed backwards in time. Gloomy music is being played with the sound of violins which sets a dark tone to the frame. The colours are depressing which also adds to the dark tone, such as the dark green in the background and the cold blue font of the opening title. The use of colours makes the blood stand out from the rest of the frame, giving the audience an idea of the main focus to the opening sequence. The lenght of the frame is 1m14s which build suspense as the audience are waiting for something to happen.

The second frame is still in reversed order, so the camera takes back the photograph and then a man takes the photo. You still havn't seen the mans face which creates mystery to the audience and holds a secret for a while. It then shows the mans face, he looks slightly scared but comes across as quite calm and not really bothered by what he is looking at which raises questions. There are scratches on his cheek which forces the audience to think about whether he was involved with the persons death in the photograph from the first frame or if he is simply a crime scene photographer doing his job and prehaps the scrathes are just coincidental. The flash of the camera is the first sound, apart from the music, that we hear which creates some power and grabs the audience attention. The white light coming from the flash is the first bright colour we see which is also eye-catching. Once the flash is shown, the music changes to a more a daunting sound with deeper dynamics which is effective as you know some sort of action is about to appear.

In the third frame he puts the camera away under his jacket. The next frame shows the mans face for the second time and the fifth frame is blood going up a wall which reminds the audience that the sequence is still going backwards in time. These three frames are shown quickly which contrasts with the two frames which started the sequence, building up tension.

The sixth frame is a bullet which has very low lightening to it, implying that it's a threatening, life-taking object. The bullet shows mise en scene and quite ovbious to have in a thriller based film. The frame after this shows some upside down glasses on the floor next to a wall splattered with blood. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable as you can guess they're related to the dead body.

A mans head, face down to the floor is then shown in the next frame which is quite a shock to the audience as it's the first live footage of the dead body. It is shown no differently to the frames before, and keeps the same music making it appear unexpectedly. We have only seen the back of his head so far which keeps the audience waiting.

The ninth frame is the gun, which the man threw on the floor, coming back up through the air into the mans hand and then he bends down to the floor, still containing no emotional expressions on his face. This starts to create more and more suspense as you know what is expected to happen next. The next four frames show the bullet going back into the gun and the mans glasses going back onto his face. The music has now changed and has a new low toned sweeping sound to it, adding to the intense feeling of knowing what's coming up.

The last two frames invlove the gun shooting the bullet at the man, and the mans face turning round, finally showing the audience what he looks like enabling them to identify him. These two frames have only 1s to them which goes past very quickly. The lighting is gloomy which adds to the thriller theme and sets the tone.