Critical Studies - Editing - Memento

Blog Number Three.

Editing.

Memento/2000/Christopher Nolan/America.

Editor – Doty Dorn.

Memento is an incredible film in my eyes. It has everything I want from a film, it’s confusing, it’s thrilling, there’s drama, suspense… it’s shot completely in the wrong order… what’s not to love?

This film made a huge impact on audiences when first shown in 2000. Adapted from his brother’s short story Memento Mory, Christopher Nolan did an incredible job (and cast one of my favourite actors).

Now, in terms of editing it is a little confusing to write about but I am going to give it my best shot.

Firstly, this film immediately confuses the viewers by not only opening the film in reverse, but also continuing to do so throughout the rest of the film. This throws the whole structure of the montage technique right out of the window.

We are shown the black and white scenes in chronological order, and the colour scenes in reverse chronological order. This is quite a clever way to let us have some stability within the film and to feel like we know what is going on. But ultimately it’s the information we are given at the beginning and end of each scene that puts us in a comfort zone of knowledge.

Because of the way the film is edited we are put into the feet of Leonard (Guy Pearce) more than we think we are. The edits make us focus on the little things, noticing how characters are, whether or not our protagonist knows them, where he will know as much about them as we do about them. The only clues we have are the Polaroid’s and the tattoos on Leonards body, which we view when relevant to a discovery in the plot.

The edits make the viewers feel like they have short-term memory loss. Because we have glimpses of the present whilst remaining going backwards, only really knowing the future rather than the past we end up completely immersed in a whirlwind of memories slowly being pieced together one confusing edit after another.

In the sense of temporal continuity towards the beginning of the film the scenes are slower with fewer edits, this appears to be used in a way that helps us build on the character we have been introduced too, to get to grips with his intensity and his ‘condition’. As it gets closer towards the end of the film the pace quickens, we have a chase scene with a drug dealer and a violent confrontation towards the end. So again the director and editor have played with the fact its in reverse but have also kept a certain structure whereas we still have that climax of realisation towards the end, used in shorter edits.

“I always thought the pleasure of reading a book was the wanting to know what happens next” Leonard Shelby/Memento/Christopher Nolan/2000.

Critical Studies - Cinematography - OLDBOY

Blog Number Two.

Cinematography.

OLDBOY/2003/Chan-wook Park/South Korea

Cinematographer – Jung Jung-Hoon.

Firstly I will start with a little bit about cinematography. Cinematography (which means literally, writing in movement) is the filmmaker controlling the cinematic qualities of the shot. So its not just looking at what is filmed but how it is filmed. So when watching a film you are looking at the photographic aspects of the shot, the framing of the shot, and the duration of the shot.

SO, after learning a bit more about cinematography from the book Film Art: An Introduction by David Bordwell and Kristin Thomson I felt confident with picking a scene from the Film OLDBOY (2003, Chan-wook Park).

The scene I will talk about is quite a famous scene within this film. It’s about 40 minutes into the film and it’s his first real act of revenge within the film. The main character (whether or not you can call him a protagonist is debatable) has discovered the location of one man who kept him captive for 15 years.

As the elevator doors open immediately the colour changes, you have the bleached out fake lights of the elevator drifting into the dark, grey, moss green hallway from where the rest of the action will take place. The next main shot is of a still frame, where it slowly pans out to reveal what is happening. The cinematographer has taken away a wall in which we are aloud to see through, so we almost have this wide angle shot to contain a tense moment within the film.

Special effects are then used to signify a dotted line from the hammer to the guard’s head, the dotted line signifying the thoughts and mapping out clear in the main characters head.

After a short torture scene we are introduced back into the hallway. This time showing the real density of it by filling it with other guards and henchmen. This is framed in such a way for you to see the length and the width of it before the next scene.

When the fighting begins, the music heightens (although that’s for another blog) and we are then entering a single wide-screen shot with lengthy duration (from the side again). The reason I feel the cinematographer has done this is to show the realism of what you are seeing. You are seeing a constant shot of fighting; there are no edits to speed up the shot or to change any mistakes. This is one man, whose odds are clearly against him.  The colour scheme remains the same, the saturation low, the contrast high. But we have the shadows from underneath the floor and above the ceiling to frame the shot into a cinematic moment.

So when your dry eyes are finally treated to a well deserved wet edit, you feel exhausted, like you were panning through that corridor too, getting punches thrown at you and knives plunged into your back. I find that the duration of the framing to be extremely effective in many situations.

“In any image, the frame is not simply a neutral border; it imposes a certain vantage point onto the material within the image. In cinema, the frame is important because it actively defines the image for us.”

“Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.” - Dae-su Oh – OLDBOY – Chan-wook Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufss5ot_vGE

Critical Studies - Mise en Scene - Seven Psychopaths

Right, Mise en Scene.

Mise en Scene refers to everything you see from the camera in a film. It will be the props you see, the actors, the lighting, the costumes, right down to the positioning of the actors, which is called ‘blocking’.
So with this brief explanation in mind I can move onto incorporating it into a scene from a film of my choice.

Seven Psychopaths (2012) Martin McDonagh. 

Opening Scene.

Right from the start of the film it is made aware of exactly where the film is shot and set, Hollywood. The camera moves away from the huge Hollywood sign set up in the hills and pans over some beautiful scenery to the sound of two people talking about someone getting shot through the eye. There is a low light on the scenery that makes it apparent that it is early morning or late afternoon, sunrise or sunset. This is made more aware from when we are introduced to two characters standing on a wide dam where people are jogging. This proposes an assumption that the characters are there on shady business based on the ‘out of office’ hours they are waiting around at.
The characters are positioned facing the camera with mainly their torsos and heads in the shot, leaving enough room for the viewers to see past them at the peaceful surroundings. There is an assumption on the characters motivation just from looking at their clothing. They are dressed quite smart yet are acting a little shifty. The dialogue suggests that they are violent and concluding this theory they almost draw their weapons on a passing jogger. 
A third character is then introduced in a slow and subtle way through the clever choice of the camera angle. From behind the two front characters a third character is approaching in a fast walk. There is no one else around at this point so the focus is positioned on him. The clothes are basic and they are wearing a mask so immediately the director has drawn you in to a tense build up of predictability, not once does the camera move from its position. The third character shoots them both in the backs of their heads, which is very graphic as the camera is still facing the two characters, creating this feeling that the shots have been fired towards you. 

It ends the scene with the masked character throwing Joker cards from a card deck on to the bodies of the men and a still shot is performed on the masked character along with the words ‘psychopath number 1’.
If you take away the dialogue this last scene confirms that this is a comedy, the director has made you aware of the violence this film will entail and the dark humour that will follow it.
By the end of this scene it is certain that it is the morning with how quiet the surrounding area is, especially for somewhere in Hollywood. It is a peaceful time of the day, which only makes the scene more focussed on the dialogue and the appearing third character.
This opening scene is a great introduction to show off and set you up for equally shocking and hilarious scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95pXhLJFLhI