Memento

[Kim]

I was watching Deep Cover, directed by Tom Kingsley, was written by Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, Ben Ashenden, and Alexander Owen. I started thinking about how scenes are layered and then I thought of the Movie Memento, both written and directed by Christopher Nolan. So, I stopped watching Deep Cover and started watching Memento. It’s written and shot in such a way that you are watching it back wards in a since a little like the movie Irreversible.

Narrative Structure of Memento:

Memento uses a dual narrative structure, alternating between:

1. Color scenes in reverse chronological order – These segments move backwards in time, starting near the end of the story and stepping further into the past with each new scene. This mimics the protagonist’s short-term memory loss: the audience, like Leonard, doesn’t know what came before.

2. Black-and-white scenes in chronological order – These segments move forward in time, showing Leonard’s investigation from an earlier point, progressing toward the point where the color timeline begins.

These two timelines eventually converge at the climax of the film, creating a complete picture of the narrative from both directions.

I think I am more interested in layering but it’s interesting how the story unfolds in Memento and Irreversible but I don’t think it’s as satisfying for me as the kind of climax, and conclusions of a more linear tradition.

[Jeff]

In my advanced screenwriting training program, we construct a plot by working backward from its ending, chaining back from each effect to its cause. The story has been roughed out, so we have its basic building blocks. We stitch all that together by creating a reverse chain of cause and effect. Not only does this give the plot good forward momentum, but by focusing explicitly on what causes each effect, we strip out any material that doesn’t drive the story forward. This separates the Necessary from the Unnecessary, a critical skill for a dramatist. Amateurs overwrite everything, clogging up the story with excess dialogue, descriptions, characters, scenes, and sequences. The ability to get right down to the absolute core of a plot is critical.

We build backwards through the overall story, sketching out its general outline in broad strokes. Then we take each act and go backward through it again, layering in just a bit more detail, but not too much. This fleshes out the story a little more, but still rigorously excludes that which is unnecessary to the story’s forward progression. Then we do the same with each sequence, working backward again and layering in just a bit more detail as it becomes necessary. We gradually and systematically layer in detail, building out the story in such a way that the Unnecessary is rigorously excluded in the same way that a clean room in a computer chip factory keeps all dust out.

Then we work backward through each scene, starting at its ending and creating the cause of each effect. We are now layering in final detail, and everything in the scene is not only necessary but drives the action forward. Then we write that scene. We build the next scene backward and then write it. Each scene serves the sequence that it’s part of, which serves the act that it’s part of, which serves the whole story. This process makes for a remarkably tight working draft that is not bogged down with unnecessary material, since every aspect of the story was properly engineered before it was written.

[Kim]

Interesting!

[Author]

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