Memory 2.0

Memory 2.0 is a short film directed by Dugan O'Neal starring Jenna Malone and Wilson Bethel, set in a society where memories can be stored and viewed electronically, externally to the brain. A man sets out to push the limits of these memories and relive time and time again moments with a past lover, no matter how dangerous the consequences. 

The film opens with a scene that is later discovered to be a memory, distinguished through it's natural bright light, frequent use of close-ups and in particular the shallow depth of field. You can identify that something isn't normal through the sometimes abrupt editing, interrupting a movement and cutting into a new frame without continuity editing. 

The second scene is a stark contrast to the first due to the use of artificial light, often in red to signify a more artificial and dangerous world. It is clear through the ambiguous dialogue used that it is a risky world to delve too deep into, which we assume could be for physical or even mental health reasons. The room looks much more artificial due to the clean white surfaces, strip lighting and simple colour palette, which we associate with hospitals or medical facilities, hence why it seems like a dystopian society as technology greatly improved to allow such procedures. However, due its dangers it may not be deemed as ethically moral and therefore could be an underground organisation.

I particularly liked the way the recurring motif of the photo strip has been used to show how important she is to him and to link together the past and present. In these three shots, he looks down to the photo and up to the door in the apartment that she passed with the photo in her hand, and cuts to the memory of her in the past standing at the door. The past and the present are separated by the contrast in lighting and colour despite the same location, but it does not seem out of place or too disjointed due to the photo and that the man looks up to the door where she stands. This edit allows us to see what he is imagining and the memories he is being consumed by. 

The second full memory that is revisited develops the original memory of the opening scene, as well as mixing with other memories when the woman seems distressed. It is cleverly edited with the use of special effects so that in one shot, panning back and forth in the room, we are shown three completely different scenarios in different time periods, shown through her different outfits and her significant mood changes between each scenario. Other special effects are used to layer her movements so it looks like she is drifting across the apartment like a ghostly figure. It helps to show that this relationship was not always as perfect as he wants to remember it to be. 

We are again shown another side of this shady world through the meeting at night when the protagonist turns up unexpectedly at an address seen on a piece of paper in the second memory. The low-key lighting again shows that this memory retrieval is even more dangerous than before. However, by recognising him from the photos, there is a sense that despite this underground organisation and the secrecy behind it, there is still a sense of connection and community between the business man and the client, but we do not know what his motives are: he could be persuading him to unlock the memory only to make him more dependent on the service/drug, or he has really witnessed the benefit of storing and viewing these memories, and the reconnection people can make with their loved ones. 

The cinematography is really beautiful in the above scene due to the lens flares in the shots and the return to the theme of the red lights as seen in the other scenes at the memory retrieval building. The set implies that the man who lives in the house is a young adult and is doing these sorts of procedures to get money to support his family as he lives with his mother. He explains how he has the ability to unlock more memories to him, and injects him with presumably some sort of drug to achieve this. In the final memory he can walk outside of the building into the bright open space and talk to his lover, reflecting the sense of freedom that he feels by unlocking the new memory, and the diegetic sound is muted so we are left in suspense, questioning what she said to him and why it was so important. 

The final scene was particularly beautiful as it used more shots and went into greater detail of what happened in the first scene. There is a clear development between the two scenes even though they are one memory, which reflects how this new drug with the injection has really helped to enhance what he remembers. The small details of the things she touches and the way her hair looks and feels is almost tangible. 

I am really keen to take a lot of inspiration from this film as it has similar themes to what I would like to have in my short film. In particular I want to have many shots in close up on the characters with a shallow depth of field, and to use shots that capture everything about a moment to show the significance of the memory to the character- the feeling of someone's hair, the light in their eyes, what they touch before they leave the room. It was nice to see a film where the man is hung up on the girl in a relationship and the woman is the more mysterious character who has moved on or been separated from him, as it is typically the other way around in a lot of other films. 

I also think that the use of the photo strip is a really good way to link all of the scenes together, so I would like to use a photograph or another similar prop to do this in my own film. I think it's a really touching and personal way to show a physical memory. 

It was a really touching way to show that memory is incredibly important to us, and the lengths that people would go to just to relive another memory once again with their loved ones. 

https://vimeo.com/98225249