LH: Technical Analysis - Inception

For my Technical Deconstruction I chose to look at Inception. This highly popular thriller leaves the audience guessing during its opening scene. The film starts off with an establishing shot of the sea, showing its rough waves. The only sound used is the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. After a couple of close-ups of waves, we are introduced to our first character. We are shown a close-up on a low angle of man lying face down in the sand. At this point the sound changes and we can now hear children's laughter. The camera then cuts between the children and the man for eight shots.

It then cuts to a high angled medium shot showing a large gun pressed to the man's back. A low angle is then used to show us the armed man's face. For five shots the cuts are motivated by this man. He begins to shout in a foreign language across the beach to another man standing next to a large building. The audience now have a better understanding of where these characters are.

The camera then cuts to show an inside of the building. The sound of waves stops abruptly and we are introduced to their first use of non-diegetic sound. A low subtle tone begins to play over the film. A frame in the shot is created my a doorway and we can see partially inside a room. The dark indoors is a strong contrast to the bright and natural exterior. The camera begins to zoom into the room slowly as two guards drag another (very wet) man inside. As the men speak, subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen for the audience, which did not happen before. Two powerful contrasting images are shown in a close-up of the table; a spinning top and a gun. As one man is shown eating, the language changes to English and the subtitles are lost.

By doing this exercise I have become to appreciate how much filming and editing goes into making the first couple of minutes of a film. The cutting rate of the piece was quite slow which made me think that when I do my own piece, that a fast paced cut would be more appropriate and would make the tension build higher. In total there were twenty-seven different shots in this piece. I particularly like the use of the children's laughter whilst they were out of the shot; I thought that this was particularly haunting.