2. Camera Work
At the beginning of the sequence the first shot we can see is a close up of the
waves crashing. This is used to show that it is clearly dangerous and not safe to
enter the waters. The waves are flowing along with the foam splashing into the air
and the brown rocks and displayed in the background. However even though we
are seeing the sea it doesn’t exactly explain to the audience as to why we are
seeing this and we cant tell who is involved. This is quite a long duration shot to
draw the audience’s attention to what may be happening.
3. Mise en Scene
Then this is followed by a close up of the gun hitting the man’s back. This suddenly
creates intensity because a gun is clearly represented as dangerous and something
bad must have happened. It makes you believe the man has been shot but then as
the gun moves up his jumper it conveys how the man lying down has a gun too.
The following shot is a close up of the gun hitting the characters back. This
suddenly creates intensity because a gun is represented as dangerous and
something bad must have happened in order for the character with the gun to
have approached him in such a manner.
4. Editing
The editing in this opening sequence of ‘Inception’ is used effective build up
tension as we can see from the start of the opening sequence the wakes clashing
together which makes the audience wonder about the purpose of the setting, and
then it cuts to a close of what seems to be the protagonist which is effective as
there is a gun pointed at his back and when his jacket is life up we are able to see
that he has got gun on him the next shot is a low angle shot to show that the
guard is letting the other guard know about the man. We then see a scene where
the character that was on the beach is now sitting in a old traditional Chinese room
with an old man. However the scene then jumps back in time to a long time back
however the viewer is not given any indication of how long, in the same room
however with a different Chinese man, which suggests that time plays a bit part in
the plot of the film.
5. Sound
The sequence begins with the use of ambient sound of the waves crashing against
the rocks. This is used effectively to show that something bad is happening
because the crashes usually represent that the weather is rough and it generally
dangerous. It is a very loud sound which catches the audience attention and makes
them wonder what could be happening at the beach. It is very dark, fast, dramatic
music that goes through you and is used to create more tension. As the shot of the
man appears we can see that the music gets quitter as if the audience is getting
some sort of explanation with what is going on however we just continue to hear
more music
6. Questions
Who is the main protagonist?
Does it go back in time?
Why was he passed out on the beach?
Why did he have a gun?
Why did he end up where he is?
7. What we can learn from the opening
sequence
From the opening sequence we are able to see that what seems to be the
protagonist has been involved in some sort of accident in the sea which lead him
to be passed out in the shore, however he has got a gun which can show that he
may be a dangerous character. We can also see that the film has a massive use of
time play which we can see as the same character is seen in a following jump cut in
the same room however with just a younger Chinese man.
