Inception

Inception analysis

Sound: There are distinct violin sounds at the beginning of the scene which makes it seem scary and tense since there is a lot of violence going on and Di Caprio is being shot at and chased which obviously makes us fear for him and the orchestral sounds only adds to this fear. There are diegetic sounds of the waves crashing into the rocks and gives us a sense of the unknown which creates a lot of tension and makes us worry for the character that has just washed up on the shore as we do not know exactly who he is and we don't know weather he is in danger or not, but for some reason the diegetic tones make us fear the worst for him.

Mise En Scene: The protagonist wakes up and instantly we know he has been washed up on a beach due to the crashing of the waves, and the sand castles that children could have made. At first we still feel at ease as he his only on a beach, there's nothing un pleasant about that, but then we realise the children were just in his mind which makes us start to question where he actually is or who he really is him self and makes us question weather it real life or not.

Camera: There is a close up, over the shoulder shot of a bald man who is talking to his henchman/ servants, (we don't know exactly who they are) it is clear that he is in charge and is the leader as they went to him with the man who was washed up on the shores belongings and personal possessions. This makes it tense as we still don't know who the characters really are and weather the bald man or the character who was washed up,  we don't know who is good or bad so it creates that suspense and mystery.

Editing: When the character gets washed up on the shore there is an eye line match, we see the man looking up at something and then it cuts to what appears to be children playing with sand castles. Because we are shown them straight away after the man is looking at them, this could imply that the children are maybe his children and that they have a very close relationship. It could also imply that maybe the children are in danger, or even he is in danger because of the quick cut and eye line match. The children's faces are distorted and we are lead to believe that the children were just a figure of his imagination and that there not really there. When the scene cuts to the Chinese inspired room, it shows us the bald man spinning the spinning top and then uses an insert to show us the spinning top up close and makes us focus on it more. This implies that it may be quite important to the plotline and the story.