Opening 5 Minutes To A Film In My Genre...

Inception

After watching the first opening 5 minutes to Inception, I found many different techniques in which the producer included to grab the viewers attention and keep them interested, making them want to find out more about what’s happening.

Inception opens on the beach, with the camera using a close up of the waves smashing against the rock sea edge, showing the audience that the location is somewhere hot, with quite a nice beach. The camera then cuts to the main character laying face down in the water, allowing the audience to think about what’s happened to him to get himself in that situation, this is also shown through the use of diegetic sound of the waves breaking in the sea, as he gets washed up to shore. The camera then cuts to children playing in the beach, to represent it being a safe place, telling the audience that young children are able to build sand castles making it quite confusing for the viewer to understand why the character has been washed up to shore. In the background at this point is soft non-diegetic music, slowly playing to the long duration of cutting to create suspense at the opening point of this film.

The camera then cuts to an AK 47 gun being held up against the mans back as he is laying face down, this then promotes a different mood for the viewer creating suspense about who this character could be, and why would this weapon be carried in an area with young children around. At this point the music has changed and become a lot more subtle in the background as there is a clear mood change for the audience. As the camera cuts to the soldier, revealing whom this character is, the audience now understand how the main character could be in some kind of trouble. A close up of the revealing of the pistol on the main characters back is followed by a call from the soldier, as they think he could be quite dangerous. Whilst this is going on, it gives the audience a lot to think about with what the storyline could include, is the character dead? Will he be arrested? These are the kind of points our opening will have to include to keep the viewer entertained and want to keep watching.

The camera then cuts to an establishing shot of a new setting inside an armory base with the characters being well dressed in what looks like an upper class building, making the viewer know that the man has been taken to a place in which he is going to be questioned. The camera shows the soldier giving the leader evidence of what was found on the washed up body, a gun and a small dart object. Meanwhile two soldiers have dragged the main character into the room with their arms round him as he is about to be questioned, by doing this, the viewer can clearly see the Chinese think he’s up to something and want to find out more! Once seated, there is the exchange of dialogue across the table between the master and the main character, showing the audience who is in power by making the master well dressed and at the opposite end of the table. The camera then cuts to parallel action in another room of the building where a character is trying to propose to be in a sort of plan to help one of the men out, shot reverse shot is used to emphasize the dialogue at this point, and to involve the viewer within the conversation to give them a clear understanding on what’s going on up to this point.

The camera the cuts to a close up of a watch with the time ticking effect placed in as diegetic sound, this is then followed on by an over the shoulder shot of a new character looking out of a window at burning buildings and explosions of the town he is in, making him start to panic. He tries searching the room looking for something, but all he finds are men sitting down on the chair either asleep or unconscious, allowing the viewer to decide on which they think is correct.

The opening of this film plays a lot on the mind of what’s going on as the audience need to think hard all the way throughout by taking in all information which is given to them in the first 5 minutes. This is a psychological thriller as it shows all of the key techniques in the opening to be a part of the genre I want to make ‘Black Out’ fit into along with Ramtin, Sam and George, making Inception an appropriate film to relate to.