Simeon's Analysis
Inception
The opening to this film features crashing waves which are captured by a tracking shot, followed by a Big Close-up of Dominick Cobb's (the beached man) which shows him wearing old battered clothing with cuts on his face in addition to his messed up hair. The scene cuts between 2 shots, the one where he is beached and tilting his head and the other of children playing on a beach. He looks up and sees the children in the next shot (in his head) which is an example of an eye-line match. This presents the idea that he is having a flash back to these children he recognises, possibly his own, as he is in such a state where the first thing on his mind is to think of how his children are before himself.
After Dominick slumps his head back into the sand, we see a gun prodding into his back. This was taken at a high angle and shows his lack of power in this scene, as we here later in the dialogue that he is delusional. The shot of the gun is cut suddenly to reveal the soldier holding the gun, it is taken at a low angle of the soldier holding the gun providing another eye-line match, which further shows the power he holds over Dominick.
Towards the end of the opening, their is a slow track-in shot of a spinning top, this duelled with the dialogue of the old man gives suspense to the whole mood, the ambient sound rises with the old mans final words. This also raises the question of does Dominick recognise the character who is being spoken of?
some good points here - you refer to editing for instance. What about sound and associated terms? Use Mise en scene terms . L2.
ReplyDeleteYour synopsis
ReplyDeleteI have read your synopsis and have added a few ideas to maybe help you.
I think there is a problem with his mates rooting around his house and then finding the watch to give to him. Not really very realistic if you think about it.
However, the idea of the father being killed and the watch is fine. What you could do in the openning instead is that the boy goes up into the loft perhaps, for something very different. He then starts to find other things - christmas decorarations, and other things you associate with lofts. These could then trigger memories (these can be visual or just sound memories). Sound would be more practical for you. He then eventually comes across something that triggers the memory of the death of his father - that could be his watch, and perhaps an old newspaper with a headline about a death of a man. That could be your disruption and film opening. You can then consider the rest of the film. Just wonder if this gives you an easy location - a loft space (be sure its a safe one), opportunities to experiment with low key lighting in a loft space, flashbacks through sound (bare in mind that if you do visuals you all have to go back in time - v difficult). Then you could have a visual of a man with a watch and perhaps a loud bang of a gun. Talk it through tomorrow.