Sunday, 13 November 2011

Film openings: CEMS analysis: Inception and vantage point


Inception


Camera
The Wide angle of the Japanese castle helps to establish where the next scene is set. There was a close up of the gun and spinning top- with the close up including the spinner and the gun we get an interesting contrast between violence and a child like innocence, this contrasts helps to set the tone of the following scene; whilst the men are calm and playing innocent we get the feeling that there is a strong threat and sense of tension in the room. Reaction shot with low angle shot to include shaking chandelier behind him. During the shaking of the chandeliers the guy asks "whats going on up there?" this creates tension by getting one of the characters to reiterate the audiences immediate thought. By having the shaking going on behind the man we get a feel for some sort of pending doom that is creeping up behind them with out them knowing what it is.

Editing
While Di Caprio and his buddy are chatting the camera quickly cuts between the two guys creating a feeling of pace and causing dramatic effect. The use of close cut editing is advantageous as it sets the pace of the whole film; the audience know it will be an exhilarating thrill ride rather than an informative documentary. In another scene in which a scruffy Di Caprio is eating at a table the editing suddenly cuts to the other end with out any continuous link showing an immediate contrast between the two characters, whilst Leonardo is all scruffy and weak this bad guy is smart and looking very healthy; making him seem  more powerful.
The audience are also given hinters that this is a dream world given the fact that Leonardo's characters clothes change from scruffy to smart almost instantly with seemingly no transition from the latter to the present.

Mise en scene 
In this film they use the insignificant objects to great effect a spinning top is used as an indicator that he is either in or out of the dream world this use of bringing insignificant objects in to the forefront of the audiences attention, creates  a familiarity of which the audience can relate to; whilst immersing them in a world which is very abnormal and strange. This film has huge emphasis on time and starts out with many different clocks all going at different speeds, this is used to show that in each level of dream time moves at different speeds.

Sound
Right from the off the film starts with a steadily building bass track with the same 4 beats being repeated over and over again until the waves hit the protagonists face and the sound of the collision stops the music. The sound of the waves continues.
This sudden contrast of pace seems to be a reoccurring theme in most areas of the thriller genre, with a very loud overwhelming noise building as if some sort of threat is approaching and then being interrupted by a softer much calmer noise of which the audience may feel more at ease with. I believe this technique is used to keep the audience guessing; as they know a threat is approaching but are not sure when or where from.



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Vantage Point

Camera
    In the opening credits the camera zooms in on some of the members of the crowd, this is probably to give the feeling of scrutiny as if everybody there is a possible suspect. Also the film sets the scene by giving us a wide angle shot of the Spanish skyline. This wide angle shot is useful as it allows the audience to understand exactly were the film is happening. Finally we have a shot from the perspective of one of the crowd members this angle helps us become engrossed with the event that is unraveling before us. By putting us in the crowd the audience feels more like they are part of the event.

Editing
  There is a part during the opening credits in which they have used a collage effect in order to switch between scenes, By mixing two events like snipers on the roof and people waving flags we get a stronger idea of the contrast in danger and celebration; all going on in one location. The film also hops from in and out of the action, one minute we are seeing the events unfolding from a computer screen and then the next we are in the crowd and watching it first hand. This transition is used to create that feeling of having many different perspectives; giving the feeling that all areas of this event are being scrutinized from every possible angle.

Mis-en-scene

Mis-en-scene is used in this opening scene to great effect. A common theme that is repeated in this scene is  the level of security that they have set up around the event. The fact that they have high security lets the audience know that they are protecting a possibly high priority target. This film accentuates the feeling of being in a crowd by having alot of flags all waving in front of the camera also some of the crowd members were holding up banners saying words such as 'we love the president' thus revealing why the crowd are here.
There are also alot of clicking camera's in the crowd, this all creates the idea that this 'target' or public figure is well loved and very famous.


Sound
When the town of the event is being established we over here a set of church bells playing, this sound has been implemented in order to give an audience an idea of when this event is taking place(midday). As we see the target emerge from one of the escort vehicles there is a sound track playing in the background which grows in pace and velocity. As the soundtrack grows the audience is given a sense of growing threat around the president. another thing to note would e the fact that as the president makes his way down towards the podium the sound of his protesters increases, thus creating uneasiness, as the audience is led to believe that this could be the threat that has been so heavily hinted so far.





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