Camerawork in Inception

Cinematography in Inception

In a psychological thriller such as Inception, camerawork is imperative to making the audience feel unnerved or shocked; fast jump cuts, stunning establishing shots, beautiful close ups all add to the perplexed feeling that compliments the plot so well.
Inception is a film about a thief, who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology and he is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO. As well as an intriguing plot and breathtaking cinematography, Inception displays a masterclass in acting through the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page. With being directed by arguably the best director of his time Christopher Nolan, whom directed the Batman trilogy and various other huge blockbusters. Nolan's concentrates on making a film really special, he makes huge films and makes them as personal as he wants. He himself said 'I have an opportunity that very few filmmakers get, to do something on a huge scale that I can control completely'. This amazing film won four Oscars and with a budget of $160,000,000 and a gross of $292,568,851, this incredible film was extremely successful.

The first piece of camerawork I am going to be analyzing is a low angle shot at around 0:07, which displays five characters of the main plot line. Firstly the reason this shot is so exquisite is because of the connotations and feelings that are created by it. Due to it being a low angle shot we get the sense that the characters are incredible inferior to their surroundings linking in with the plot line that these characters are in unfamiliar territory, they are that unease and scared. This feeling is also complimented by the actors looking up at whats around them. In addition, to these feelings, loneliness and isolation is conveyed through the tall buildings around them. Furthermore it is a wide shot which sets the scene perfectly and displays the vastness of the dense city. This camera shot takes place whilst the characters are brainstorming and thinking, the isolation and lack of people in the sequence is a metaphor for the characters clearing there minds from all clutter and noise, focusing on brainstorming ideas. This is evident use of how Nolan has integrated the plot with the camerawork perfectly.

The next piece of camerawork is an astonishing sequence at 0:48 in which a downward pan is seen, this is extremely effective in the sense that it plunges the audience into Leonardo DiCaprio characters shoes as he looks down over the edge so does the camera. This shot is outstanding because it uses the shadows to draw the focus on how high up the character is. This shot really plays in with the psychological thriller genre, it makes the audiences extremely on edge and creates tension.

Inception - Close up

In thrillers close ups hold huge importance, they create a sense of relationship and personal feeling with the character. For example in this scene we see a close up of Leonardo DiCaprio's character as well as this it is an eye level shot reinforcing this idea of a relate-ability. This piece of camerawork is simply beautiful as the camera slowly gets closer leading to an extreme close up of his face. This ties in perfectly with the characters thoughts and feelings in the scene. For example, as the camera zooms closer, the character gets closer to figuring out the puzzle, then finally when the camera is at eye level and at an extreme close up the shot ends.

A common convention in thriller films are motifs, at the end of the scene we see a spinning top which is commonly shown throughout the film. The shot begins at a mid shot focusing on the main character but then slowly changing its direction to a small spinning top on the table, it then moves into a close up, drawing focus on the particular item of great significance. The audience is led to believe that the spinning top will come to an end, the score in the background leading to an end and the zooming in on the item, however Nolan throws us off here because instead of the spinning top stopping it carries on and then the film ends. At first this may not seem like the most amazing piece of camerawork however, it is extremely clever. With it being an extreme close up on the spinning top the viewer suspects that something would change, such as it falling over but it doesn't leaving the audience asking questions.


 Written by Thor Forster