Analysis of Inception

Inception Empire Cover

On this magazine cover of Empire, it is advertising the new Christopher Nolan film Inception. The main focus on the cover is Leonardo Dicaprio. He is one of the unique selling points of the movie that Empire can use to sell their magazine as well as advertise the film. Another would be mentioning the director. There are only three colours used throughout the page, red, black and grey/white. They have used red on the bold text to make it stand out against the softer tone background.The titles of the films are all in bold, to draw the eye and focus on the films. They have Dicaprio in the centre of the page, with the text framing him. This creates a symmetrical appearance to the page. The texts at the sides of the image are diagonal, but reaching into the page, this creating the sense of drama and uneasiness. Alongside this, the background image is of tall skyscraper buildings, which correspond with the alignment of the text, to create the illusion of falling. The image also conveys the possible location of the narrative, this appears to be a city, possibly New York.

Inception movie poster

The poster for Inception has given a detailed presentation for expectations for the film. The main colours used in the poster are dark greys and black. There are very little bright colours, except for the text for the title which is red. This colour symbolises danger or something evil. The main image in the poster is of a city with skyscrapers, the centre of the poster is Leonardo DiCaprio standing with water up to his calves. This is not what we associate a city to look like, therefore the audience can automatically assume that the film contains some surreal content throughout the narrative. This image is represented both photographically and graphically, by the image of DiCaprio being photographed but the surroundings being graphically designed and enhanced. The messages in the poster are primarily visual so the audience can understand a lot from the image. The intended audience for the poster would be fans of Christopher Nolan and Leonardo DiCaprio, pre-determined audience, these are also unique selling points. To add, fans of action/thriller films that will be attracted by the images and the poster as a whole. The tagline reads ‘Your mind is the scene of the crime’, this could interpret that the film is a psychological thriller meaning it has added appeal. Overall the poster creates a positive representation of the film and sets up a good anticipation and excitement around the film.

Inception teaser trailer

Firstly the trailer lasts for approximately 1 minute 3 seconds, with 7 seconds being film production companies etc. The main background of the trailer is black, the first shot is of a spinning top. This implies to the audience that this object is very important to the narrative as it is the first image that we see. Christopher Nolan is used as a unique selling point as it also reminds the audience that he directed The Dark Knight. The text for this is continually in block capitals and always white, this portraying a sense of holiness or something magical. The text fades away and next there is a bird’s eye view of a busy city. There are skyscrapers and lots of traffic, this provides an assumption of the location of the film. The creators have also used Leonardo DiCaprio as a unique selling point in the trailer. They have used a close up of him to show that he’s starring in the movie, after this there is a line of text of his name.

Throughout the teaser they show clips of the movie, they have placed the tagline amongst these clips. The cuts get faster and the pace picks up displaying the action based parts of the film, these in turn creating expectations for the film. To end, there is a panoramic shot of the city again but as the shot rotates to face the audience the title INCEPTION is spelt out to end the trailer. Around the text there is maze which concludes that the film will include puzzles or people getting lost, both physically and mentally.

Inception Total Film Cover

This is the front cover of Total Film, another film magazine also promoting the film Inception. From looking at the magazine, I firstly noticed that they have used a similar colour scheme to Empire. I believe this could be relating to the genre of the film, which is thriller/action. The dark colours reflect a negative sense to the narrative, with the red contrasting to create a shock factor to the representation of the film. Another element to the layout which is similar is the use of buildings in the background image, conveying that this is the obvious location of the film. They also have placed Dicaprio in the centre of the cover both a medium shot.There is an in-direct mode of address used as Dicaprio is not looking directly at the audience.