Frame by frame analysis- Inception

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4

The opening scene of the 2010 Oscar winning film, Inception starts out with an establishing shot showing to us, the audience where the opening scene of the film is taking place and in this frame it is of waves crashing against rocks, and the rocks are an important thing to include in the shot as it tells us that the scene is not being taken out in the middle of the ocean but instead by the shore. The next frame is still of waves crashing together but does not dwell on this as it has already established to us where the scene is set and therefore quickly moves into the next frame which is the introduction of the first character. The shot is of the character face down in the sand and the function of this is to show how he is in a vulnerable state at this time. The sequence then moves onto the shot of a young child playing on beach but with his back turned to the camera, as the scene continues it uses shot reverse shots of the first initial character looking at this child and then back to the child who is joined by a slightly older girl. The purpose of this may be to tell the audience to remember these children as they may have some importance to the plot of the film. As the sequence continues there is a high angle shot of a man poking the first character who is still face down on the floor with a gun, the use of props shown such as gun and the use of a high angle shot shows how vulnerable this character is at the moment. Its then expands on this vulnerability when the next frame is a low angle shot of the officer who has the gun and the function of the low angle shot is of course to show his superiority. The next frame shows the officer discovering a gun on the first character which may have been done to make the audience think that this man who has been washed up on the shore is a dangerous and wanted man. The next frame is of the officer shouting which then progresses to a long shot of a man hearing the orders and rushing inside a building. As the sequence progresses there is an establishing shot of where the next part of the scene will be held and dialogue which comes across the screen to tells us that the scene may be in a foreign location. The next frame slowly zooms in to the back of the man who is currently speaking, not relieving the face of this man meaning that this adds a mysterious element to the scene which the audience can draw their own conclusions too and also the use of dialogue and amount of screen time this mysterious man is getting may suggest that he is one of the main characters in the film. It then progresses to the character placing down an unusual object but then quickly cuts back to him turning his head slowly, but before we get to see his face the next frame begins which is the first character we saw being dragged in by two officers. The function of this to clearly build suspense for audience who anxiously wait to see this mysterious mans face. The next frame is a tilt shot and as the camera slowly progresses up to the character we catch a glimpse of him eating but then suddenly the shot switches to a shot looking over the characters shoulder at this mysterious man and shallow focus is being used so we can finally see this mans face and not focus on anything else. The next frame then returns to the character who has now stopped eating and as we previously saw how poorly and vulnerable he looked at the beginning, this tells us that something important may about to be said and the next frame is of them man picking up the mysterious object once again meaning that it must have a significant amount of importance to the story as a prop so small is never usually included in the opening scene as much as it has in this one. The scene then goes into a medium shot of the man spinning the object looking intrigued by it and then the next frame is a close up of just the object spinning illustrating the importance of this small object which as well as doing so, i believe challenges the audience making them think why this minute object is getting so much screen time and being seen as so important so early on in the film. Overall i believe the main function of this opening scene is to tell the audience that this is a film that will make you think hard whilst watching it an generally challenge you. It does this by not really conclusively giving a  location for the opening scene or by explaining what the characters are all about and most importantly including this mysterious object which seems to be so heavily involved in the opening scene.