INCEPTIONA Media Analysis – Using Institution, Audience,

Genre and Reputation

By Ben Rodol

Institution – legendary

Pictures and Syncopy filmsLegendary pictures is an American film production company based in California. The company was founded in 2000 and five years later, Legendary pictures signed an agreement to produce and finance their films with Warner Brothers. In 2014 this agreement ended and later that year they signed with Universal Studios.

Syncopy films is a British film company founded by award winning director Christopher Nolan. The company was founded in 2001 and has produced many award winning screen plays along with Inception.

Audience

The target audience of Inception are Teens and

young adults which are interested in confusing

Sci-Fi action movies.

The film is available on DVD, download and in

movie retailers such as supermarkets and DVD

shops such as Blockbuster.

The film was advertised to its target markets by

billboards, by posters, TV-Trailers and on

websites

Genres

Science Fiction - The film was based upon

futuristic science. A traditional Sci-Fi film contains

occurrences which are not yet accepted by

mainstream science such as aliens, time-shift

and alternative dream worlds.

Heist Film - A film that contains a complex plot

based around a group that are trying to steal

something, in this case, dreams.

Film Noir – A French term used to describe

stylish, Hollywood crime dramas

Background information

Dominick Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio

and his business partner Arthur, who is played by

Joseph Gordon-Levitt are people who

experiment with dreams to find out information.

Their employee is a Japanese Businessman

Sato, who is trialing them to see if Inception

actually works. Sato wants an idea planted into

his competitors sub-conscience, to shut down his

business, so that he can become the worlds only

energy supplier and eventually gain world

dominance.

The Production Process

Pre-Production – originally, Inception was meant

to be a horror film about dream stealers, but the

plot was changed by Nolan, because he thought

that the film would be emotionally and mentally

hard.

Inception was based upon late 90’s Sci-Fi films

such as the Matrix, a film about reality and how it

is perceived by the population of the world in the

film and Dark City which is also a confusing Sci-

Fi movie.

The Production Process

The film began in began in Tokyo, where the main characters meet there boss to meet their customer, Sato to find out the details of the deal.

The film then enters the UK to film the flight in which the job is being carried out in a private air-field. Staying in London, Dom travels to UCL to find his ‘Dream Architect’.

Next Dom and his architect travel to Paris, this is used as a test from Dom to see if his prized student Adriane, played by Ellen Page is capable of shifting time and reality.

The final phase of principal photography took place in Canada, in order to film a snowstorm in which a ski-chase was filmed.

The Production Process

Nolan used little CGI, he said he preferred to

keep the film as natural as possible. But in the

scenes where Gravity switches and Adriane's

architecture comes to life, CGI played a key role

in making the occurrences realistic and

believable.

The soundtracks which are used in the final

scene of the ski-chase and constant slow, guitar

based sad tunes to allow the audience to feel the

same way as Cobb does in handling his

emotions. These are edited in after production to

add tension.