Film Trailer Analysis: Inception

Audience Appeal

• The trailer begins with the logos of big companies, such as Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures  which is appealing to the audience as they may have seen famous films produced by them such as The Dark Knight. 
• The first character we see is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is a world renowned actor, appeals to the main target audience of action fans as well as secondary audiences, such as females. 
• Additionally in the next shot we are able to see him holding and cocking a gun which further appeals to the action fans as they will be expecting gunfights. We are able to see more action shots within the trailer which will add to the excitement. 
• The trailer also features Michael Caine, who is a British actor, therefore appealing to secondary audience who are fans of his films or even to the British public. 

Branding and Studio Identity 

• In the beginning of the trailer the logos of the big companies are featured which attracts the audience that are familiar with their production. 
• Also within the trailer, the director Christopher Nolan is mentioned, who is famous for directing films like The Dark Knight, therefore attracting fans of his work. 

Character and Representation

• The main character, Cobb, is presented to be smart and rich as he is seen wearing a suit. This then hints to his occupation, which is "a special type of security, further explained by the narration. 
• Another character, Professor Stephen Miles is introduced. He is British and follows the stereotype of being like a gentleman and speaks with complexity and composure. 
• We are also able to see a few female characters shown in the trailer, one being Mallorie, wife of the protagonist. She has very limited screen time, which may foreshadow her role in the film as being weak and vulnerable.  

Genre signifiers

• We are able to see many action shots, for example the scene where we can see a car being blown up whilst a character is riding on a snowmobile escaping suggesting that this is an action film.
• Another common convention of the action element is the music played in the trailer, as it is fast paced and empowering therefore further emphasising the action genre of the film. 
• However there is a unique twist to the film. The characters in the film, in particular Dominick, are building a dream world in which they are able to steal things such as information from, therefore creating a unique aspect to attract audiences. 

Continuity Task Evaluation

1.In the video, an accident occurred when two characters (played by Harvey and I) were playing football on the school field. The character (played by me) was trying to catch the high ball that Harvey's character kicked, as it went over his head hence having to run back. Which in turn lead to my character tripping over Zain's character, who was sitting down on the sideline  

2. We tried to create "narrative flow" through the use of match on action, which can be seen from shot 1 to 2 as the ball that was kicked was in roughly the same position therefore making it seem continuous. We also successfully used the eyeline match in shot 4 as we can see the character looking in the general direction of the ball, towards the sky, which made it more realistic and natural. 

3. Despite our efforts, we were unable to achieve full continuity due to the camera being late to cut off the clip. For example in shot 2 we see Harvey's character kicking the ball as well as the full follow through, however the clip was left on for too long as we carried on seeing him take an additional step which slowed down the pace of the video. If we had cut the shot half a second after he kicked the ball, then i think that would've been an improvement. Additionally, we tried match on action again from shot 4 to 5 but was unable to do so successfully as we had mistimed it, therefore making it seem as though we had moved back in time. If we had shot 5 starting  with the fall of my character instead of still seeing him running back, then we would've been able to achieve continuity with more success. 

4. In hindsight, in order to improve the narrative flow of the video, i think that it would've been better to have Zain's character to be introduced in the first establishing shot by having a wider shot, including him in the frame, as opposed to having him being introduced later in the story in shot 4.