TRAILER: Inception

WHY IT WORKS:

• Sound: starting with a deep and low, horn like alarm, very slow, and then building and building with higher pitched, faster notes almost unbearably to a point of tension and agitation, that enthrals you into seeing it - I feel like it’s the low horns at the beginning that really get you, they stir something Olde Worlde-y within you that something big and increasingly dangerous is near and in a way, it agitates you and shakes you up. The effortless editing of the sound gives the whole film an ‘epic’ quality – that this isn’t a cheap, low budget thriller, it’s an event – something the low horns almost announce, and it is not to be missed.
• Complete lack of narrative: I feel like from these clips it is impossible to attain a narrative – no clip is over five seconds and none include any speech or actions to give away the plot, the whole idea of the teaser and effortlessly done by the producers of this one. The most revealing is the text – ‘Your mind is the scene of the crime’ – something ominous and quite disturbing to the individual, having your mind specifically targeted. Combine this with the sinister soundtrack and at the end of the trailer, the CGI skyscrapers then zooming out to an aerial shot and seeing them all as mazes creating the word ‘Inception,’ this trailer is definitely a very psychological one and invades your own psychology, leaving you desperate to have these unexplained factors explained.
• Hollywood budget: The high budget and professionalism of the producers is evident throughout this trailer, again enticing the viewer with its sleekness and Hollywood finish, and of course having such a major, and incredibly gorgeous, Hollywood actor leading the cast is another obvious pull for the audience – of all the cast his is the only name shown, and the majority of shots he is dominant in, the other cast are shown relatively little. The high budget is again demonstrated through aerial shots of New York, impossible to attain without a helicopter – and the incorporation of a helicopter in certain shots as well as the use of CGI and special effects, for example the sky scrapers at the finish.
• Unexplained clues: Despite the high budget of this film and trailer, I find the most intriguing of all the shots the ones that are simple shots included of seemingly normal objects that are obviously key to the plot and the film, but are unexplained to the viewer, like clues as it were, for example, the spinning top, which is perhaps the longest of all shots incorporated in the trailer at about five seconds. The water in the glass bending is unnatural to the sight and humans and within the context of the trailer is completely unexplained, as well as being unexplainable by science, and is therefore left as an inexplicable clue for the viewer, as well as the brief shot of the watch ticking, as if time is running out, something very attainable to incorporate into our own trailer.