Samuel
Inception

The mise-en-scene in the 'Inception' opening helps to build lots of tension and helps to create many enigmas. One way in which it builds tension is when the protagonist is shown washed washed up on a beach having a mirage about what appears to be his kids. This along with both his body and facial expressions shows the viewer that he is not very well and must have been through as awful lot to get to were he is now, the condition he is shown in tells the viewer that he is very weak and frail, as well as this building tension it also builds up and enigma as the audience doesn't know how he ended up there? Why he ended up there? And the audience doesn't know where he is? all of this mystery helps to add to the tension, as the viewer doesn't know what to expect. As well as this once the protagonist gets brought into the large house we see next to the beach, he is greeted with an elderly Asian man who seems to have a lot of interest in a small spinning top, this is normally something someone wouldn't pay a second thought too, this suggests that it is important to the plot and therefore intrigues the viewers, however it doesn't tell them why it is significant once again creating both an enigma and tension.

The camerawork helps to both build tension and an enigma. It does this by having lots of extreme close ups and close up shots throughout the opening sequence. These close ups create a lot of mystery as the viewer doesn't get given a lot of locational context as well as this the close ups force the viewers to pay close attention to the facial expressions of the characters and all of the expressions given were very serious and tense this leaves the viewer questioning why? They are so tense and therefore creates a mystery and the unknown creates even more tension, leaving the viewer once again on "the edge of their seats". As well as all of this the opening shots of waves crashing on a beach front, create tension and suspense, it then cuts to a close up of the protagonists face, showing the viewer both the physical condition he is in based off of the cuts and bruises on him and his mental condition based off of his facial expressions, as well as his facial expressions being a sing of his mental condition the cut to his mirage of his presumed two kids running on the beach front shows the viewer that he is not in a normal state of mind. Also there is a close up of the spinning top after it has been spun reinforcing the idea of the spinning top being important and create suspense and tension as the viewer is expecting something to happen, as they have been lead to believe that it is important. All of this helps to create tension suspense and mystery, which are all key conventions to a thriller. 

The editing helps to keep the scenes tense and helps to not give too much away. It builds this tension by fast cuts all the time, you're never left watching one scene for too long, it is always cutting and this creates tension as the viewer is being shown lots of information very quickly, but isn't given enough time to properly process or understand it all, leaving them on the edge of their seat and not knowing what to expect next. This lack of expectation then creates mystery as the viewer doesn't fully understand whats happening and is left wanting the answers to a lot of questions building up both the tension and the number of questions that the audiences has.

 The sound helps to maintain the tension in each scene and to also build up tension. The first few shots of waves crashing on the beach front are accompanied by very loud and dramatic sounds of crashing waves this sets a dramatic and tense atmosphere for the rest of the opening to follow. The very next scene juxtaposes this dramatic crashing sound, as the sound of the waves are very delicate and you can hear the sound of kids laughing and playing faintly in the background this then lowers the tension and calms the viewer down until the kids disappear, the diegetic sound of the waves then gets slightly louder and faster and a slight bit of dramatic music begins to quietly and slowly crescendo this juxtaposes with the previous calm atmosphere and the contrast between these two emphasizes the tension in the scene and puts the viewer "on the edge of their seat again". The use of two juxtaposing sounds is very clever and is this technique is used throughout the opening in order to emphasize the tension within certain scenes.