Still analysis 1

Action Scene from the Action/Thriller Inception

In the foreground, a well dressed man is using a more casual man as a hostage and is aiming his gun at someone out of frame, whilst in the background the main character has fallen off a chair into a bath. This connotes to us that the men in the foreground are the focus which is used to emphasise the fact when the main character finally jumps into the scene.

This is a mid shot which shows enough of the action whilst still showing their emotions, this is useful as you can see clearly their reactions to what's going on whilst still seeing enough of the action as it happens. It's also a three shot but the relationship between the man the main character is not yet known, this is connoting how the well dressed man is definitely against the rest of the men in the scene, showing to the audience early on that there is a lot of tension. The lighting is mainly coming through the windows, and is very bright indicating its a very bright, hot climate in the city they are in, this lighting also creates a lot of shadows onto the men which could connote they aren't the protagonist.

From the costumes of each character we can see that the man with the gun is very rich, and has some combat experience, which connotes he could be a very well off business man who has been trained to defend himself. The main character is a little less dressed up but still denotes a suit, to show he's not as high of status as the gunman. The hostage is quite casual in comparison to the other two men, to connote he's of the lowest status of them, which could also relate to how he's not in control in this scene and make the audience empathise with him.

The setting is important as its supposed to contrast the previous scene in an oriental country dramatically with this dingy flat in a hot climate country, emphasising the jump between scenes.

This scene has many of the typical conventions of a thriller with the Mise-en-scene showing key information of narrative and character. However lighting is not used in a normal thriller way with it not being used to create a suspenseful atmosphere.