Inception

Inception.

Camera:
There is a close up of the back of the bald man's head who is in the Chinese style board room, we can't see his face but we know that he is talking to his henchmen and that he is the leader as they went to his with the man's belongings that they found on his when he washed up on their beach. this makes it tense as we don't know who this character is and we are still clueless as to which character the bald man or the guy who washed up on the beach is the good or bad character so we still don't trust either of them, we are drawn in by this scene due to the tense atmosphere it creates as we don't know what he is going to do with the intruder or how the intruder got to where he is.

Sound:
The music in the opening scene is very orchestral and the distinct violin sounds make the scene sound tense and scary as there is a lot of violence and Leonardo the obvious main character in the film is being chased and shot at this makes us fear for him, therefore our eyes glued to the screen as we need to know what is going to happen to him. The diegetic sound of the waves crashing against the rocks gives mystery and a sense of the unknown to the scene, it makes the scene tense as we worry for the character who has washed up on the beach as we don't know who he is and if he is in trouble or not as washing up on an island is associated with danger as he might be stranded.

Mise-en-scene:
When the protagonist wakes up we can tell that he has washed up on a beach due to the waves crashing against the rock, sandy beach and sand castles that the children have made, this doesn't make us uneasy at first and not tense in any kind of way, however once we start to realise that the children are a figure of his imagination we started to feel uneasy and the scene becomes more tense as we wonder where he is or if the whole setting is actually real or not.

Editing:
There is an insert of the spinning top that is found on the man who washed up on the beach and the bald Asian man recognises it from someone he used to know, this makes the scene tense as we think that the man who washed up on the beach might be the same man or had something to do with the man who used to own the spinning top. Another aspect that makes us feel uneasy is the fact that the spinning top keeps spinning in the insert, whereas usually the spinning top would start to wobble and shake this spinning top is remarkably still, this leads us to believe that this place isn't real and that something bad is about to happen between these two characters.