Inception - Cinematography

To look at cinematography i chose to look at the film Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. The cinematographer for the film Inception is a man called Wally Pfister who won an award for his part in the production of Inception.

Wally Pfister is known for  'frequently breaking the 180 degree rule'. His shooting style is very 'Gothic', this is very clear when you watch the films 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' which are both films that he took the role of cinematographer.

In Inception there are some very good examples of cinematography and loads of techniques used e.g. Rule Of Thirds, Eye Line Match, Back lighting, Leading Lines and a lot more. A variety of shots are used throughout the film as well.

This image works very well. The scene is shot from far away also known as a Long Shot. The characters are positioned in the left third which creates a clear focus point. The use of back lighting brings the characters out from the cluttered background. The low angle of the shot makes the characters seem very powerful as it makes them look almost as tall as the skyscrapers in the background.

In this images Leonardo DiCaprio is positions in the left third of the scene which draws the eyes of the viewer towards him rather than the people in the background. This shot also uses leading lines very well, it seems as though the banister for the balcony is creating an arrow towards Leonardo DiCaprio's head. This shot is a medium close up shot.

This shot is an establishing shot. In this shot it appears to be using the Fibonacci Spiral. This is a great way to create a clear focus point it is the very similar to using the rule of thirds.

2016 (1990) ‘IMDb Wally Pfister’, in Wally Pfister. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002892/bio (Accessed: 19 November 2016).