Inception is a 2010 American thriller sci-fi action film written and produced by Christopher Nolan, starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Ken Watanabe and Michael Caine. The film characters the journey of a thief, Dom Cob (DiCaprio) who extracts information from the subconscious mind of his victims while they dream, who is offered a chance to regain his old life in exchange for one last job: performing inception, the planting of an idea into the mind of his client's competitor. With help of Nolan’s good reputation, Inception was able to secure a $100 million advertising expenditure by and Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.
There are persistent themes in all the film marketing: Leonardo DiCaprio being the most famous actor in the film is the main face of all three of these posters; the idea of a confused agricultural world, and the logo text "inception".
All three posters are leaked of colour giving neutral and dull grey, blue and white colours, which are highly contrasted with the bold red colour of the text. The theme of confused agriculture emphasises the idea of being trapped in a world that none of the characters are familiar or comfortable with. The tall buildings add to this idea and almost seem intimidating. Although all three pictures are highly edited, it is clear that DiCaprio is a rugged male character, which is naturally associated with strength.
The Tagline of "Your mind is the scene of the crime" is in itself mysterious. This effect is used in thriller movies to give an indication of a film which will stretch the human mind as to how much you can really trust even your own thoughts.
The image on all three of the pictures has been given the back-lighting effect which casts a comforting glow around the dark glum architecture. This contrast of colours gives an idea of a "light at the end of a tunnel", as though the characters are looking for a way to escape the world they have created.
All three posters also include information about the director of the film: "From the director of the Dark Knight". This is to draw the audience’s attention to this film from fans of The Dark Knight.
From further research of Warner Brothers distributing I have discovered that there are certain conventions that are continued throughout their advertisement campaign. I found that a poster from the film "Matrix" has a striking resemblance to one of the Inception posters:
In both posters the characters are surrounded by tall buildings in a New York like city. The characters are emphasised by a vertical feature behind them. The Matrix poster uses the idea of a bright light whereas Inception uses the idea of road to add to the idea of a confused architecture.
The inception poster above shows intextuality (when something looks out of place) through water. This again adds to the idea of a confused world which cannot be explained. The above three posters come from film Dark Knight, Inception and Watchmen. The Dark Knight and Inception are both directed by Christopher Nolan and have extremely similar posters; this is mainly down to the Auteur Theory. Auteur Theory suggests that the best films will bear their maker’s ‘signature’. This may manifest itself as the stamp of his or her individual personality or perhaps even focus on recurring themes within the body of work. Nolan clearly uses the idea of a skyscraper city and one of the main characters walking away from the picture being taken. All three posters above have been advertised by Warner Brothers Productions. The "Watchmen" poster uses very similar conventions to that of the Dark Knight and Inception posters, the tall Skyscrapers and washed out colours appear in all three posters.
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