Categories
Amusing

Inception in Little China

Does this trailer mashup suggest that Christopher Nolan is a closet fan of Big Trouble in Little China (1986)?

Despite the plethora of Inception-themed trailers online, it is worth checking out:

Made by YouTube user scarecrowsimmons, he says:

“This is what happens when Wes and I sit down to watch “Inception” and both think old Ken Watanabe looks like Lo Pan”

There do seem to be bizarre parallels between the two trailers: key Asian characters who age, dreams, zero gravity fights, elevators, water and crumbling buildings.

Anything else?

Categories
music

The Way by Zack Hemsey

The music of Zack Hemsey has found its way into some high profile trailers over the last year and his latest album is called The Way.

Perhaps most famous for his track Mind Heist, which was used in the third and final trailer for Inception (2010), other pieces have featured in trailers for Robin Hood (2010) and The Town (2010).

In fact the trailer for the Ben Affleck crime drama was given a considerable lift by the track Redemption, which features on The Way.

If you liked Mind Heist, then you’ll probably did the rest of the tracks, which feature plenty of epic sounding compositions that make great use of strings and beats.

You can listen to all the the tracks below and buy them from his official website here.

Zack Hemsey’s official site (the album section is here)
Hemsey’s offficial YouTube channel & Blog
Profile of Zack Hemsey
> Listen to several different versions of Mind Heist (the track from the Inception trailer)

Categories
music

New Versions of Mind Heist

Zack Hemsey has released some new versions of Mind Heist, the track that became famous after being used in the final Inception trailer.

The track first came to prominence with the third and final trailer for Chris Nolan’s blockbuster and it really seemed to connect with audiences making it one of the most notable (and spoofed) trailers of the year.

At first some people assumed that Mind Heist was the work of Hans Zimmer, who wrote the film’s memorable score, and Hemsey was quick to point out via his blog that he was actually a different person.

For a time the track wasn’t officially available to buy online but Hemsey recently uploaded the Mind Heist EP to his official YouTube channel, which contains 5 versions of the track.

Notice how the image of train gets gradually closer if you listen to all of them (viewers of the film will get the reference).

There is the original:

Then there is The Birth of an Idea, which expands the original in epic ways by adding more electronica and strings:

No Turning Back is a similar length to the original but uses slightly different musical elements and accentuates the beats:

The Promise of Tomorrow plunges into the and focuses on the nice, rousing vibe:

Evolution is perhaps the one that fans of the film will dig the most. Expanding the original track to 6 minutes, it really builds towards a massive sounding climax:

Hemsey’s music has also been used in trailers for The Town (2010) and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (2010) and he was profiled by Soundworks last month.

> Buy the full Mind Heist EP at Zack Hemsey’s official site
> The third and final Inception trailer

Categories
Amusing Interesting

Inception Spelling

Have you noticed what the first letters of each of the main character’s names in Inception spell?

Yes, they spell the word ‘dreams’.

Clever, huh?

(Apparently this has been floating around the web for a while but I only just noticed it at the IMDb trivia section).

> Inception review, infographic and cool real-time video
> More on Inception at Wikipedia
> Click a red button for the Inception bong sound

Categories
Posters

Hitchcock Inception Poster

What would the poster for Inception have looked like if Alfred Hitchcock had directed it?

Maybe his long time designer Saul Bass would have come up with something like this:

(I first saw this over at Shortlist, but if you know who created it just leave the credit in the comments below)

Categories
Behind The Scenes Interesting music

Zack Hemsey Profile

The Soundworks Collection have done a profile of composer Zack Hemsey.

Most people will have heard his track Mind Heist, which was used in the third and final trailer for Inception (2010).

You might also recognise his music from the trailers for Robin Hood (2010) and The Town (2010).

A New Jersey native, he currently resides in Lake Carmel where he has a home studio.

He describes how he got into music; his influences; and composing, recording and mixing on Logic Pro.

An independent artist, his discography and credits include the following:

Studio albums

Singles

Studio albums (under Nine Leaves)

  • Nine Leaves (2006)
  • Peace In Death (2008)

Film trailers

  • “Redemption” from The Town (2010)
  • “Mind Heist”, “Simple Idea” and “True Potential” from Inception (2010)
  • “Character” from Robin Hood (2010)
  • “Changeling” from Trust (2011)

Television

  • “Sanguine Love” and “Second Chances” from CSI: NY (2009-2010)
  • “Cinderella” from The Cleaner (2009)
  • “Cougar Island” from Hunter Hunted (2007)

Commercials

  • “Moonlight” Chrysler 300
  • “Time Lapse” Taylormade
  • “Count The Ways” Firestone
  • “Sword” Smirnoff
  • “Sweater” Eucerin
  • “Queen Latifah” Jenny Craig
  • “Dizzy” US Cellular
  • “Touche” / “Blink” Kit Kat
  • “Inspired Design” Callaway
  • “Water Balloon” / “Vacation” Enablex
  • “Last Cigarette” Quitters
  • “Resolution” Special K
  • “Train” iShares
  • “Fire Nation Unleashed” Avatar
  • “Parking” GM

> Zack Hemsey’s official site (the album section is here)
> Hemsey’s offficial YouTube channel & Blog
> Soundworks Collection

Categories
Animation

Inception Animated Short

Austrian artist Wolfgang Matzl has created a 60 second version of Inception done in paper stop-motion.

> Wolfgang Matzl
> Inception at the IMDb

Categories
Lists music Soundtracks

The Best Film Music of 2010

My favourite film music of the year included albums by Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer and Daft Punk, whilst tracks by various artists including Zack Hemsey and Grizzly Bear also stood out.

BEST SOUNDTRACKS

Tron Legacy (EMI): The sequel to Tron was a mixed bag (great visuals, mediocre script) but the score by Daft Punk was unbeliveably epic, fusing their trademark electronica with an orchestra. [Amazon / YouTube]

Inception (Reprise): Hans Zimmer’s score for Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi blockbuster mixed electronic elements, strings and the guitar of Johnny Marr to brilliant effect. [Amazon / YouTube]

The Social Network (Pid): Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross gave David Fincher’s film about the origins of Facebook a dazzling electronic flavour, at turns pulsating and atmospheric. [Official site / Amazon / YouTube]

The Kids Are Alright (Lakeshore Records): A traditional, but shrewdly assembled collection of traditional and modern songs (featuring the likes of MGMT and David Bowie) which fitted the themes of Lisa Colodenko’s film perfectly. [Amazon / YouTube / The Playlist]

Greenberg (Parlophone): A solid collection of songs from James Murphy alongside tracks by The Steve Miller Band, Duran Duran, Nite Jewel and Galaxie 500. [Amazon / YouTube]

127 Hours (Polydor): Danny Boyle films usually have a memorable soundtrack and this is no exception, featuring music from A.R. Rahman and tracks by various artists including Free Blood, Bill Withers and Sigur Ros. [Amazon / YouTube]

Black Swan (Sony): For Darren Aronofsky’s reworking of Swan Lake, Clint Mansell reworked elements of Tchaikovsky’s original music to spectacular effect. [Amazon / YouTube]

N.B. The soundtracks for Somewhere and Blue Valentine would have easily made the list if they were available to purchase in the UK.

PLAYLIST

The following tracks are not all directly from soundtracks, but may also have featured on trailers and TV spots for various films.

You can download most of these tracks as a Spotify playlist here or just click on the relevant links to listen to them.

If you have any pieces of film related music you want to share, leave a comment below.

> The Best Films of 2010
> The Best DVD & Blu-ray releases of 2010

Categories
Cinema Reviews Thoughts

The Way Back

An epic escape from a Russian gulag during World War II forms the backdrop for Peter Weir’s first film in seven years.

Loosely based on Slavomir Rawicz’s book “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” (more of which later), The Way Back begins with an soldier named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) being sent to a remote Siberian prison camp on trumped up charges of spying.

After enlisting the help of inmates to escape, including an ex-pat American (Ed Harris) and a tough gang member (Colin Farrell), the group venture on a massive trek across Asia where they meet an orphan (Saoirse Ronan), struggle to survive and attempt to reach the safety of India.

Weir shoots everything with convincing detail: the prison camp is believably hellish and the landscapes form a frequently stunning backdrop as the prisoners venture across sub-zero Russia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas on their way to India.

Visually, the film feels grittier than one might expect, with D.P. Russell Boyd appearing to use a lot of natural light and the splendour of the landscapes are frequently intercut with shots of blisters and the physical cost of the journey.

The performances all round are solid: Sturgess and Harris stand out as the two lynchpins of the group; Farrell is charmingly gruff; Ronan has presence and depth and Mark Strong is believably seductive as a prison camp veteran with his own agenda.

As a narrative experience, the initial tension of the prison break quickly becomes a fight for survival as the group struggle to eat, stay warm and avoid all manner of hardships involving the harsh landscape.

This means that it lacks conventional tension, but there is a certain pleasure in the gruelling sprawl of the story as they keep moving across a bewildering variety of landscapes and adverse weather conditions on their 4,000-mile trek.

Sequences that particularly stand out are the initial prison break in a blizzard, a lake infested with mosquitoes, a harsh desert which drives them to the brink and the latter stages which involve some famous Asian landmarks.

For the most part it is absorbing and features well drawn characters, even though it occasionally suffers from the problem of mixing English and native dialogue, which in the modern era diminishes the overall authenticity of the film.

The film hinges on the central character’s desire to get back home (hence the title) to see his wife, which we see in a recurring vision, and it is hard not to be moved by the climactic depiction of the personal set against the historical.

But although The Way Back is an undeniably powerful experience, there is a problem at the very heart of the adaptation which directly relates to the original book that inspired it.

Although Rawicz’s account was acclaimed for a number of years, in 2006 the BBC discovered records that essentially debunked his version of events, even though there is evidence to suggest that the journey may have been undertaken by other people.

Peter Weir was fully aware of the controversy surrounding the book when he made the film, hence certain key changes, and overall it demonstrates the taste, tact and intelligence that has informed his career.

But given the extraordinary nature of the journey there is something dispiriting about finding out the truth about Rawicz, even if the actual trek may have been done by someone else.

It remains a powerful and handsomely constructed piece of cinema but also suffers from the shady origins of its source material.

> Official site
> The Way Back at the IMDb
> BBC News story on the controversy surrounding the book and its road to the screen

Categories
Cinema Lists

The Best Films of 2010

As usual these are my favourite films of the year in alphabetical order (just click on each title for more information).

THE BEST FILMS OF 2010

Animal Kingdom (Dir. David Michôd): The outstanding debut feature from director David Michôd is a riveting depiction of a Melbourne crime family headed by a sinister matriarch.

Another Year (Dir. Mike Leigh): A moving, bitter-sweet drama about relationships, filled with great acting, is arguably the peak of Mike Leigh’s career.

Biutiful (Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu): Searing exploration of life and death in a modern European city, featuring a tremendous central performance from Javier Bardem.

Black Swan (Dir. Darren Aronofsky): Swan Lake is retold with glorious intensity, channelling Polanski and Cronenberg whilst giving Natalie Portman the role of a lifetime.

Carlos (Dir. Olivier Assayas): Scintillating and immersive depiction of a 1970s terrorist with a tremendous performance by Edgar Ramirez.

Enter the Void (Dir. Gaspar Noé): Technically dazzling depiction of a dead drug dealer that also features what is possibly the greatest opening title sequence of all time.

Exit Through The Gift Shop (Dir. Banksy): An ingenious and hilarious hall of mirrors which is brilliantly executed and so much more than a ‘Banksy documentary’.

Inception (Dir. Christopher Nolan): The ingenious puzzles of Christopher Nolan’s early films were given the scale of his blockbusters in this hugely ambitious sci-fi actioner.

Inside Job (Dir. Charles Ferguson): Devastating documentary about the financial crisis which plays like a heist movie, only this time it is the banks robbing the people.

Tabloid (Dir. Errol Morris): The media feeding frenzy surrounding a bizarre 1970s sex scandal provided Errol Morris with the raw material for one of the most entertaining documentaries in years.

The Fighter (Dir. David O’Russell): A boxing story which follows a familiar path but remains energetic, inspirational and funny, with Christian Bale on career-best form.

The Kids Are Alright (Dir. Lisa Cholodenko): A perfectly pitched comedy-drama that explores modern family life with genuine heart and humour.

The King’s Speech (Dir. Tom Hooper): Wonderfully crafted period drama with two brilliant lead performances and a moving story filled with hilarious one liners.

The Social Network (Dir. David Fincher): The inside story of Facebook is a riveting tale of ambition and betrayal, which sees Fincher, Sorkin and a young cast firing on all cylinders.

Toy Story 3 (Dir. Lee Unkrich): The ground breaking animated series gets a worthy final chapter whilst maintaining Pixar’s impeccable standards of story and animation.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

127 Hours (Dir. Danny Boyle)
Blue Valentine (Dir. Derek Cianfrance)
Catfish (Dir. Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost)
Four Lions (Dir. Chris Morris)
Let Me In (Dir. Matt Reeves)
Restrepo (Dir. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
Somewhere (Dir. Sofia Coppola)
The American (Dir. Anton Corbijn)
The Ghost Writer (Dir. Roman Polanski)
The Illusionist (Dir. Sylvain Chomet)
Winter’s Bone (Dir. Debra Granik)

> Find out more about the films of 2010 at Wikipedia
> End of year lists at Metacritic
> The Best DVD and Blu-ray Releases of 2010

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray

The Best DVD and Blu-ray Releases of 2010

Here are my picks of the DVD and Blu-ray released in 2010, which include Dr. Strangelove, Pierrot Le Fou, The White Ribbon, Dr. Zhivago, The Last Emperor, A Prophet, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Psycho, The Third Man, Se7en, The Exorcist, Carlos and Inception.

Just click on the film title to read the original reviews and the links on the side to buy them.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

NOTABLE IMPORTS

N.B. As I’m based in the UK, all of these DVDs are UK titles (apart from the imports) but if you live in a different region of the world check out Play.com or your local Amazon site and they should have an equivalent version of the film.

> Browse more DVD Releases at Amazon UK and Play
> Browse all the cinema releases of 2010
> The Best DVD and Blu-ray releases of 2009

Categories
Interesting Viral Video

Inception in Real-Time

Someone has edited together the different sections of Inception so that they play in real-time.

If the climax confused you then it is a neat way of seeing how the film played around with slow motion and time.

(As there are some heavy spoilers in this video, you shouldn’t watch it unless you’ve seen the film)

[Via Buzzfeed]

> Inception Blu-ray review
> Infographic explaining the levels of Inception (spoilers)

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray

UK DVD & Blu-ray Releases: Monday 6th December 2010

DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS

Inception (Warner Home Video): Christopher Nolan’s ambitious heist film was one of the most talked about blockbusters of the year and Warner Bros have given it a worthy Blu-ray release. The story revolves around a gang of hi-tech thieves led by international fugitive Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who steals valuable information from people’s dreams.

After a job on a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe) goes wrong, he is faced with the daunting challenge of ‘inception’: instead of stealing information, he must secretly plant some inside the mind of an wealthy tycoon (Cillian Murphy). Assembling a team of experts (which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) who can help him execute the mission, he must also deal with his own troubled past, which endangers his ability to do the job at hand. [Read full review] [Buy it on Blu-ray / DVD / Triplepack]

A Bug’s Life (Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.): Pixar’s seconf feature length film suffered from following the groundbreaking Toy Story (1995) but is still way above the standards of equivalent fare. It is the story of an ant named Flik (David Foley) who helps his colony defend itself against the tyranny of the local grasshoppers (led by Hopper, voiced by Kevin Spacey).

As with other Pixar films, the story is impressively assembled, whilst the humour and emotions are nicely balanced. It hasn’t achieved the affection of Pixar classics such as Finding Nemo (2003) or WALL-E (2008) but there is still a lot to enjoy here and keep a look out for the faux-outtakes over the end credits. [Buy it on Blu-ray / DVD]

ALSO OUT

Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / with 3D Version]
Chaos/The Bank Job (Lionsgate UK) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Funny Games (Kaleidoscope Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Shrek: Forever After – The Final Chapter (DreamWorks Animation) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Supernatural: The Complete Seasons 1-5 (Warner Home Video) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.) [Blu-ray / Normal]
The Twilight Saga: Collection – The Story So Far (Entertainment One) [Blu-ray / Steel Book]
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (E1 Entertainment UK) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (Walt Disney) [Blu-ray with DVD]
War/The Forbidden Kingdom (Lionsgate UK) [Blu-ray / Normal]
White Material (Artificial Eye) [Blu-ray / Normal]

> The Best DVD and Blu-rays of 2009
> UK Cinema Releases for Friday 3rd December 2010 including Megamind and Monsters

Categories
Reviews

Blu-ray: Inception

Christopher Nolan’s ambitious heist film was one of the most talked about blockbusters of the year and Warner Bros have given it a worthy Blu-ray release.

The story revolves around a gang of hi-tech thieves led by international fugitive Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who steals valuable information from people’s dreams.

After a job on a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe) goes wrong, he is faced with the daunting challenge of ‘inception’: instead of stealing information, he must secretly plant some inside the mind of an wealthy tycoon (Cillian Murphy).

Assembling a team of experts (which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) who can help him execute the mission, he must also deal with his own troubled past, which endangers his ability to do the job at hand.

For writer-director Nolan, this is a return to the territory of previous films such as Memento (2000) and The Prestige (2006), where he explores the themes of illusion and reality whilst playing an imaginative game with the audience.

We are firmly in the realm of science-fiction here, but interestingly the settings are very real world: imagine if Michael Mann had decided to mash up The Matrix with Ocean’s Eleven and you’ll get some idea of the terrain here.

With some concessions, the subconscious dream worlds appear as realistic as the conscious waking world, creating a persistent question as to which is real: a clever conceit, given that cinema itself is arguably the closest art form to a dream.

There are many stylistic nods to action films of the 1960s: a team of experts assembled for a job; glamorous locations; vivid production design and costumes; and a sense of mystery and wonder.

The Bond films of that decade seem a particular touchstone – one sequence plays like a homage to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) – and there are echoes of TV series from that era, such as Mission: Impossible and The Prisoner.

The huge success of The Dark Knight has allowed Nolan a particularly large canvas on which to paint, and he has filled it with gleeful abandon, mixing the traditions of the spy thriller and heist movie inside a surreal, shifting dreamscape.

Cutting between the real and virtual worlds bears similarities to The Matrix (minus the bleak, sci-fi dystopia) and Avatar (minus the alien planet) and Inception appears to be drawing from the same cultural well as those films.

Their success appears to be how they tap into the virtual nature of modern existence (through social networks and the web) as well as the escapist nature of watching a film, as a reality unfolds before us on screen.

All this is helped by being presented in an intriguing story on a grand scale, with the technical aspects especially outstanding.

The production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas is stunning, using real world locations to marvellous effect; Wally Pfister’s cinematography (utilising several formats including 35mm, 65mm and Vista Vision) captures intense emotions and epic action beautifully.

The visual effects (by Double Negative and Plowman Craven) are stunning and augment the in-camera action so well that they never feel like conventional CGI.

In addition, there are some highly imaginative sets overseen by special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, especially one amazing sequence involving a hotel, which bears comparison to similar scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001.

A special mention must also go to editor Lee Smith, as the third act involves some inventive warping of time and space, which must have proved a particular challenge in the edit suite.

Much of Nolan’s previous work rewards repeated viewing, revealing a meticulous attention to detail and subtleties not always apparent first time around.

The same is true for this film and viewers will be pleased that it is up to very high technical standards of Nolan’s recent films on Blu-ray (The Prestige and The Dark Knight), arguably surpassing them.

Nolan and his D.P. Wally Pfister are take great care in how they shoot and master their films and visually Inception looks stunning in HD, with the varied landscapes of the film and all the action sequences depicted with amazing clarity and detail.

The audio is equally impressive and, if you have the right sound system, the powerful DTS HD Master Audio Track is crisp and powerful, especially in the action sequences.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Warner Brothers have released this in a three-disc version: Disc One includes the film with a special ‘Extraction Mode’ feature which allows viewers to access making of footage; Disc Two is dedicated solely to special features; and Disc Three contains the DVD and Digital Copy data.

  • Extraction Mode (Disc 1, HD): This allows viewers to access over 45 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes alongside with Nolan and his crew as they discuss the ideas, characters, performances, and visual effects. Rather than use the traditional Picture-in-Picture mode it goes between the main film and Warner’s making-of materials. (An added bonus is that the individual behind-the-scenes featurettes can also be accessed from the main menu.)
  • 5.1 Inception Soundtrack (Disc 2, HD, 39 minutes): Hans Zimmer’s epic score is presented in 5.1 surround sound via a DTS-HD Master Audio mix and the only negative here is that the screen remains empty during all of them.
  • Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious (Disc 2, HD, 44 minutes): Joseph Gordon Levitt hosts this documentary about dreams which features doctors, psychologists, scientists and other experts to discuss the science of sleep.
  • Inception: The Cobol Job (Disc 2, HD, 15 minutes): This was released on the website to tie in with the theatrical release and is a Motion Comic, explaining the backstory of how Cobb, Arthur and Nash were enlisted by Cobol Engineering.
  • Project Somnacin: Confidential Files (Disc 2, HD): This allows you to access the secret tech files for Inception’s dream-share technology through a BD-Live portal.
  • Conceptual Art Gallery (Disc 2, HD): Over thirty pieces of concept art and pre-production images.
  • Promotional Art Archive (Disc 2, HD): A collection of the US and international posters for the film.
  • Trailers and TV Spots (Disc 2, HD, 16 minutes): A theatrical teaser, two full trailers and thirteen TV spots.

There is also a Limited Edition Briefcase edition that consists of a briefcase containing the Triple play pack (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy), a spinning top, theatrical Dream Machine leaflet and four art cards showing the main key art.

Inception is out on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 6th December from Warner Home Video

> Buy Inception on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon UK
> Official site
> Inception at the IMDb
> Reviews of Inception at Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes
> Various Inception links at MUBI
> Find out more about Christopher Nolan at Wikipedia

Categories
Amusing

If Inception Was A One Minute Film

Click this link for the appropriate sound effect.

[Via SomethingAwful and Buzzfeed]

Categories
Amusing Viral Video

Inception as 1950s B Movie

What if Inception had been made as a B movie in the 1950s?

This video gives us some idea:

[Via Movieline]

Categories
Behind The Scenes Interesting

The Sounds of Inception

One of the key features of any film is the sound design, a critical but sometimes overlooked aspect of the production process.

This video from the Soundworks Collection shows how the sounds of Christopher Nolan’s Inception were created, featuring interviews with supervising sound editor and sound designer Richard King, Re-recording Mixer Lora Hirschberg and Re-recording mixer Gary Rizzo.

“Inception” Sound for Film Profile from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Another aspect of the soundscape of Inception was the use of Edith Piaf’s Non, je ne regrette rien.

Originally I thought this might be some kid of reference to Marillon Cotillard (as she played Piaf in a 2006 biopic) but it turns out composer Hans Zimmer and Nolan wanted to use the song as the basis for the whole score.

Zimmer explained the process to the New York Times:

“all the music in the score is subdivisions and multiplications of the tempo of the Edith Piaf track. [It was] always in the script …It was like huge foghorns over a city, and afterward you would maybe figure out that they were related.

I didn’t use the song; I only used one note. [I got] the original master out of the French national archives. And then [found] some crazy scientist in France who would actually go and take that one cell out of the DNA.”

Have a listen here:

> Inception at the IMDb
> Wired article on the sound of Inception

Categories
Amusing Viral Video

Inception vs The IT Crowd

There are plenty of Inception trailer mash-ups on YouTube, but this one should please fans of The IT Crowd.

UPDATE: The creator of this video is Stefan Zurich. Follow him on Twitter (@StefSOFT) or check out his blog here.

> Original Inception trailer
> The IT Crowd at Wikipedia

Categories
Viral Video

Inception Viral Marketing

The online marketing campaign for Inception featured a clever use of Facebook and even a YouTube video featuring director Christopher Nolan and the best digital marketing companies.

Although it is now an established international hit, the film was a tricky one to market despite an A-list director and star.

For a big summer release it is unusual in that it wasn’t based on an established property (like a comic book or TV show) and the story isn’t that easy to explain in one line (although I’d go for Ocean’s Eleven meets The Matrix).

For Warner Bros this presented a challenge and Michael Tritter, Senior VP for Interactive Marketing at the studio, recently explained to KCRW how they dealt with it:

You have this movie which is going to have a pretty big built in fanbase …but you also have a movie that you are trying to keep very secret.

Chris [Nolan] really likes people to see his movies in a theater and not see it all beforehand so everything that you do to market that – at least early on – is with an eye to feeding the interest of fans.

So out of the idea that they had to drip feed the fans whilst also maintaining an air of mystery, they created an online game called ‘Mind Crime’ in which people could play and unlock various hints and pieces of information about the film.

As part of this campaign they used an official Facebook page to get people discussing what they had found and what the film might ultimately be about (this also paid off when the film came out and many wanted to discuss it further).

Facebook has a large number of gamers (think Farmville and Scrabble), so the ‘Mind Crime‘ game was a neat way of building viral buzz about the film whilst not explaining too much.

Another intriguing aspect within this campaign was a YouTube video entitled “Chris Nolan Research Footage” which was ‘leaked’ and saw the director interview three dream experts, in what appears to be his office.

It popped up back in late April under the username eclectic10167 and Nolan can be seen speaking to three dream researchers, two of whom are real whilst the other is an actress.

When she starts talking about ‘military research’ – an allusion to the world of Inception – funny things start to happen.

If you look closely you will see a poster for Nolan’s debut film Following in the background (a film also featuring a lead character called Cobb) and what appear to be a lot of Blu-rays on a shelf, although it is hard to be sure.

It should also be remembered that Warner Bros spent millions on outdoor posters, internet banners, trailers and TV spots, so where does the interactive element fit in to the wider campaign?

Of the balance between them, Tritter says:

I think there is not one without the other.

There is a level of engagement that a certain amount of the audience is going to expect, and that you really want to engage with.

And at the same time I think you would never not want the broad, mainstream part of it too.

In a sense, the marketing complemented the nature of the film. But I think that the very nature of the film itself was perhaps the most effective marketing tool.

It was complex and clever for a summer blockbuster, but executed in such a way that made you think constructively about what was going on.

The added bonus for Warner Bros was that people wanted to talk about it (and spread word-of-mouth via friends) and see it again (thus boosting the box office).

> Listen to Michael Tritter on KCRW’s The Business
> Econsultancy article on the marketing of Inception

Categories
Animation Interesting

Inception and Paprika

Inception has been one of the most talked about films of the summer, but something that caught my interest recently was these two YouTube videos pointing out the similarities between Christopher Nolan’s film and the 2006 anime film Paprika.

The latter is the story of a research psychologist who uses a device that allows therapists to enter patients’ dreams.

Nolan himself has admitted the influence of The Matrix, 2001, Heat and Blade Runner, but see if you can detect elements of Inception in this trailer for Paprika:

Now check out this mashup up of both movies.

Although there are clearly differences, did Nolan get his central concept from the Japanese film?

> Inception review
> Paprika at the IMDb

Categories
Amusing

Toy Story 3 vs Inception Mashup

This trailer mashup of Toy Story 3 and Inception by Mike Eisenberg of Screenrant is ingenious.

Categories
Images Interesting

Inception Timeline Graphic

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If you saw Inception recently and came out of the film wanting to to clarify some aspects of the plot, then this graphic by dehahs at DeviantART visualises the main mission along with the different characters, dreams and kicks.

I would recommend you skip it for now if you haven’t seen the film, but if you have then it is a good starting point for debating aspects of the puzzles Nolan created.

For a larger image click here.

[Via /Film]

> Inception review
> More about the film at Wikipedia

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Images Random

Is Inception About Inception?

 

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Cinema

UK Cinema Releases: Friday 16th July 2010

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NATIONAL RELEASES

Inception (Warner Bros.): The first blockbuster to come out at UK cinemas since the World Cup ended is this insanely ambitious sci-fi actioner from director Christopher Nolan. The story revolves around a gang of hi-tech thieves led by international fugitive Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who steals highly valuable information from people’s dreams. After a job on a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe) goes wrong, he is faced with the daunting challenge of ‘inception’: instead of stealing information, he must secretly plant some inside the mind of an important businessman (Cillian Murphy).

Assembling a team of experts (which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) who can help him execute the mission, he must also deal with his own troubled past, which endangers his ability to do the job at hand. The scale and ambition of this film is something to behold as Nolan returns to the narrative puzzles of previous films like Memento (2000) and The Prestige (2006) but does so on the scale of his recent Batman films (certainly this would never have got made if The Dark Knight wasn’t such a huge success).

This is a challenging film and many audiences might be put off by the way the story switches between the real world and the shifting dreamscapes of different characters. Having seen it twice now, the pieces do fit together, although at times you feel like you are struggling to remember a dream just by following the action on screen.

DiCaprio is solid in the lead role and his team have also been well cast: Joseph Gordon Levitt is a charming point man; Ellen Page nicely combines innocence and gravity as the rookie ‘dream architect’; Tom Hardy relishes his part as a forgerer; Ken Watanabe is a pleasingly enigmatic boss figure; Cillian Murphy conveys surprising depth as the rich mark and Michael Caine hits the spot in a smaller than usual part.

As you would expect for a Nolan film, it is a technical masterclass: the production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas makes stunning use of several real world locations; Wally Pfister’s cinematography captures intense emotions and epic action beautifully; the visual effects by Double Negative and Plowman Craven are so good they never feel like conventional CGI; there are some highly imaginative sets overseen by special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, especially one amazing sequence involving a hotel; and editor Lee Smith manages to warp time and space brilliantly throughout.

Warner Bros have spent a lot of money on this and must be a little nervous as to how audiences are going to react. It is a dense film which may put off viewers not willing to enter the maze Nolan has constructed. On the other hand there is pently of action and spectacle here and it may be a film that people will want to debate and experience a second time. It will have a big opening but there is a question over its longer term box office prospects. [Vue West End & Nationwide / 12A]

* Read my full thoughts on Inception here *

The Concert (Optimum Releasing): A French comedy about a former conductor (Aleksei Guskov) who, after being fired from the renowned Bolshoi Orchestra during the the communist era, sees a shot at redemption when he learns that they will be playing at a theatre in Paris. He recruits a young violinist (Melanie Laurent) to accompany his old musicians and hopes to stage a new concert with them.

Directed by Radu Mihaileanu, the score was composed by Armand Amar and the music on the soundtrack features works by Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Mozart and Khachaturian. Optimum will be hoping that arthouse audiences not interested in Inception will be interested in seeing a more accessible, feelgood European film. [Curzons Mayfair, Soho & Key Cities / 15]

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ALSO OUT

Bluebeard (New Wave Films): Based on the dark fairytale by Charles Perrault, about a young bride married to a murderous aristocrat, this film version also adds another narrative layer with with two present-day girls reading the story in an old book, which they have found in an attic.

Directed by Catherine Breillat, it stars Lola Créton as Marie-Catherine, the teen bride, whilst Dominique Thomas is Bluebeard. This faces arthouse competition from The Concert, and New Wave Films will be hoping fans more discerning fans of French cinema will turn out for this one. [Key Cities]

Mega Piranha (Metrodome Distribution): More exploitation nonsense from the studio that gave us Mega Shark, with the main selling point being that it stars 80s pop singer Tiffany. Referred to as some as a mockbuster, this will get a DVD release next month. [Apollo Piccadilly Circus & selected Key Cities]

Rapt (Artificial Eye): A French drama about a rich industrialist (Yvan Attal) who is kidnapped and held hostage is the latest film from director Lucas Belvaux. [Curzon Soho & selected Key Cities / 15]

Rough Aunties (ICA Cinema): A documentary of from director Kim Longinotto about child abuse in South Africa. [ICA Cinema]

> DVD and Blu-ray releases for this week including Green Zone and Bubba Ho-Tep
> Get local cinema showtimes for your area via Google Movies

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Cinema Thoughts

Inception

A blockbuster with brains and style, Inception is Christopher Nolan’s most ambitious film to date, although how mainstream audiences respond to this intricate tale is an open question.

The story revolves around a gang of hi-tech thieves led by international fugitive Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who steals highly valuable information from people’s dreams.

After a job on a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe) goes wrong, he is faced with the daunting challenge of ‘inception’: instead of stealing information, he must secretly plant some inside the mind of an important businessman (Cillian Murphy).

Assembling a team of experts (which includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) who can help him execute the mission, he must also deal with his own troubled past, which endangers his ability to do the job at hand.

To say any more about the plot of Inception would be wrong, as one of the chief pleasures in this lavishly intricate film is the way in which it unfolds, puzzling and surprising the audience like a virtuoso magician.

For writer-director Nolan, this is a return to the territory of previous films such as Memento (2000) and The Prestige (2006), where he explores the themes of illusion and reality whilst playing an imaginative game with the audience.

We are firmly in the realm of science-fiction here, but interestingly the settings are very real world: imagine if Michael Mann had decided to mash up The Matrix with Ocean’s Eleven and you’ll get some idea of the terrain here.

With some concessions, the subconscious dream worlds appear as realistic as the conscious waking world, creating a persistent question as to which is real. A clever conceit, given that cinema itself is arguably the closest art form to a dream.

DiCaprio is very solid in the lead role and his team have also been well cast: Joseph Gordon Levitt is a charming point man; Ellen Page nicely combines innocence and gravity as the rookie ‘dream architect’; Tom Hardy relishes his part as a forgerer; Ken Watanabe is a pleasingly enigmatic boss figure; Cillian Murphy conveys surprising depth as the rich mark and Michael Caine hits the spot in a smaller than usual part.

In a more challenging role, Marion Cotillard doesn’t quite hit the emotional mark required but her subplot is cleverly woven into the film and also bears some striking similarities to a key part of Memento.

The realistic touches inside a surreal world of dreamscapes, lends a sheen of believability and although the plot is an intricate hall of mirrors, there is enough exposition baked into the narrative to keep discerning audiences focused.

One could characterise Nolan’s Hollywood films so far as alternating between personal projects (Memento, The Prestige) and more commercial fare (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), but Inception is an intriguing hybrid.

The dreamscapes and narrative open up at times like Russian dolls on acid, so it has a challenging art-house vibe, but it is also one of his most commercial to date in terms of scale and look.

There are many stylistic nods to action films of the 1960s: a team of experts assembled for a job; glamorous locations; vivid production design and costumes; a sense of mystery and wonder.

The Bond films of that decade seem a particular touchstone – one sequence plays like a homage to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) – and there are echoes of TV series from that era, such as Mission: Impossible and The Prisoner.

The huge success of The Dark Knight has allowed Nolan a particularly large canvas on which to paint and he has filled it with gleeful abandon, mixing the traditions of the spy thriller and heist movie inside a surreal, shifting dreamscape.

The cutting between the real and subconscious worlds bears many similarities to The Matrix (minus the bleak, sci-fi dystopia) and if it does hit home with audiences, then I’m sure this will be obvious reference point for many viewers.

As is now customary for a Nolan production, the technical aspects of the film are especially outstanding.

The production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas is stunning, using real world locations to marvellous effect; Wally Pfister’s cinematography (utilising several formats including 35mm, 65mm and Vista Vision) captures intense emotions and epic action beautifully.

The visual effects (by Double Negative and Plowman Craven) are stunning and blended in so well that they never feel like conventional CGI.

In addition, there are some highly imaginative sets overseen by special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, especially one amazing sequence involving a hotel, which bears comparison to those in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001.

A special mention must also go to editor Lee Smith, as the third act involves some inventive warping of time and space, which must have proved a particular challenge in the edit suite.

Warner Bros may be concerned that mainstream audiences will be confused by the puzzle Nolan lays out. It should play well to most critics and discerning audiences eager for intelligent summer entertainment.

The litmus test for many will be the extended opening sequence. Go with it and you should not have a problem with the cinematic maze Nolan has built.

A lot of Nolan’s previous work rewards repeated viewing, revealing a meticulous attention to detail and subtleties not always apparent first time around.

Inception is no different and I look forward to seeing it again with a better understanding of how the narrative will map out. It works on first viewing but there are times when the ride is intense and you have to hold on to keep your bearings.

For Warner Bros, this must have proved something of a nightmare to market but the trailers and TV spots so far have actually done a good job in selling the central concept of the film.

As far as the studio was concerned I imagine the risks of this production were offset by Nolan’s track record with the Batman films and DiCaprio’s A-list star power.

A sense of mystery has helped make a TV series like Lost such a success, so an optimist might predict that Inception could tap into a similar audience hungry for intrigue and it may even be one they return to in significant numbers.

The quality and surprising nature of this summer blockbuster has led to some effusive early praise, some of it a little over-the-top, but perhaps understandable given the current standard of studio films.

No doubt this will lead to a backlash of sorts (perhaps geeks wanting to stand out as refuseniks on Rotten Tomatoes?) but there is no denying the technical brilliance on display here in service of an audacious story.

Not all of the balls juggled stay in the air – and further scrutiny may uncover inconsistencies in the densely woven script – but, like a dream, you accept the thrilling reality of this film whilst you experience it.

Inception is a rare thing: a summer blockbuster filled with intelligence and craft, which in the current reality of remakes and sequels, feels like a dream itself.

> Official site
> Inception at the IMDb
> Reviews of Inception at Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes
> Various Inception links at MUBI
> Find out more about Christopher Nolan at Wikipedia

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Posters

BP Inception Poster

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What if Christopher Nolan directed a new thriller about the BP oil spill?

[Click here for a larger image]

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Trailers

Trailer: Inception

When Christopher Nolan makes a blockbuster like The Dark Knight, a big studio like Warner Bros will then allow him to make a trippy looking, enigmatic film like Inception, which is out this summer.

> Official site
> More on Inception at Wikipedia

Categories
Posters

The Dark Knight vs Inception

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The newly released poster for Christopher Nolan’s Inception is a little similar to one of the Joker one sheets for The Dark Knight.

Is it a deliberate ploy by Warner Bros marketing to remind people that the films share the same director? Or has someone run out of ideas?

More to the point, why not reference that cool spinning top thing on the official website?

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In Production Trailers

Inception teaser trailer

The teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s new film Inception is here.


‘Inception’ Theatrical Trailer @ Yahoo! Video
> Official site
> More on Inception at Wikipedia
> /Film report on scenes shot at UCL in London