How the Inception Corridor Scenes were Filmed

Here’s detailed information about how the corridor scenes in Inception were filmed.

Director/writer Christopher Nolan wanted things to look as real as possible and decided to keep the CGI (computer generated imagery) to a minimum. Sets were built inside a huge hangar in Cardington, England to film the rotating and tilt scenes in the movie. The effort took coordination between Chris Corbould (special effects supervisor), Guy Hendrix Dyas (production designer), and Wally Pfister (Cinematographer).

Keeping with the realism, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) filmed his own scenes, rather than use a stunt double.  Weeks before filming of the corridor and other hotel scenes began, Gordon-Levitt trained and rehearsed with stunt coordinator Tom Struthers’ team.

There were actually two versions of the corridor built: one that rotated and one that was stationary. The stationary one was built in the vertical position. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) wore a harness and wires while filming those scenes so he could fly, fall, and jump around. When the film is played back showing the hallway in the normal, horizontal position it gives the effect that Arthur and the other characters are floating in zero gravity. They also did things with the actors’ clothes, such as put wires in their shoestrings to keep them stiff, so it added to the effect that the people were actually floating and not falling.

The spinning version of the corridor set was 100 feet long and could spin up to eight revolutions per minute. It was suspended from massive, equally spaced rings and was powered by two electric motors. A remote-controlled camera was mounted on a plate that ran on a track beneath the corridor floor.  Because they couldn’t use the normal movie lights to brighten the scene during filming (or they would be in the shots), they devised a lighting scheme using the sconces and pendant lights that were on the walls of the hallway to brighten the scenes.

Similar effects as those mentioned above were used to film scenes in the hotel bar, the hotel room, and the elevator shaft.

So, now that you know that, here are some clips I took from the Inception trailers showing some of the things discussed in this posting.

Source: Inception production notes.  Song: Dream within a Dream from the Inception soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

The magic of the spinning corridor and 9 other Inception resources

Want to know how they filmed that spinning corridor scene in Inception?  Here’s what I found out.  Also, here are several other great Inception resources I have come across – sites, articles, notes, videos – that I thought you might like.  Enjoy!

1. The official Inception web site is pretty cool and has a lot of great info.  You can skip past the trailer to enter the main site. Look closely on the left side of the screen and click the Menu.
2. This link on the official Warner Brothers site provides production notes about Inception including how writer/director Christopher Nolan pulled his team together, where and how filming took place, and details about all the major characters and the actors who played them.
3. The 5 Levels of Inception by Matt Sinopoli and Josh Tyler provides a great explanation of each of the levels, including who was dreaming, who was there, and what the goal was of each level.
4. Chris Corbould is the mastermind behind the spinning corridor and other cool moves in Inception. Wired magazine’s Behind the Special Effects of Inception article by Kevin Maher describes how Corbould did it.
5. In Dissecting Inception: Six Interpretations and Five Plot Holes, Peter Hall provides his opinion of what really happened and describes some holes he feels exist in the story.
6. Here is the kick ass Inception soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.  Listen to it while you’re working to make your job at least sound epic.
7. In The Neuroscience of Inception, Jonah Lehrer explains how the very act of watching Inception affects the brain similar to the way a dream does: “…a process in which your senses are hyperactive and yet your self-awareness is strangely diminished.”
8. The company Double Negative was involved in creating the effects for Inception.  Here is Double Negative’s full project list and here is a showreel of their best work.
9. This is a fun video on YouTube that shows Toy Story 3: Inception.
10. Here is some B-roll behind the scenes footage from the movie:

Movie Review: Inception

Odd, mind blowing, thought provoking.  Those were the words my friends used to describe Inception immediately after we saw it.  I will add “complicated.” Inception. Hmm, how in the world can I describe it? Imagine if The Matrix and Vanilla Sky could somehow magically have a child together.  Now imagine if Minority Report came by once in awhile to babysit.

I’m not saying that the plot of Inception is similar to those movies; it’s like them in that they all get you to thinking about whether what the characters are experiencing right now is actually the real world or the alternate/dream world.  Dreams within dreams, several layers deep, with snippets of the subconscience creeping in, all cleverly woven together. What’s real, what’s the dream? Whose dream are we experiencing? Which world are we in right now? Like I said: complicated.  It’s very hard to explain, but interesting.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a thief who has the ability to steal ideas by entering a lucid dream state and then entering other people’s dreams.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, Cobb’s partner in crime.  One day they are met with an interesting proposition: If you can steal people’s ideas by entering their dreams (extraction), why couldn’t you also do the opposite and implant an idea into someone’s head through his dreams (inception)?  Saito (Ken Watanabe) wants Cobb to find out if it is possible to implant a suggestion into Robert Fischer, Jr’s (Cillian Murphy) mind in a move that would greatly benefit businessman Saito. Cobb has the opportunity to try this scheme in exchange for something he has been wanting for a long time. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, a sharp architect who is brought in to help with the plan. Tom Hardy and Dileep Rao round out the team.

The result is a very complex and elaborate story featuring plenty of topsy turvy, gravity-defying movement and buildings toppling over.  Oh yeah, and the requisite car chases, explosions, and lots of guys shooting at the main characters. I expected even more special effects than there actually was, judging by the trailers, but there was still quite a bit and it was spectacular.

My friends and I spent quite a bit of time talking about Inception afterward, comparing ideas about what was really happening at various scenes and what the ending really meant.  I suggest that if you do go see it, plan to go have dinner or coffee or something afterward so you can discuss it with your movie date(s).  Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

Inception was difficult to follow at times because of the level of complexity, but I liked it. I give Inception four out of five Slurpees.  Go see it and tell me what you think.

* Inception * Director/Writer: Christopher Nolan * Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe * Time: 148 minutes * Rated PG-13 * Action/SciFi * Trailer * Soundtrack *