The Dark Knight is a superhero thriller film released in 2008 distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and received a box office of $1.005 Billion. Directed by Christopher Nolan, cast includes Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Heath Ledger as The Joker.
The opening scene starts off with a wide establishing shot to show the location and setting of the movie, in this case the shot establishes that the setting is going to be the city of Gotham, due to the 'Gotham style' skyline. As the wide shot starts to zoom into one of the skyscrapers the music changes to a low almost creepy tune to create tension and anticipation and show that a key event is about to occur. Once zoomed in, we see a person with a clown mask, indicating that this is to hide the persons face and that potentially a robbery or some sort of task is going to take place. The music also changes into a dark ticking tune with drums added that also specify that a robbery or similar task will take place.
The opening scene starts off with a wide establishing shot to show the location and setting of the movie, in this case the shot establishes that the setting is going to be the city of Gotham, due to the 'Gotham style' skyline. As the wide shot starts to zoom into one of the skyscrapers the music changes to a low almost creepy tune to create tension and anticipation and show that a key event is about to occur. Once zoomed in, we see a person with a clown mask, indicating that this is to hide the persons face and that potentially a robbery or some sort of task is going to take place. The music also changes into a dark ticking tune with drums added that also specify that a robbery or similar task will take place.
The scene then cuts to a low angle shot of the back of a criminal that is holding his clown mask which can be seen above in the first and second picture (these screenshots used are all in chronological order of the opening sequence); this shows that it is not actually a team robbery like we may have thought and that this particular character is of some leadership and power to the team, this idea is made by the angle of the shot and the intimidating way the character is standing. This also shows that this robbery seems to be well thought out and clearly planned as each team member has a particular role. One of the criminals says ‘let’s do this’ which initiates the beginning of the robbery in which the camera cuts back and forth between the 2 separate groups within the team.
When showing what the criminals are doing, the camera has been strategically positioned to show all the members of the robbery. Starting with a two shot on the roof and an over the shoulder shot from the back seat of the vehicle (seen in the third picture). The criminals, looking almost confused and curious begin to talk about the man operating the robbery called ‘The Joker’. The shots cut from one group to the other whilst continuing the same conversation. Both the groups are finishing off each others sentences which shows that the team does not actually know who ‘The Joker’ is yet even though they are carrying out a bank robbery for him which could potentially ruin their lives either by death or life in prison. This shows both the power The Joker has and the fear he has put into Gotham and his own colleges.
When showing what the criminals are doing, the camera has been strategically positioned to show all the members of the robbery. Starting with a two shot on the roof and an over the shoulder shot from the back seat of the vehicle (seen in the third picture). The criminals, looking almost confused and curious begin to talk about the man operating the robbery called ‘The Joker’. The shots cut from one group to the other whilst continuing the same conversation. Both the groups are finishing off each others sentences which shows that the team does not actually know who ‘The Joker’ is yet even though they are carrying out a bank robbery for him which could potentially ruin their lives either by death or life in prison. This shows both the power The Joker has and the fear he has put into Gotham and his own colleges.
During the robbery, most jobs are done in pairs. Once a job is complete The Joker has previously instructed one of the team members to execute their partner and move on. This shows that the team obviously don't know each other well and are just all in it for themselves. An example of this is shown in the second column underneath the video.
This opening sequence is a Linear sequence as it is clear what is happening and the progress being made by the robbery team is easy to understand. Some binary opposites present would be 'Good vs Evil', 'Batman vs The Joker'. The type of lighting being used is mainly low key as this scene is very aggressive and dark so lots of black, dark blue and dark purple colours are used to help portray this. Overall the film definitely does relate to its target audience as even from the opening scene we get both the action and the drama, although due to the amount of killing and distressing outfits such as The Joker and the clown masks parts of the film could have a thrilling element to it.
