The Dark Knight Opening Analysis

Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is an action film about Batman "The Dark Knight" who has to stop the main antagonist The Joker, who is an criminal mastermind who uses his smarts to rob banks and get money. The Jokers main aim is to kill and find out  who Batman is.

The Characters

The Characters are very different to each other in the opening scene of the movie, they all have different masks which separates them very well. When they are in the middle of the heist they all have different roles which will make the plan successful, for example there are two on the roof and three that go through the main entrance. The ones on the roof are going to disable the alarms so that the police are not informed about the robbery and the three in the bank are going to do all the dirty work like crowd control and getting rid of security. However before the scene where the three clowns get in to the bank, there is one which is on their own. This makes it very suspicious for the audience because he is the only one that is by himself, so the audience could suspect him to be the main antagonist. Also he is different to the others in many ways, for example he is not wearing his mask and all the others are and his standing posture is like he has a hunched back. Also when he is standing on the curb it zooms onto his mask so it makes the audience look out for that particular person during the bank robbery. The audience could also notice that the clown is on his own and doesn't speak until the very end. The audience is made to look out for the Joker in the beginning and are given a lot of hints. For example when they zoom into the mask when he is standing on the curb. Each of the clowns look like they represent different emotions so that is how thy are separated from each other.

Sound
The sound in the opening of The Dark Knight is very important to make it set the tone for the audience. It starts of with non-diegetic sound which is the music. When they first zoom into the building you can hear a violin which makes it sound sinister and like something is going to happen. This gives the affect to the audience because they are expecting something sudden to happen. It also it makes it sound more intense because they are about to show something which is very serious and illegal in the real world. Also the music makes it sound like they are on a time limit and need to do it quick before the police get there. It also makes it sound like they are trying to be sneaky and not get caught so it plays beat constantly to make it more intense. It then shows the window smashing and the clowns setting up to get to the other side of the building. They also add all the other sound affects which make a big difference to the whole shot. For example when the clown shoots the gun, you can hear the wire make a zoom noise like it is getting shot and is going at high speed.This is known a diegetic sound which is in the shot, it adds a lot of affect to the shot and makes it sound realistic. Another example of a diegetic sound is the talking, when most of the clowns are speaking they sound like the average gang member who sounds like they have no education and are the tough guys. However when the Joker speaks he has a voice that sounds very menacing and can put fear into the people that he doesn't like. It also separates him from the other clowns so that he can look like the more scary person and is more of match for Batman.

Camera Angles
The Camera angles in the Dark Knight are very good and are used perfectly to get a good effect on the mood of the situation. At the start of the scene there is a camera shot which is long shot and it is zooming towards the building. This gives the audience the perspective that something is going to happen in the building, it also goes well with the menacing music, which brings the effect that something bad is going to happen. A close up shot is used on the Joker when he reveals his mask to the audience, this should bring a shocking reaction to the audience because they should know that
the Joker is one of the main antagonists so seeing him rob the bank at the beginning of the movie is a lot different then other movies. A tracking shot is used on the Joker when they are outside of the bank getting out of the car. It is mainly focused on him because the director wanted the audience to focus more on him then anything else.

Mise-en-scene 
In the opening the audience would identify symbols such as the clown masks, which represent the Joker. The director did this because the Joker is the main antagonist in the film. So he did this so people would think that those people work for the Joker, instead of the joker being in the gang with them. This could make the audience feel confused for when the Joker reveals himself by taking his mask to the bank owner. Also it could make people concerned about why he killed his crew when he would want as much help as possible to stop the Batman.

Props/Costumes

The Props used in the film are very realistic for example the guns, masks, vault and drill. The props that are used need to be realistic so that they add a good effect to the opening. The guns that are used in the bank robbery are typical for the action genre because it shows lots of fast paced scenes that get people excited for action.  Also the high tech tool they use like the drill are commonly used in bank robberies because they can make the audience think that they are a rich and well organised mafia or gang. The costumes which are used have a massive impact on how the audience may judge the film, for example if the robbers went into the bank without wearing the masks the audience may think that they are not as scary as they could be, they could also think that they would not be as intimidating to the ones that they are robbing. Also they are dressed up in black suits so they could be disguised as businessmen who cant be identified. This is also a good disguise because it is a city that is mostly made up of business so it will be hard for the police to identify them when they are dressed up.