Opening Research - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Opening Sequence

The Dark Knight opens with an establishing shot of the city, the camera then slowly zooms in on a building. A window is being broken by two men in clown masks, these are the first characters we see in the film and as they are wearing clown masks and loading a gun, we associate them with fear. The scene then cuts to a long shot of a man on the side of the road, and then zooms in on the mask, which we already know signifies a 'bad guy'. The sound when the scene cuts to the bad guy gets increasingly tenser as the camera zooms in on the mask, this could be a hint that this man is the leader. When the car arrives to pick him up, the tense music stops allowing us to cut back to the two men in the office building.

We see the two men zip lining down onto another building from above as the camera tilts down onto of them to create a scale of how dangerous this plan is. It then cuts to three men in the car with one of whom we expect to be the leader. Here we hear to first lines of dialogue, though we don't see anyone's face as they are still all wearing masks. The two men in the front of the car are both talking about the leader of the plan, there are several close ups on the masks which shows the audience how creepy they look as the mouths don't move when they speak, this is done to scare the audience. The scene then cuts to the two men on the roof also talking about the leader of the plan who is called 'The Joker'. They don't know much about him, so he is shrouded in mystery.

The three men then run into the bank, shooting to signify that it is a robbery, the sounds of the gun fire is significantly enhanced to give the impression of actually being there. The camera is constantly moving at this point and pans between the different men as they all handle different people, this gives the impression of how chaotic the plan is.

The scene then cuts again to the men on the roof, after a close up on the alarm we see both men are in shot but the man at the back is slightly out of focus. When we cut back to the men on the roof again we see the man at the front being shot, this shows that these men are not to be trusted as he then runs off with the dead persons tools.

As we see him running towards the vault, the music suddenly becomes much louder,tenser and has a stronger beat, this tells us that we are nearing the climax of the scene and it is now building up to a surprise. It then cuts back again to the men in the banks but this time it shows a mid-shot of the bank manager looking around, this tells us that he is going to do something. The scene then cuts back again to the vault with a panning shot looking at a large metal door. After a few seconds it, it then cuts back to the men with the hostages, and one of the men with a clown mask explains why they are giving them grenades to hold, this creates tension as one of them could blow at any moment, if someone lets go. The scenes then constantly change between the two locations, these very quick changes disorientate the audience as makes the scene more chaotic and action packed.

As the camera cuts back to the men in the main room of the bank, we have a close up on the bank manager, who unlike everyone else is not scared, we establish a connection with this character as he is standing up to the 'bad guys'. We then hear a loud gun shot and glass breaking as he shoots one of the clowns. The camera then moves out on a dolly as the bank manager is going after the men. The music at this point is becoming louder and louder and the beat is increasing. More very quick changes follow to show that everything is happening in parallel. As we cut back to the man opening the vault, another clown runs in, this shot is very similar to the one on the roof before, with it being a two person shot and the man at the back slightly out of focus, so the audience is expecting him to be shot.

The scene ends with the two remaining men standing around the money, it is at this point that we hear the man whom we expect is the leader speaking for the first time. It then does several reverse shots of the two men talking to each other, with close ups on there faces. During this the music is almost silent but when the bus bursts in, it is again enhanced to scare the audience.