Dark Knight opening

There are the conventional company names. In this film, there is Warner Brothers, Legendary Pictures and DC. These changes have been done to give a darker look to accompany that the movie will have a dark undertone.

There are no credits or film title; this is unconventional to not have them in a movie opening. This has been done to plunge the viewer straight into the world that is created and to believe that it is real.

A soundtrack starts on the opening shot to symbolise the beginning of both the movie and the heist. There are music stings between each cut and an increase in volume throughout the opening. At the end of the opening, there is a music sting when the reveal of the Joker to the audience and a sudden silence when he puts a grenade into a man’s mouth, but the music then continues after we learn it was just a smoke grenade. This was done to imply the show the fear the man had and the sudden relief that it was OK.

The movie is a crime, action, thriller film. The bank heist on a mob bank shows the crime and action but the grenades, that give a wicked twist to the heist, reinforces the fact that the movie is also a thriller.

Establishing Narrative

We open on an aerial establishing shot going over the bank towards a skyscraper like a plane going towards the twin towers; suggesting that an act of terror is about to occur. One of the windows is broken, two men shoot a zip line to the top of the bank, and the heist begins. This is done at eye level to make the viewer feel like they are there. We then see a low angle zoom of a man but we do not see his face. The low angle shot is to show his power/danger and it zooms in to a close up on a mask that he is holding to show that it is significant to the story. The man then puts on the mask and gets into a car that pulls up next to him.

The two men in the window put a bag of equipment on the zip line and go down onto the bank roof. The viewer is shown this with a tracking shot through the window, to again, make the viewer feel like they are part of the heist. Then it cuts back to the three men in the car with a medium, eye level shot to again reinforce that the viewer is there.

At this point, the audience starts to learn about the Joker from what the other men in masks are saying. We learn small things about him like how he has planed the heist on the bank, how he has instructed the men to kill the other men so that there is one less share, that he is so psychotic that he would give live grenades to the hostages and that he hasn’t told the entire heist plan to the men. From this we learn that the Joker is manipulative, crazy and a dangerous individual.

As the mob member was shooting at the Joker and the other criminal the criminal asks the Joker if the mob member was out, the Joker nods and the criminal pops up is shot. The Joker then shoots the mob member as he is looking away. The Joker has done this to save his life and get rid of another criminal so he does not have to; increasing his cut, and shows that he is manipulative.