Thriller Opening Research - Dan Fairhall (1 of 4)

The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan (2008)

The Opening for the Dark Knight uses all techniques of Editing, Mise en Scene, Camerawork and Sound. To create the setting for the rest of the film to be placed in the Thriller Genre.

Camerwork:

• Uses restrictive narration so that we do not see the face of the character who does not have his mask on. Suggesting his importance as the other robbers already have there masks on.
• The establishing shot of this sequence suggests an average day in a big city. However that is twisted by a window being smashed on the building suggesting a criminal event is about to happen.
• The sequence also uses a lot of build up shots to lead to the up and coming robbery such as the two robbers on the roof and the other three in a car looking to go towards the bank.

Mise en Scene:

• This sequence also uses all areas of mise en scene to make the build up suggest to the audience that it is a robbery that is going to take place, for example all of the "Robbers" are wearing masks and are carrying some sort of weapon, for me this is suggesting that it could only be building up to a robbery because there could be no other reason for that Costume and Props.
• Also the lighting and colour of this sequence is contradictory of what is happening in the narrative because the colour is very bright and you can clearly see that none of the subjects are hiding or being secretive in any way. But also the lighting shows clear day light which is contradicting because when we associate a robbery we think of a night robbery which would make for an easier hit without any people in there.

Editing:

• In this sequence the editing is typical for a thriller with a lot of slow mysterious shots and long takes, and the cuts are not sharp and quick as it seems slow and you do not tend to notice them.
• You can argue that the method of editing is parallel because you can see the characters on the roof and then the characters in the car who are both building up to the robbery but do not meet with a collision between the two "teams".

Sound:

• The sound that you notice more than the dialogue is the Non-diegetic soundtrack which helps the scene build up suspense for the audience.
• Most of the sound that you here is Diegetic and is also on screen and the only time we hear some off screen sounds is some screams from the hostages which may or may not be foley

The way that this all makes this film conform to the Thriller genre is because in the opening which is stylistically thriller is by having the Equilibrium as the robbers planning their raid of the bank and then the Disequilibrium happens when there enter the bank.