The opening sequence of The Dark Knight uses mobile camera work and fast-paced editing to create a tense atmosphere and give the audience a sense of participating in the bank heist. Various teams of masked robbers execute different parts of the plan across multiple locations. The sound design enhances the tension and action with a quick musical beat and diegetic sounds of the robbery. The mise-en-scene features the robbers in dark colors with distinctive clown masks, contrasting with the warmly-lit interior of the bank representing capitalist order. In the climactic final shot, the main robber removes his mask to reveal a scarred clown face, symbolizing deeper evil beneath the surface.
2. Camera shots, movement and framing
• Camera in this opening sequence is vary mobile. From the first shot the camera is dallying g in from a full shot of man standing
on a street corner with his back to the camera to a close up of a clown mask which the man is holding in his left hand.
• Next example camera movement is in the next shot which begins static with a medium long shot fallowed by a close up of two
masked man setting up zip line from a office window to a blinding accuse the street as the man zip down the line the camera
dolly's after them only to stop before it plunges down to the ground itself
– This shot cuts to an aerial shot (most likely filmed with a drone) of the two masked men zipping over the canyon of buildings and over a busy
street> this camera is also in motion as it “flies over” the masked men on the zip line
• In the following shot, the camera in fact is in a fixed position at the back of the cabin of a car showing more masked men sitting
in the car with their backs to the camera; however, movement is very much obvious as the camera is in medium close up and can
clearly show the windshield of the moving car creating more illusion of movement
• Even if the masked characters are static themselves, like in the following shot trying to dismantle the alarm system, the camera
(steady-cam this time) is moving around them creating a sense of tension
• Once the masked men exit their vehicle, steady cam is again employed to follow them; some panning is also used in this shot too
to further lens/camera movement around all axis
• As the masked men (clown masks) enter the bank the camera begins to track them with a steady cam and “runs” through the
bank almost as if it were one of their team
• The clip continues in this fashion as it either tracks with steady cam or dolly's in to characters or their actions from medium shots
to close-ups; no matter the speed of tracking, dallying or panning the camera is constantly on the move
• The only times the camera is static is to give the audience spoken information (through dialogue) which would otherwise go by
unnoticed if camera were moving or many characters (or objects) were moving and therefore distracting the audience
3. Editing
• Most importantly, since this opening sequence is representing a bank heist there is a lot of parallel editing as there are various
teams of robbers in various locations “taking care” of various actions related to the robbery
• In order to create a sense of urgency, fast pace and the adrenaline rush that comes from such genres and also to make it more
accessible to audiences, the pacing of the editing is fast
• Another feature of editing is that, since the camera moves so much and so often, a lot of the cutting is on movement which again
creates the effect of one smooth continuous motion throughout the clip which leads to its conclusion
• There are cuts to close-ups which either give the audience more insight into the skills of the very trained robbers or give audiences
a moment of respite to soak in the spoken (dialogue) information which is important for the understanding of the film’s overall
plot and themes
4. Sound
• The non-diegetic sound starts from the opening of the clip and runs to the end > it is fast paced with a quick beat giving the
whole bank heist a good background which is in tempo with the action on screen
• The only time it changes is at the end, as it builds up to a musical climax when one of the robbers takes of
their mask to reveal that it has been the Joker underneath the whole time
• Diegetic sound consists of various folly sounds of a bank robbery: guns firing, zip line sounds, safe cracking
sounds, gas bombs etc.
• Another interesting feature of the diegetic sound is that since the robbers’ faces are covered by clown
masks, their voices sound a bit muffled but are still quite clear.
5. Mise-en-Scene
• The opening sequence was shot in what was to appear to the audience as a generic North-American city with a lot of
high rises and office buildings
• The bank robbers are all wearing dark colours and their suit styles vary some are more casual than others (some
wearing suits even) but the most prominent mise-en-scene feature is of course each robbers’ clown face mask
• These clown masks are more of a grotesque nature to give the robbers and the whole heist a very eerie (scary)
feeling
• The interior of the bank is very spacious but also denotes power and success and because of the repetitive patterns
of the floor or the ceiling or the decorative pillars the banks represents order and regularity as espoused by capitalist
society
• The colors of the environments are predominantly gray and even have a blue hue in the safe room, except for the
interior of the bank which is of a yellowish hue. The director could have been trying to make an ironic comment
about capitalist society where only on the inside of a bank can you have a warmer color scheme as opposed to the
other parts of that world which appear quite cool in color tone
• The lighting in the bank is high key again keeping in tune with the warmer color tone, while in other parts of the clip
the lighting is low key and colder in hue
• The bank tellers are all dressed professionally
• The final bank robber standing finally takes of his clown mask to reveal his true face: it is another clown face, this
time with some deep scarring
– This has been done to show the audience that underneath the “creepy” clown mask there is an even uglier clown face which is the theme of the movie and
shows the audience that underneath evil there is an even deeper evil; this also shows that the Joker is the same on the surface as well as on the inside
– Also, this could be the Joker’s sense of humour which is very odd and that is an excellent introduction to his perverse sense of entertainment
Editor's Notes
This template can be used as a starter file for presenting training materials in a group setting.
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