1 / 11

The Dark Knight ACTION OPENING

the dark knight action opening sequence

kieramilward
Download Presentation

The Dark Knight ACTION OPENING

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. ACTION OPENING- THE DARK KNIGHT

  2. THE DARK KNIGHT • The dark knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced, and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on DC Comics character Batman, the film is the second installment of Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy and a sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins. • With the help of allies Lt. Jim Gordon and DA Harvey Dent, Batman has been able to keep tight lid on crime in Gotham City. But when a vile young criminal calling himself the Joker suddenly throws the town into chaos, the caped Crusader begins to tread a fine line between heroism and vigilantism.

  3. WHAT NARRATIVE IS GIVEN TO US AND FROM THIS WHAT DO WE EXPECT THE REST OF THE FILMS NARRATIVE WILL BE FROM THE INFORMATION WE HAVE SEEN? • A gang of criminals robs a Gotham City mob bank, murdering each other for a higher share until only ’The Joker’ remains; he escapes with the money. The fact that these masked criminals and ‘The Joker’ have robbed the mob bank, could suggest that later on in the movie the ‘mob’ (mafia) will want to take revenge on ’The Joker’. From this scene we should also expect a high volume of killings, heights, murders, stealing and fast paced car chases. ’The Joker’ leaves the scene in a school bus full of money… will we see where it goes?

  4. WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THIS FILM, HOW DO WE KNOW THIS FROM THE OPENING SCENE? • The target audience is aged -15-35years. • We can infer this because the film has a 12A classification. • It is predominantly aimed at a male audience that will enjoy reading comics and most likely have seen the previous Batman movies in the franchise. • As the genre is action, it will further appeal to a male audience because of the high tech gadgets, cars and weapons of mass destruction.

  5. HOW IS THE GENRE OF THE FILM SET UP IN THE OPENING SCENE? WHAT KEY CONVENTIONS HAVE BEEN USED? VILLAIN- -Villain that is meant to be disliked by the audience. Themes- -Violence, quick scenes, fast editing, big guns fights, car chases. SOUND - High tempo music creating dramatic effect. A mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound is used to accompany and emphasize action. Straight away after a loud smash of a glass window and wheels screeching, a fast paced and tension building piece of music is played, EDITING - Fast paced. - Wide Camera Angles and positions are used to add excitement and tension throughout the scene.

  6. Finally, we see a front on shot of the clowns landing from the zip wire, with the broken window above. The editing is fast paced, the camera movement is quick and disorientating. In the first minute of the opening scene the audience knows this is an action packed movie. ESTABLISHING ACTION GENRE- An awesome birds eye view shot rapidly zooms from the perspective of the clowns from the back of the room to outside the window looking down to the busy road beneath. To add to this the SOUND is fast paced and low pitched violins vibrating. The tempo matches the busy camera movement and editing. Emphasizing the dramatic action. The most effective way that the Opening Scene establishes the action genre, is through the use of Camera Work and Non-diegetic sound when the clowns are zip wiring from the brown window on a skyscraper to the roof of the mob bank. In this helicopter shot, we track the three clowns zip wirering over this busy road. The shot is used to disorientate the audience. IT IS ACTION PACKED.

  7. HOW MANY CHARACTERS ARE INTRODUCED AND WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THEM? HOW DO WE KNOW THIS ABOUT THEM FROM THE USE OF TECHNICAL ASPECTS? THE WHOLE OPENING SEQUENCE, ALL THE DIALOGUE AND THE ACITON BUILDS TO THE REVEAL OF THE JOKER. We learn that the clowns are working for ‘The Joker’. Each dialogue between the clowns, is on the topic of ’The Joker’ and if he is there with them, or why he has got them to rob this bank in particular, all in preparation for him to turn up as one of the clowns at the end, as he tears his mask of and an extreme close up shows Heath Ledger in the iconic makeup underneath. ‘What do you believe in?’ ‘I believe that what ever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger”. The Joker in reality doesn’t care about CONVENTIONS, HONOUR CODE, GOTHAM CITY, THE MONEY OR THE PEOPLE. But he cares about messing with people eg/the banker.

  8. CAMERA WORK An establishing shot of a large building within a city. The camera pulls focus onto one particular section of the high mirrored glass building suggesting that it will play a significant role in the films gradual development. The sudden breaking of the glass with a cut to a mid shot of a clown holding a weapon indicated to the audience that we are viewing the action from the antagonists (the clowns) perspective. The scene then cuts to a mid shot of an anonymous individual who is the only clown so far that is on his own. The camera pulls focus from the back of a whole body to the mask in the mans left hand, the camera shots zoom from a mid shot to a close up on the mask for over 10 seconds. This focus change to the clown mask, if a well known characteristic of a bank robbery, establishing the action about to follow. This track shot shows the importance of this persons unknown identity. Who is the man behind the mask? This clown turns out to be ’The Joker’ himself.

  9. EDITING A key use of editing, that is used very rarely in film is the first edit we see. After the wide establishing shot of the Gotham skyscrapers, the camera zooms into a specific part of a building and we see a window that explodes outwards. The camera uses an exterior to interior shot from outside the building to inside where the clowns have blown up one a window to zip wire out of. Usually and establishing shot just highlights the location as to where the characters are set. However, this particular establishing shot begins the action straight away. This window exploding is unexpected., fragmenting shards of glass outwards. This is representative of a main theme of the movie: UNEXPECTED CHAOS. The chaos of the window breaking outward, before the cut into the interior of the building, foreshadows the surprises that will occur in the rest of the movie, the destruction of the city that happens in this movie and the fragmentation of the characters ( the clowns begin to kill each other in the opening to gain more power/ more of the share)

  10. EDITING 180 DEGREE FLIP! A 180 degree flip is a rotation of a point through 180 degrees. The shot simulates human perseption. You cannot flip 180 degrees in real life, the camera work and editing is effectively used here to show THREE 180 degree flips and completely disorientate the audience. The flip, introduces the interior layout of the bank and introduces the banker.

  11. SUCCESSFUL OPENING SCENE??? THE DARK KNIGHT OPENING SCENE IS ONE OF THE BEST ACTION MOVIE OPENINGS IN ALL TIME. THE COMBINATION OF -FAST PACED MUSIC, VIOLINS – CAMERA MOVEMENT -CAMERA ANGLES – EDITING AND DIALOGUE CREATES A DISORIENTATING BANK ROBERY, INTROUDCES THE THEMES OF CHAOS AND BUILDS UP TO THE REVEAL OF THE JOKER SO EFFECTIVELY.

More Related