The Dark Knight Opening

Release: 2008
Director: Chris Nolan
Studio: Legendary Pictures, Syncopy Films, DC Comics
$1, 004, 558, 444
Critical Acclaim: Won 2 Oscars, BAFTA, Golden Globe, AFI Movie of the Year

Narrative:
This film involves an antagonist or group of antagonists committing crimes and having to be stopped by the protagonist which in this case is Batman. The main antagonist in this film is the Joker, the audience finds this out when the group of bank robbers mention his name and inform the audience that the Joker was the one who created the plan to rob the bank. The film gives us insight from the beginning into the antagonists plan as they are dressed in masks and carrying weapons which represents that they are planning something bad.

Camera Shots and Angles: 

• The Warner Bros logo is the first thing to appear on the screen. The typography of the logo is very blue and black. These colours represent darkness and danger. The logo is made to look dark and cloudy because it helps to represent the genre and narrative of the film. The film is called the Dark Knight so the logo is made to signify a dark knight sky so immediately the audience gets an idea of the mood of the film. The dark sky also connotes scariness and danger and represents the idea of batman flying through this sky to save the day. 
• Establishing shot shows a busy city location with lots of tall office building. This immediately allows the audience to know the films location which helps link to parts of the films narrative. For example in a busy city like this there is stereotyped to be lots of crime.
• Zoom in on specific building where the character is and then zoom even further to a specific window. The character shoots through this window and it smashes. The zoom helped to emphasis the smashing of this glass and it gave cues to the audience that something was going to happen.
• Birds eye/high angle shot of the street from the high building. This exaggerates the height and danger of being this high up. Shows the antagonists off to be dominant and brave when they zip wire across to the other building. 
• Medium shot of woman working in the bank being robbed looking scared and holding her hands up in surrender. This exaggerates her fear and makes her look submissive and helpless compared to the antagonists who are robbing the bank.
• Close up of large bag representing to the audience that the antagonists aim is to steal money from the bank and transport it using large bags. This helps to represent narrative and gives the audience an idea of what will happen next.
• Medium shot of male bank worker trying to stop the robbers. His face looks angry and threatening, this represents him being brave and he is stereotyped as quite a heroic character to the audience.
• Close up shot of grenade being held in the mans hand. This shows he is helpless and can do nothing to stop the criminals or the grenade will go off and he'll be killed. He is shaking, this exaggerates his fear and the close up shot helps to show this off well. 
• Cross cutting between scenes of both the groups of antagonists discussing their plan. This allows the audience to see what is happening at the same time in two separate locations and allows them to piece together the narrative from this. Shows bank robbers in bank and the other villians cutting out the telephone communications. This shows the clever planning put into the robbery and gives the audience a chance to see both sides of what is happening and why. 

Sound:

• Dramatic non diegetic music of drum beats cuts in at the same time the Warner Bros logo appears on the screen. This creates tension and contrasts well with the dark dramatic way the logo is designed. From the beginning this music indicates to the audience that something bad is going to happen and the tension is created as they are watching and waiting for it to happen. 
• Non diegetic action-filled music cuts in when vehicle pulls up and antagonist gets in. This hints that the antagonist in the shot in planning something because the music is loud and exciting. 
• Diegetic sound of antagonists footsteps as they are sneaking into bank building. This signifies that they are trying to not get caught and to surprise the people working in the bank so they can do nothing to stop them from stealing the money and getting what they want.
• The sound effects of the gunshots followed by the scream of a woman indicates to the audience that the antagonists are dangerous. The sound effects exaggerate the sound of the gunshots and represent the danger of them even more. Danger is stereotyped with the action/crime genre so the gunshots help to represent this well.
• Non diegetic music gets louder as the antagonist runs down the steps and gets closer to the volts where all the money is. This signifies that the money is a key part of the narrative and that the criminals are closer to reaching their aim.

Mise En Scene:

• The antagonists are all dressed in similar costume. They all have clown masks on. Clowns have been represented as being scary and dangerous in many action/horror films recently so this connotes to tha audience that these characters might be bad. The idea of them wearing masks represents them wanted to hide their identity and hints to the audience that they are going to commit a crime and don't want to be caught for it. Masks are stereotyped with a lot of robberies as the robbers want their identities to stay hidden so this signifies that the antagonists may be planning a robbery or something similar.
• The antagonists are holding guns as props. Guns are often stereotyped as a weapon that a lot of common antagonists carry. Guns are associated with danger and violence which are both stereotyped with the action/crime genre. The guns also hint at the story line of the film.
• The clown faces the antagonists wear look menacing and evil which gives hints at the narrative and at the antagonists intentions. 

-The typography follows a similar theme. All of the idents are typed in black or blue darkly coloured fonts that light up on a black background.

-Right before the first shot some blue smoke/flames appear on the black screen. Flames are associated with danger and violence. Then in the flames a dark bat symbol appears and fades away quickly. This gives an idea of the narrative to the audience.