Group 10Steven NuthallJamie GordonDaniel Finn

Budget:$185,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend:$158,411,483 (USA) (20

July 2008) (4366 Screens)

Gross:$533,316,061 (USA) (1

March 2009)

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Pictures

Legendary Pictures DC Comics SyncopyDistributors Warner Bros.

(2008) (UK)

Christopher Nolan

Born July 30, 1970 (Aged 40)

London, England, UK

Lives in Los Angeles, California, USA

Nolan is British-American film director, screenwriter and producer and is the founder of the production company Syncopy Films. He often collaborates with his wife, producer Emma Thomas,his brother, Jonathan Nolan, as well as composer Hans Zimmer and actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine.

His Influences are: Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott

Known for: Batman Begins The Dark Knight Inception Memento The Prestige

•The film opens with a zoom which helps to establish the setting. The camera zooms in on one building in particular which makes you want to watch on and find out why.

•There is a zoom/close up of a clown mask that a man is holding. Again this grabs the audiences interest as they want to know why the man is holding the mask for and what its significance is.

•There are frequent pans and high angle shots throughout the scene which fulfil one of the main conventions of a film which is to establish the setting.

•Argubly the main function of camera is to establish the characters involved the film. There are frequent close ups of the robbers faces and their clown masks. However this is also significant as it creates an enigma because the robbers faces are not revealed and therefore you cannot see their facial expressions. This also deepens the narrative and creates tension.

Title sequence :From the very beginning of the movie the screen is a dark blue (even the titles and production company logos ) which can be associated with thriller as it sets a dark tone and sets the mood and feel of the movie, something bad is going to happen.

Setting: After the title sequence the audience is introduced to the where the action is going to take place which is in a big city with tall skyscraper suggesting a rich and large society. As the action start the audience finds out that in this city a bank robbery is taken place. The use of a crime can help the audience realise this is a thriller , the movie will centred around the crime and who committed it.

Costume: The audience are then introduced to 5 characters who are all dressed in suits, casual jacket and clowns masks which we find out they are wearing them to hide their identity as they are robbing a bank. Then there is the character who is wearing clown makeup. Who takes off his clown mask to reveal his face to the audience this is a twist as he as seen as being just part of the robbers but in fact he could be the leader or as the robbers say “the joker”.Finally there is the bank owner he is smartly dressed as has a very confident personality he is not afraid and is wiling to protect the people who come to the bank and his work colleagues. The bank owner could be maybe seen as the hero of the film but he is killed by the robbers which then leaves the audience wondering who the hero will be .

Facial expressions: the audience can not see the facial expressions of the robber s as they are behind masks which then makes the audience wonder how they are feeling e.g. Do they really want to do this job , do they have ulterior motives (kill all the other robbers and take the money). The facial expressions on the bank employees and the customers help create a dark and tense mood make the audience wonder what will happen them . However the bank owner has a very confident expression he is going to take down this robbers , he also keeps this expression while on the floor after being shot which says he is not afraid giving the impression he is the hero however he is not the hero.The last robber then takes off his mask and has a very crazy facial expression which says that he is a bit weird and doesn’t care if he is caught.

Movement: The robbers are all fast paced they want to get the job over and done with as quick as possible so that they don’t get caught. The people in the bank ( the employees and the customer ) are all crouched and holding grenades so that they don’t run off and call the cops . The bank owner as said before rises up he walks calmly and with confidence as he doesn’t want to show the robbers any signs of weakness they can take advantage of. The last of the robber is very shy at the start he walks slowly following the other as he doesn't want the others to know that he is “the boss “ but after he has revealed himself he is more quirky and just seems to walk off with out a care showing his personality he doesn’t really care what happens.

Sound includes dialogue, music and sound effects these are very important as they help create mood, suspense and help to drag the audience in such as the gun shots in the background from the banker make the audience wonder what just happened did some one die ?

Sound effects: the very first piece of sound the audience hears is the sound of a rappel being fired by one of the robber and the window smashing as the rappel goes through it this creates suspense and tension as it make the audience why have these people have a rappel and what they are going to do with it. Which we find out is using it to get to the roof of the bank. We then hear the sound s of a van pull up and another person with clown mask gets in to which we find the van is driven by a another person with a clown mask and a passenger also in a clown mask. Which makes the audience think are all these masked people together?

Music: The music used during the dark knight is perfect for a thriller it is dark, fast paced and keeps in time and fits with the action. The music is switched out between the different sets of robbers for the robber on the roof there is some fast paced drums and the robber is the van there is a buzzing noise which gradually get louder until the van pulls up and then the drumming and a violin begin to play up to when the robber breach the bank so that the audience can focus on the dialogue.

Dialogue : In the van the two robber in the front are talking about how much money they will all get and then mention a name “the joker” which make the audience think who is this “joker”, is he a main character, will they meet him soon? The two robber on the roof then describe “the joker” he wears war paint to scare people .This talk of money then builds tension as the robber drive towards the bank. One of the robbers then mention “ who uses a bank which is 5000 volts” the other robber replies “ a mob bank” this suggest tot he audience that the plot is about a mob regaining their money back. Finally the robber wearing clown make up says “ what ever doesn’t kill you make you stronger “ suggest he has done this sort of thing before .

The fact that the final robber know about the bus driver suggest that eheis the boss and that he is very clever he has timed everything to perfection . The fact he is very clever also make the audience think will their be more cleverly though over plans like this robbery later on in the movie? Thus creating suspense and drawing the audience in to find out who this robber is and want to learn more about him and will he be stopped ?

The bank owner speaks with a loud tone so that the robbers can hear and feel threaten by him which they do they cower behind a table he then says to the robber “ do you know who your stealing from you and your friends are dead”. He is trying to warn the robber to stop and leave otherwise something bad will happen.

One of the robber on the roof says “ that’s weird it didn’t call 911 it was calling a private number which make the audience think who did it call ?

•There is a lot of parallel editing in the opening scene. There are two sets of robbers shown. One group is in a car going somewhere and one group are using a zip line to access a roof. The parallel editing makes the audience wonder why the groups are separated and therefore what each one is going to do. The use of parallel editing therefore fulfils one of the conventions of a thriller which is to entice the audience to watch on.

•Throughout the scene there are a lot of jump cuts. Jump cuts are usually used to represent fast paced action and “The Dark Knight” is no exception. The jump cuts are used when the actual robbery is taking place and are used to represent the speed at which the bank robbery is taking place and the fast paced nature of the action. The jump cuts are also helpful in establishing the characters in the film and in fulfilling another convention of a thriller which is that there is a crime at the core of the narrative.

•Another form of editing used in the opening scene of “The Dark Knight” is a shot reverse shot right at the end of the scene. Hit reverse shots are nearly always used in conversations and in this case combined with the dialogue the shot reverse shot reveals the complex narrative structure of the film.

•Overall the editing is key to meeting the conventions of a thriller. Through the use of editing a complex plot is revealed which draws the audience in and makes them want to watch on. The editing also establishes the crime at the centre of the narrative and they also help to establish the characters and to an extent the setting.