the dark knight- media codes
TRANSCRIPT
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The DarkKnightThe joker- MediaCodes
Eleanor
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visual At the start, it is obvious that there are two differentpersonalities in the room. The joker has very dark lighting
which contrasts with the lighter background for the man.
When the lights flicker on, the jokers face is made much
clearer emphasising his features further.
The Jokers face paint hides his real emotions in a way.
The red smile dripping evokes connotations of blood as
apposed to a happier smile. This contrasts with his pale
white face, which looks skeleton/skull-like, ghostly andcould connote death.
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visual The confined, small room is extremely basic with nomajor props. This connotes to the audience that they are
in a prison cell/room.
The handcuffs represent that he is a serious villain that
must be restrained.
The lighting goes from almost pitch black and barely
seeing the jokers face to bright lights highlighting every
feature of his spooky face. This change in lighting also
allows us to see the action scenes much more clearly.
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AUDIO- diegetic
sound The sudden amplified sound of the: door shutting, handcuffs
slamming onto the table and the jokers head being whacked
onto the desk engages the audience and makes them jump
due to the short, sharp volume increase.
The Jokers tone of voice and dialogue is extremely strange asit changes tempo and volume at random intervals- from
whispers to shouts. Furthermore, the heavy breathing and
constant swallowing could connote his uncomfortable position
and thus the audience may be obliged to feel the same.
The Jokers voice is quite softly spoken which contrasts
drastically with his personality- with him being the villain of the
film. We can tell this due to his intentions of killing two
innocent people.
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AUDIO- non-
diegetic sound
The backing music when the audience see Batmans facehitting the joker for the first time, a booming, heartbeat-like
soundtrack plays on top. This could be to increase the
suspense of the scene by making the audiences heart rate
gradually speed up- almost mimicking the sound from the
scene.
When the joker states he is not a monster, a high pitched
chime noise plays, however he is interrupted by the diegetic
sound of batmans chair scraping backwards and him ramming
his arms onto the joker- yanking him out of his seat.
The backing music then resumes to the booming heartbeat-
although due to the previous violent actions, is much faster
and louder this time.
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CAMERA Close up shot of the jokers face as the lights flicker on-highlights the red slits either side of his face. This
emphasises his violence, eeriness and scary smile which
should connote happiness, but actually signifies a
demon/evil.
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CAMERA Eye level camera angle for both batman and the jokercould represent their equal status and authority.
Over shoulder shots are used to focus on the characters
facial expressions and emotions they're going through.
The fact that this is at eye-level to the camera allows theaudience to understand their perspective better. For
example, we can
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CAMERA
When Batman grabs the joker, the camera pans out to awide shot in order for the audience to see the full extent
of the violence. This leads into the next camera shot in
which batman is looking down on the joker through the
use of a low angle shot. This may connote that Batman is
now more in control.
Also, the camera is looking down on the joker in the more
violent scenes to connote that he is not as physically
strong as Batman.