Luke Fortser

Micro essay: An Analysis of Cinematography and Sound in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight

The film that I chose to analyse is The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan. The clip that I have chosen is the bank robbery scene from the opening parts of the film. The microelements I will be focusing on are cinematography and sound.

This scene begins out with an establishing aerial shot of one building in the “Gotham” sky rise this shows us that the film is set in present day, as the building looks very modern. The camera then zooms in towards a certain window whilst playing incidental music along side giving us the idea

that action is about to start. The film then uses a matching action shot of the window smashing and the person that shot through it. This shows us that there is some form of crime going on as they then proceed to shoot a zip line over to another building. During this scene we hear a lot of incidental, non-diegetic music that carries on throughout.

After this we are given a medium long shot of a fairly well dressed man stood with a duffle bag and a clown mask giving us the impression he is with the other men we see in the opening shot. It then goes to a tracking shot to a close up of a clown mask, which this man is holding in his hand. During the tracking shot it changes from a deep focus to a

shallow focus of the mask. This is used to make sure the focus is on the mask and nothing else. This could be hinting at the main villain, as it is a foreshadowing effect to keep showing joker/jester figures throughout the scene. After this we then see a pull focus from this character on to a rough looking truck. This could be showing us that the people who are doing his job don’t have much money. The scene then keeps cutting from this group of three back to this group of two showing us that they are all working together as they are having ironic conversations that coincide with each other. “ I know why they call him the joker” then after the cut another extra says “so why do they call him the joker?”

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After this conversation ends we then are shown the three men getting out of the truck but the focus is kept on one of them using the rule of thirds, we know this because he is in the centre of view taking up most of the frame. This

could be because he is a higher power in this team but we still have the idea that all of them are even in power. It then keeps the focus on this one villain using a panning shot as they enter a bank giving us more of an idea that he is of importance. The film then proceeds to show us a steadicam shot of this bank as the three villains run down to the desks. We then see a medium close up of a woman touching something under her desk. This is used to make it easier to cut in the other two men that are still on the roof. The extra then goes on to say, “here comes the silent alarm” during this we see the other man reach into his coat from the over the shoulder shot of the clown that is talking. This then gives us the idea that he is going to do something to the other man. But before we find out it cuts to a close up of a duffle bag that is being opened showing that the contents are grenades. The villain that had the focus on him earlier then proceeds to put these grenades in people’s hands then pulling the pin. This is used to show the nature of these criminals and that no one is safe in this situation.

After this we then cut back to the two on the roof where the clown that disabled the alarm states that he is done. The other character then shoots this clown and it shows a pull focus from the clown being shot to the other. They show this so we know the nature of the criminals doing this job. It then has a few fairly meaningless cuts until we see a medium close up of a character sat in his office. His face is emotionless with no panic shown it keeps the focus on his face until. It then cuts to a clown in the bank who is shouting at the hostages, we then hear a

gunshot and see that the man who was sat in the office has a gun. This makes these sounds diegetic and synchronous whilst incidental music still plays over the top of the scene. The man then walks out through the window that he smashed to find and kill the crooks. During this it cuts away

to a medium close up of the clown trying to get his way in to the vault but is electrocuted and shocked. This shows the bank isn’t an ordinary one and the robbers are dealing with something much more serious. As he walks we see a tracking shot looking at this man and a point of view shot of this man seeing a

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clown running behind the desks as this man shoots. We then are shown a close up of the two clowns sat behind a desk showing their fear even though they have masks we see they are covering behind the desk. The main clown then attempts to shoot the attacker but is shot back at. After we know the character shooting has ran out of rounds the clown then stands up and shoots him. A zoom is then used to show the face of the clown that shot him and he way he looks gives us an idea of the character being confused almost.

We are then shown a full body, long shot of one of the remaining clowns running in to the same room as the clown trying to get into the vault. Alongside the incidental music the two clowns have a few lines of dialogue making a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. We then see a close up of the vault locks being spun so we know they are opened and the clowns say “one less share right?” and the other clown states “funny, he told me something similar” from this we know he is going to kill the clown before he actually does this.