Understanding of Micro Elements in ‘The Dark Knight’

By Diego Nuccio

Opening Scene

• At the beginning of the scene, there is a 20 second extreme/establishing shot, which is very tense as the slow increase of the music pace indicates that something is about to happen. Also how the camera is zooming into the building, indicating that the audience should focus their attention onto that building as this is where the first event takes place. Seeing skyscrapers and large buildings, signifying a wealthy society .

•Here, there is a medium close up shot to let the audience see that this man has a clown mask with a gun shooting the window, thus letting the audience suggest that they are on the perspective of the antagonist.

• Here, we see an over the shoulder medium long shot, with a high angle, which allows the audience to look down to the character in focus who appears to be the villain, which is supported by the props used; the gun, mask and the gun used to smash the window.

• Here, we have a long shot so we can see how he is dressed in dark clothing and what he’s doing/holding, giving us the idea that he is out of place, compared to everything else in the shot, which appears to be a regular day in the city.•The camera is zooming slowly into the mask, indicating that this person working with the previous character. Also how the zoom tries to make the audience pay close attention to this particular mask/man.• Another thing is how the camera uses a slight shallow focus and that we should only be concerned with this man.

• This is an over the shoulder shot, which allows the audience to see where they’re going. The overall mise en scene indicates that a crime is about to take place, with a man holding a gun, all 3 of the men wearing masks to hide their identities and the guy at the back has a large bag which could carry a lot of money in it.

Here we have an overhead shot, letting the audience see where the antagonists are going and also showing how they are trying to be stealthy by travelling quite high up so that they won’t attract attention.

• Here we have a long shot , again so we can see what the character is doing and what he’s holding. There is also tracking movement by the camera, following one of the masked men, suggesting he may be the important one out of the rest. Also how it shows the men holding guns and stealthily running into the large building confirms that they are hosting a crime/robbery.

•The extreme long shot and tracking movement allows the audience fully see what is going on around the bank and what each man is doing (what their roles are in the heist) following the action with the characters making the audience feel involded.