Opening sequence analysis

How does the opening sequence establish narrative?

The opening in the Dark Knight establishes narrative by creating a catalyst in which the hero will be introduced (Batman). The scene also shows the main villain of the film (the Joker), giving the audience an idea of his intelligence and cunning when he tricks all his 'followers' into killing each other leaving him with the loot. This scene also establishes that the narrative will contain violence and criminal behavior with the villain acquiring a large amount of money.

How does it establish character? 

The scene establishes the character (the Joker) as immoral. He is portrayed as evil, cunning and highly intelligent. With the theft of a highly protected bank being his plan it also shows his self confidence in his criminal ability, he comes off as arrogant. The Joker's ability to rob a bank of that stature with such efficiency shows his criminal instincts and abilities. The end of the heist shows his ruthlessness planting a grenade into an employees mouth and driving off in the bus which in turn triggers the grenade and kills the man. 

How does the scene establish genre? 

The genre in this scene is action/thriller. The action packed entrance of the shooting gives the scene a sense of excitement. The suspense when the employee tries to sneak and fight back and the drilling into the vault adds a thriller feeling to the scene and the whole scene slows down creating anxiety.  

Pitch

Opening sequence idea

The idea we have chosen is the running down the ally, this is because it's simple, straight to the point and exciting. It feeds into the narrative because it relates to the enigma of the thriller. It is a part of the film where there is high importance, it is at the point in the film where Laurence escapes the kidnapper but then gets caught again. This will appeal our teenage audience because it has a lot of action movement and keeps the attention of our audience because of the dynamic and suspense.

Mainly this scene will be shot with a wheelchair as a representative of a dolly (tracks).

When shooting handheld - to make it more realistic, we start shooting from Laurence's feet moving the camera upwards and using the loud breathing to create more tension.

The final scene will be Laurence getting caught by the kidnapper, we will have a low angle shot of the kidnapper to show the importance of the character and to give us a clear view of who the kidnapper is.

It will look like a thriller because it matches the conventions of a thriller, our film is based in an urban area it also consists of an enigma/puzzle.  

Animatics

Preliminary Task Post

We had to do a preliminary task showing our skills editing and using a camera. To show this we had a character opening a door, walking across a room and starting a back and forth conversation.

The preliminary task showed mistakes we made:

The camera cut off part of the character when doing a tracking shot walking across the room

There is also a lack of a variety of shots, especially in conversation 

The actor also stares at the camera breaking the connection with the audience

Do improve these problems we should practice doing tracking shots and take more shots and angles of a specific scene to allow for a more in depth view of the scene and create a better experience for the audience. We also must train whoever is acting to never look into the camera and break the connection between character and audience.

Wordle

Stylistic examples for opening sequence

These sequences are similar to our sequence as it is action packed and full of excitement with a build up of suspense.