ANALYSIS OF TRAILER

The Dark Knight is a well known action, crime and drama film which was released in 2008. The movie is

still successful and has so many factors about it which makes

people still love the film today. It uses Mise-en-Scene, editing and

the entire production to make it a good film.

Costumes:The costumes within the movie are

effective and a major part of the movie because of what it actually represents.

Throughout the movie we see that most characters are dressed smartly in suits, implying that they are rich middle class

people who have the power to do almost anything. The movie emphasises

the costume of the character Harvey Dent and this is important because he represents the rich in society. There is

also an emphasis on the Joker’s costume. Being the main antagonist of

the film, it is important to make his costume give out a message to the audience. A variety of make up and clothing is used to help develop the

characters background and appearance. The robbers in the scene all wear

ordinary clothes which helps to draw your attention to the masks, giving

there appearance a more frightful and concealing effect. The scruffy and

tarnished clothes worn by the villains shows they are clearly not afraid to get

there hands dirty on a job. When the joker takes off his mask instead of

showing us a normal face we a greeted with a psychopathic illusion of a man.

He has been painted in white make up with deep black eyes and a long red cut along his mouth running from cheek to

cheek, this builds up an easy face to remember yet psychedelically terrifying

face.

Props: The opening scene of the dark night uses

mise en scene to set the scene with confusion and build suspense, props play a key role in establishing this. The main prop used in the intro is the villains clown mask

however instead of introducing laughter and comedy into the scene they give the

characters a horrific and fearful outer exterior. In total 6 masks are used in the

sequence confusing us as to who the Joker is, the villains are then slowly killed of one

by one until you are left with the Antagonist showing his intimidating and remorseless

nature. Lots of hardware such as guns and grenades are used in the intro to further establish fear into the eyes of the public

and ensure their co-operation. However the bank manager confidence is quickly risen

when he is shown standing up to the antagonists, this is due to the shotgun he is holding which gives him a protagonistic like

appearance showing his power and authority in standing up to the robbers

Characters: Although the other robbers in the scene have no

facial expressions we can draw a lot from their body language. The majority of them sway and

stagger about with great confidence showing they are clearly very arrogant and naïve in

believing their plan would succeed.  The bankers facial expressions are cold and

emotionless as if the armed robbers are just a minor inconvenience for him. His temper rises

and pace quickens as he reaches for his shotgun in an effort to try and reclaim his bank, he

displays protagonistic like qualities as he takes vengeance on the robbers shortly before being gunned down. Finally the jokers precautionary

method of pulling grenade pins on all of the hostages shows his intelligence and careful

planning by which he kills off all of the other robbers leaving him with all the money. His shady movements and overwhelming facial attributes and scars tell us he is clearly an

experienced criminal and a very dangerous insane man.

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Shots: Chistopher Nolan has used a number of camera shots during this scene. He uses close-ups on key characters face like the villain’s, this gives the audience a chance to remember the characters for

later on in the film, the director uses a close up on a feature in the film from the police station where he has a board of suspects of

the Batman, this is for the main purpose of comedy where the police have resorted to believing that Bigfoot or Abraham Lincoln are possible suspects. As the scene changes to the parking lot an establishing shot is used to show the audience where the scene is

now taking place because it has changed from one area, to a different one. Whilst the villains are talking the camera shot

changes between each character this is known as a shot/reverse shot this enables to audience to see clearly who’s talking and how

each actor sounds. As the fake batmen appear there is a point of view shot where we are looking through one of the villains eyes to

see the Batman in a medium shot way, this shows the audience clearly what the villains see and shows Batman clearly, as

opposed to if we just saw his head the audience may be able to tell if it was batman or just a man in a mask, Nolan doesn’t want to give away clues of the fake batmen to early in the scene as it

wouldn’t build suspense for the audience so uses face paced shots throughout. Also the camera uses reaction shots when the other batmen are being revealed to the camera as the villain turns to

look, so does the camera this can make the audience feel like they are in the scene or are the eyes of the villains. Insane man.