The Dark Knight

This is the opening scene to the film "The Dark Knight." There is a beating drum as the opening credits come on the screen, which creates a mood for the viewer. They then feel like they should be watching the film intensely as they feel that something exciting is going to happen. instead of using loud music, they have diliberatly toned it down to create a more exciting atmosphere.

There is then a birds eye view shot, showing where the scene is going to be set. This is a establishing shot. The camera then zooms into a window, in which you hear a loud blast of sound as something comes crashing through it. This is done to suprise the viewer, and so that they know that something is going to happen.

The next cut that you see if of one of the bank robbers. They have given them plain simple clothes for costumes, and then the very freaky clown masks, which is meant to almost creep out the viewer, and get them interested.

The use a high angle shot (where the camera is high up and looking down) so that you can see the two bank robbers getting all of their stuff prepared for the jump that they are about to make. The camera then cuts to show the back of one of the robbers, and the camera zooms in on the clown mask that he is holding in his hand. This is done for effect, because it is out of the normal and makes the viewer watch intensely. There is music in the background, that stops when a car pulls up so you get the full impact of the tires screeching to a halt.

As the two robbers jump out of the window and are going along the zipwire, the camera is high up looking down on them but also tracking them so that we can see how far they have jumped and the danger of what they are doing. As they drop onto the floor, the camera is at a low angle, close the the ground looking up at them as they come off the zipwire.

Throughout all of this there is quiet non diagetic music in the background, which creates a tense atmosphere.