MS1 draft

The Dark Knight pent house scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSqGupieog

In a film scene various micro-elements are vital in producing meaning and narrative to the audience. Elements such as cinematography and sound can be used to great effect in creating an enjoyable fictional world that the viewer can feel fully immersed through the use of  shots as well as usage of diegetic and non-diegetic tones of sound. Both elements are vital to film making to elicit a a positive response from the audience. In this essay I will be identifying how Christopher Nolan's The Dark knight featuring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger's joker uses cinematography to develop a response from the audience through use of camera, editing, sound, Misc-en-scene.

At the beginning of the extract, inter cutting is used to draw multiple stories in the film together creating chaos to the audience, which due to the fast paced editing of jump cuts elicits the response of panic being causes by the antagonist which in this case is the joker, signifying to the audience of the mind set of the joker, and his goals which are creating chaos, the dark tone of the clip is quickly established through misc-en-scene as in the small montage of scenes one man is attacks, and two others are killed, indexically signifying the theme of darkness that the "dark" knight is demonstrating to the audience.

Non-diegetic music accompanies the in movie diegetic sound well, during the quick paced editing a drum beat and string motif  builds tension, eliciting the response symbolically that the signification of building tense music has, the response is that the audience is aware something shocking is coming into effect, proven when the music stops as the gun shot fires, this kills the music completely, the sudden killing of the non-diegetic sound demonstrates top the audience how serious and real this situation is, the director is trying to create a real sense of realism as if you are in the crowd.  Which is only defined by the use of head height camera shots, almost creating a POV shot as if the audience are in this room with the antagonist, the audience react in shock and fear just as the crowd in the scene do.

As the joker enters the shot, from the fast paced editing, it instantly stops, with 2 cuts from the next jump cut edit to a different setting, this use of long shot takes at a head height demonstrate the realist setting, signifying how this psychotic threat is totally realist and this shot almost acts as a form of real life simulation to the audience, maybe even triggering fears of terrorism that members of the audience have.

The joker's makeup is very conflicting in the shot, whilst people are terrified, his smile like scars juxtaposes the shot completely, whilst holding a fire arm, this man of terror walks through the shot, in an almost comedic way, throwing his glass of wine content in the air and drinking nothing, this slapstick like action with his conflicting facial marks just demonstrates the confusion represented in the extract, and the response of the audience would be suspenseful, being completely unpredictable demonstrates how conflicted and insane this man really is.

Again in this one shot the director wants to elicit the response that the audience are in this room, and through shaky hand held cam signifying that the audience are in a real life situation, and a clever use of diegetic sound emphasises this, we hear a sudden cough in the background, almost muffled demonstrating how the audience are meant to be completely silent, that coughing can be heard from a far way away in the background, the response the audience would elicit is that as they are at the front of the crowd they need to be completely alert and quite.

cross cutting is used to great effect in this extract to create juxtaposition, from the previous static shot with no non-diegetic music to another tracking protagonist Bruce Wayne with loud non-diegetic drum beats in mid-play, how the music is halfway through playing demonstrates how as this scene with the joker has been going on these events are also in continuation, which the audience would respond being in desperation to see our antagonist bring his force to the previous scene. His force and power is emphasised to the audience as he takes down an armed criminal and rips his gun to pieces.

Next the antagonist interacts with one of the crowd members to which he is replied to, the antagonists face completely changes from a calm expression, to a expression which symbolically signifies how the antagonists bipolar mood as just tilted. This shot demonstrates how the upper class respond to criminals, and how criminals respond to them as a change occurs quickly through this long take, as we look at the joker, we look at him from slightly lower angle over the shoulder, signifying how this upper class member is looking down at our antagonist being a criminal, his money in his eyes gives him power and higher status over the psychotic man with a knife in this members viewpoint. But as the reverse shot happens, we see the man from a lower angle over the shoulder shot as the antagonist has his life in the crowd members hands, demonstrating the power swap and how class and status means nothing to this psychotic man. The zoom to the crowd members face demonstrates to the audience how shocked this man of a higher class is, he has never been treated this way as he sees his life class before his eyes as he looks up at the people he once looked down upon and this signifies how much he regrets his life decisions. This elicits the response to the audience of fear as this antagonist is completely uncontrollable and the audience are now aware of how psychotic he really is.

Next as the joker approaches another lady known as Rachel, shot reverse shot signifies how these people are from different worlds, and creates huge juxtaposition of character as one: Rachel stands tall and firm in smart outfit as the approaching antagonist wielding a knife in a ripped mismatched coloured suit. This almost elicits the response to the audience of a metaphor being how crime and fear consumes all, even knows who look incorruptible.

A long  non-diegetic continuous out of key minor string chord is introduced as he approaches, which gets louder throughout the clip, building suspense in the extract to the audience, as editing pace accelerates in the clip, building this tension even more, which creates the response to the audience to be even more attentive and focused as the tension builds.

The camera jump cuts from circling Rachel and the joker from an other the shoulder shot of Rachel before again cutting the a long take circle of the two characters, as the camera tracks around the characters it accelerates also until it suddenly stops to an other the shot shoulder of the joker, this demonstrates how the joker is the priority to the audience, they should be more focused on this reckless unpredictable character as the circling shot unpredictable comes to a stand still, which signifies to the audience the Joker's character and the audience should be awaiting the bipolar-like switch that is seen, this acts as a form of foreshadowing to the audience.

The joker almost monologues to Rachel, as shot reverse shot highlights Rachel's reaction to what he is saying, as Rachel looks away from him as if her eyes hurt looking at her, which signifies how horrifying the antagonist is, Rachel cannot stand the sight of him, just as diegetic sound states "she can't stand the sight of me" from the Joker about his wife as he monologues. The sight of our antagonist only brings around the connotations of a monster.

Once the climatic music peaks, the voice of batman is heard off screen, and then cuts to him next to the joker punching him away, the fact Batman is next to him and no one has noticed signifies to the audience how specialized his combat and spy training is, Non-diegetic plays the same theme from earlier as the action occurs through a number of shot reverse shot hand held cameras using a series of action match editing to show how the power switch from the joker has gone to our protagonist the Batman, the audience elicits the response of relief as other character Rachel must surely be safe as the power is now in the hands of the protagonist.





The Hand held action cut editing works erratically to create a shaky-cam like motion which helps to symbolically signify the chaos caused by the antagonist in the scene, misc-en-scene heavily suggests this as fast paced editing demonstrates the Joker running around, using unconventional moving strategies almost similar to a drunk person, this uncontrollable power falling about as a serious fighting scene acts as a huge oxymoron to the scene, non-diegetic dramatic orchestral music accompanies Grunts and punch sounds diegetically to demonstrate the tough and intensity of the scene. Which acts in contrast to see the Joker flinging himself about constantly to almost derail any and all tention builds, and this infers an enjoyable viewing experience for the audience as they are able to watch the film in surprise to what the action of the antagonist will do next.

Cross-cutting sound editing is used diegetically to sound the Joker's handgun whilst still looking at the batman, then after a reverse shot shows The Joker holding Rachel, this signifies the directors attempt to bring uncertainty to the scene, as the symbolic gun loading sound is heard, the audience are stuck in a state of awe unknowing why a gun could be heard.

Next when The joker is about to drop Rachel, it is irritably similar to Batman 89 directed by Tim burton which starred Jack Nicholson as the Joker and Michael Keaton as Batman, the death of the Joker showed a similar situation, but with batman holding The Joker off a building, This mid angle shot clearly symbolically signifies the ideas of that cult classic in fans to create false ideas and mislead the audience, as it looks irritable similar to that, audiences may think this is where Rachel dies.

This clever use of misc-en-scene helps to create an enjoyable cinematic experience for the audience as they cannot be entirely sure of what is going to happen due to the first chaotic outlook of the antagonist and symbolic significations of other and related films.


Christopher Nolan uses various micro-elements to develop a response from the audience through use of camera, editing, sound, Misc-en-scene in the penthouse scene to signify chaos in the world, and chaos of the main antagonist to elicit a positive viewing experience for the audience.