Analysis of an opening - Batman The Dark Knight

The film opens with an establishing shot of Gotham City and then zooms into a skyscraper causing the audience to put all their focus on this building-this creates an enigma (and is the first of many enigmas shown in the opening scene) as the audience wonder why they are having to centralise their focus on this building. The camera then moves over to a window on the building that shatters due to something from the inside-this creates another enigma as the audience wonder what is about to happen. The next shot then shows two men in the building shooting a grappling hook to another building opposite them, this answers the enigma of how the window was smashed, however it creates many more as the audience now wonder why the men are wearing clown masks. This creates tension and suspense making the audience gripped to the screen. The film then continues and more enigmas are created and answered, the next scene shows a man holding a clown mask and it makes the audience wonder why he has been singled out before he gets in a car. The audience notice that all the characters have large bags with them and masks on suggesting that they are criminals and could be performing a heist. The next scene show three people in a car (one of which is the guy that the camera focused on) and they have a conversation about the Joker-this gives the audience an insight to who these characters are as they work for the Joker who is the main antagonist. The director uses enigmas to creates mystery and make the audience question his motives however it doesn't make the audience too confused and doesn't take the fun of the action out of the opening scene. The music starts off subtle but then the tempo starts to increase as does the pitch to suit the scene, the drums start to become louder when the guys are moving from the main skyscraper (the one I spoke about before) to the building adjacent to it-this creates tension as the it shows the audience that the characters are in danger.

Overall the use of music, editing and mise-en-scene create enigmas and tension to get the audience hooked to the screen and heighten the drama that the characters are in.