Opening Sequence

In the opening sequence of 'The Dark Knight', it is clearly set in a busy city as there are lots of people walking around in the background and numerous amounts of tall buildings. This is most likely to be set in America. Also the bank which is broken into for the robbery is an American bank with American employees. The clothing which the robbers are wearing are all dark, this conveys danger which is reflected in each of their characters as they all carry some sort of weapon and have intentions to rob a bank and kill people. The robber's faces are all covered with masks which have untidy face paintings of clowns on them. This hides their identities as people, and also their facial expressions; however, this is very conventional of a bank robber as they would tend to hide their identities so that they don't get caught. On the other hand, the people working inside the bank are dressed in smart business attire, and this portrays their characters as being smart and intelligent, but also having morals, unlike the bank robbers who terrorise these people. The way the two sets of characters are portrayed to the audience show that Strauss' theory of binary opposites (good and evil) has been used in the opening scene of this film.

Strangely, this crime is committed in broad daylight, however, the shadows and colouring of the buildings and their clothing completely contrast against this. When the robbers enter the bank, the facial expressions of the employees hold fear and hopelessness as they are approached and then handled by the robbers. The facial expression on what appears to be The Boss or Manager of the bank, when he first learns that the bank is being broken into holds the expression of confusion, yet he doesn't seem to be fearful. The lightening used in this opening scene differs from being either high key or low key. The high key lighting is used more in the main bank where the robbers are terrorising the employees, this is a contrast as this is not a positive or good scene, where you would typically see high key lighting; whereas the low key lighting is used more where the robbers are in the safe, stealing the money and this gives a much more sinister effect.