Camera Work
One of the first shots we see is a medium long shot of a man with soldiers holding guns and a private jet behind him suggesting that he is the owner of these and the guns suggests that there is going to be violence.
After, we see it cut to a mid shot of three men with rags over their heads suggesting they have been kidnapped and there are also guns being pointed at them showing they are wanted by violent people and there is a chance of them being shot.
After this, the men board the plane and are questioned. In this shot, we see one of the hostages being threatened with a gun pointed to his head and being held out the plane. This shows that death could happen in this film with a lot of action along with it.
After this, we see a close up as the leader pull the rag off one of the hostages head which reveals a man who has an unusual but fierce mask on. This shot suggests that he will be an important character throughout the film as he gets an introduction.
We then see extreme long shot seeing a group of men coming to attack the other plane to save hostages. This suggests that lots of thrilling action will be a reoccurring theme in the film as it happens so near the start.
Mise-En-Scene
The lighting within the opening scene of Dark Knight Rises is fairly high key which was fairly surprising considering the amount of dangerous action that takes place within it. The real only piece of low key lighting that is shown is every time the shots were focused on Bane. This suggests that he is an antagonist and that he is a dark person and will hurt people. There are people wearing soldier like costumes suggesting that there could be violence within the scene and especially using guns. We also see the costume of a stereotypical hostage with a rag over his head which suggests that they are in danger. Lastly, the costume of Bane seems normal but focusing on his mask suggests that he is special and has his own identity that everyone knows about and understanding that he is dark person because of the black colour on his mask. The most seen prop within the opening scene is a gun. This suggests that violence will happen later on in the opening scene and the film due to the amount of people holding guns too. The prop of the planes is also important. This suggests that the film is all about danger and action and it begins with giving the audience a thrill to enjoy. We see the location set in a field with only these people in it. This suggests that they are important people as they have been isolated away from everyone else.
Sound
Music in the opening scene is used cleverly. This music stays slow and calm when no action is happening but then it can suddenly change when a piece of action begins to happen and this can make the audience feel excited as the change of music makes the audience know that the action is about to happen. There is not much important dialogue used within the opening scene, however when we hear Bane say his first words of the film and everyone within the film is in shock suggests that he is an important figure throughout the rest of the film. The line “nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask” suggests that he is known by a lot of people and that his identity is important. We also hear lots of added sound to emphasise situations. We hear wind being added whilst on the plane. The added sound effect of the gun shot to create a sense of fear and the added sound on Dr Pavel’s shout to show his fear of being around Bane.
Editing
The editing within the opening scene differs according to the situation of what is happening in the film. The editing is slow paced when no action is happening giving the effect of calmness as we await the fast paced editing that happens when action is happening in the film to create a tense atmosphere for the audience as they await the conclusion of each action situation. Cuts are mostly used within this scene of the film as it only needs to be simple editing as the audience are focusing on the story and each situation that happens. It is continuity editing within the opening scene.
Dark Knight Rises was directed by Christopher Nolan. It was released on 20th July 2012. It has a certification rating of 12A. Dark Knight Rises has won many awards. Dark Knight Rises was nominated for one BAFTA Film Award and has 38 wins from a variety of awards and another 96 nominations. The films genre is Action Adventure which is a perfect genre to have it as because of the amounts of action we wee within the film and the adventure we join for some characters. Dark Knight Rises was produced by Legendary Pictures, DC Entertainment and Syncopy. The film’s budget was $230 million and it made $1.085 billion in the box office. They used many platforms to advertise the Dark Knight Rises. They used TV, beginning of films, YouTube and others to show off the trailer in an advert. Social media was used as well to promote the film on websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, this shows that their marketing campaign was very successful because of the mass amounts of money that the film made. It was only the 11th film at the time of 2012 to make $1 billion in the box office, further showing its marketing campaigns success.
Macro-Analysis
The first thing I recognise about the opening scene is that it is male dominated. Therefore, this represents men as stronger than women straight away because of the weapons on display in the opening. We also see that the people in this opening scene are of high status and do not look poor. This reinforces the stereotype by saying that only rich people can afford expensive things like guns and planes. We also see at one point a foreign man who is in on the attack on the plane but Bane tells him that he it will be noble if he dies. This therefore represents non-Americans as inferior to Americans as he survives whilst the foreigner does not.
You can tell that it is specifically an action adventure genre mostly because of the mise-en-scene throughout the opening. This is due to guns being held by certain characters giving off the impression that these will be used in action fights.
The costume of Bane and focusing on his mask can also show that this film is an action film genre because it looks off putting of those who would see him in person and his facial expressions are always angry showing that he has anger to let out through the use of violence.
We also know that this film is an action adventure genre is because of the isolated area of its location. This gives the action adventure feel because them being aline with no one around allows lots of fights and action to take place. It also allows the start of adventures to happen as we see in the plane ride in the opening.
Harry Sanger 