It opens with title screens for Warner Brothers, Legendary
Pictures and DC Comics, then we see a huge blue coloured fireball which then
produces the Bat signal, along the Warner credit is a loud booming tune which
acts as a motif. The sound is of Batman's theme from the first film so by using
this it allows the audience to know what film they will be watching as they can
associate it with this films predecessor. After this we see the Legendary
pictures logo and following this is silence which, when following the loud
booming motif on the logo before, gives the film a sense of eeriness. We then
start to hear sound in the form of a ticking noise during the DC comic’s logo
which seems to give the impression of a bomb timer which gives the film its
theme of danger. All of the logos and Bat symbol are presented in a black or
dark blue light, this combined with the bomb ticking, silence, loud booming and
the Bat symbol rising from the fireball gives the audience the feeling that the
film they will be watching will be very dark in tone.
It cuts to a long shot, which as acts an establishing shot,
of a large building and the camera begins to quickly track in towards the
windows of the building. As it cuts to this shot we again hear the sound of a
boom noise followed by a tone that continues over the sound of the ticking.
These combined give the impression that whatever will happen in this scene
could be associated with danger as the slowly rising tone creates tension among
the spectator. As we get closer to the windows suddenly one explodes creating a
slight "jump" moment that confirms our thoughts about this scene
beings associated with danger. It cuts to shot to the interior of this building
and judging by the desk it is an office building. We then get to see our first
character of the film however; he is wearing a clown mask and holding some sort
of gun. Clowns are one of the biggest fears in the world so this combined with
the fact he is holding a gun tells us that he is both an antagonist and that he
has been placed in the film specifically the create fear upon the audience. As
the window smashes the ticking noise continues however, it is a modified
version of it. One of the clowns shoots a grapple hook over to an opposite
rooftop. As we know that the clowns are likely to be the bad guys we think that
they are planning to pull off some kind of dangerous act like a bank robbery.
The scene cuts to reveal a man standing with his back to the
audience whilst the camera slowly tracks in to his back. He is holding a blue bag
and a clown mask to tell the audience that this character is also one of the
bad guys. Because we never see his face we automatically assume this person is
a bad guy as we have nothing to identify him by, also as it cuts to this
character the tense tune begins to start again possibly telling us that this
person may be the leader. As it continues tracking in a car suddenly pulls up
and allows him to get in. The tense tone stops completely and it cuts back to
the people in the office building, allowing us to figure out that they are
travelling in 2 groups.
The group in the office building attach a bag to their zip
line and then go down themselves. As they go down the camera fallows them out
the window and then quickly tilts down to show the way down to the street to
create a feeling of uneasy upon the spectator, as it does the soundtrack
suddenly makes a large boom noise and as it cuts again it carries on as we see
long shot showing the clowns zip lining with the street beneath them. It cuts
again to show them landing safely on the other side.
We see the other group of clowns in the car and hear our
first line of dialogue. There are a total of 3 people wearing clown masks in
the car. At no point during this part do we see any ones face. Although, the
light outside is very bright the inside of the car is very dark to again tell
the audience that the people in this car are the bad guys of the film. It cuts
to a close up of one of the clowns although we do see the other two in the
background. They are talking about the heist that they are doing and talk about
a specific character known only as "The Joker". The two clowns that
were originally inside the car are the only characters talking in this clip;
however the character that entered the car is at the back although still
slightly in shot so type audience remembers that he is there as it is made
obvious this particular character is important to this part of the film.
Then there is a parallel action as the other group of
robbers on the roof continue their conversation about "The Joker" and
helps us know a little bit more about this character. After this it cuts back
to the group in the car, they leave the car and approach a bank. The camera
follows the third mysterious member of the group who is the only character we
have seen who is yet to talk. There is a match on action as the robbers enter
the bank and begins the shoot the air to worry the people inside the bank. The
soundtrack still plays although is much quieter than before. It shows the bank
manager as well to signal that he is going to be important to this character
during this scene. The camera tracks around the bank and rarely stays still to
keep up the speed of what happening.
The music begins to pick back up as it again cross-cuts back
to the group on the roof. Who are checking the alarm system we then go back to
the clowns who are now in control of the bank and see that the mysterious character
is going around securing grenades to the hostages hands, he has still not
spoken. We go back to the roof and it after one clown deals with the alarm the
other clown shoots him. This is to tell us that these clowns are not to be
trusted and are slowly killing each other to get a bigger share of the money.
As he kills him the and runs downstairs the music plays what will later be
known as The Joker's motif as it plays whenever he is on screen. He runs in to
a room and the camera pans round to reveal a large vault, he hear the sound
quiets down and begins to tick again suggesting this vault door is important to
this scene. It cuts back to the main hall to show the audience that these
robbers are now in charge with the unknown clown securing grenades to the
hostages.
It cuts back to the vault to reveal one of the robbers
breaking in to the vault with a large mechanical device. As it cuts back to the
main hall we have a shot of on one of the more psycho clowns beating a hostage,
we then get a close up of the bank manager with a rising tone in the
background. The shots and music combined tell us that these 2 clips will be
somehow connected, the rising tone creates tension among this scene. The bank
manager shoots the clown and the music then kicks in to a kind of action tone
as he walks out with the shotgun and the other clown's run in panic. The focus
again is put on the mysterious clown as the back manager shoots at him the
music slowly begins to tone back down as he shoots more bullets. We get a shot
of the 2 clowns who are hiding behind a desk. The leader asks "He's out
right?" to which the mysterious clown nods. The leader rises then gets
shot by the bank manager. Through all the murders of the various clowns it
tells the audience that a theme of the film will be betrayal. The mysterious
clown rises up and shoots the bank manager. The camera then slowly tracks in to
the mysterious clown to then possibly suggest that he is in fact the leader of
the group. The music becomes gradually silent and then kicks in with the tone
used previously to suggest that there is no more danger for the robbers.
The clown that was shot rises up to reveal that he was only
wounded by the manager, he runs down to meet with the clown in the vault. One
of the clowns opens the vault and after he is done gets shot by the other to
again show the theme of betrayal. We then cut back to the main hall to reveal
the mysterious clown who looks like he is now in charge of the whole operation
as it seems he is now in control of the bank and hostages as it cuts the tense
tone begins to rise up again. It cuts back to the other clown in the vault who
begins taking money, and then there is an ellipses that cuts from the clown
taking the money to the main hall where the money is now collected. The clown
who went to the vault then threatens the mysterious clown with a gun, again
suggesting another theme of betrayal. The music here begins to repeat the same
2 notes over and over to build tension. In this part we hear the first line
from the mysterious clown "No, no, no. I kill the bus driver" which
confuses the audience as this is not what we would expect him to say due to
what we have been shown so far. The scene concludes with a huge bus loudly
crashing through the wall and killing the other main clown, leaving the mysterious clown
which has now confirmed suspicions that he is leader with him being the only
one left and that he has planned this.
After the bus crashes through the wall we cut to reveal the
back of the bus with yet another clown in the back who is now loading up the
money. The music now resumes normal tone that it had before of The Joker's
theme. After they load up the money the currently unknown clown gets shot by
this clown we have been following. As he is about to leave we cut to the bank
manager who is still alive and begins talking to the clown who then starts
walking towards the bank manager. Here the tense shrieking tone again begins to
pick up the close the clown gets to the manager. The clown remains silent on
his approach and removes some sort of grenade from his pocket. We have a POV
shot from the clowns perspective looking at the bank manager. After the manager
shouts "What do you believe in?" the clown shoves the grenade in to
the bank manager’s mouth. The clown begins talking and the music begins to get
louder and grows to a higher pitch as he replies "I believe whatever
doesn't kill you simply makes you, stranger." When he says
"stranger" we get a POV shot from the bank managers perspective to
show the clown remove his mask and reveal a male covered in clown make-up. He
has dark eyes and white face make-up with a large red smile on top of some deep
cuts on his cheeks, he also has long greasy green hair". To the audience
this is easily recognised as The Joker who has all along been this clown and
been in charge of this whole operation including slowly making his team kill each
other. As he reveals his face the rising tone quickly drops to a much lower and
darker town suggesting that this character is dangerous. It is a close up of
his face and it is slightly disorientating to the viewer as it is quite
unexpected he smiles at the bank manager and turns and leaves which is assisted
by a weird sound that is also associated as being a dark sound. As The Joker
leaves the tense rising sound slowly picks up as he leaves with the bank
managers shotgun, there is a thread attached to his waist which is connected to
the grenade in the mouth of the bank manager. We start at his legs and slowly
tilt up as he gets closer to the back of the bus. He climbs on to it slams the
door shut and releases the thread from his waist. He climbs towards the front
of the bus and we cut to the bank manager as the sound becomes diegetic and we
hear the sound of the engine starting, the pin from the grenade detaches and he
quickly zoom in reveal green smoke to show the audience that the grenades used
in the heist were in fact duds and to reveal yet another theme of things not
being what they seem.
This scene is relevant to our film as again it is a fantasy
film that is grounded in to reality. The characters of Batman and The Joker do
not exist in real life but the setting and the way it is film makes us believe
that the events of this film could happen
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