The Dark Knight (2008) is set in Gotham city, where innocent civilians suffer under the evil torment of terror like villain the Joker, Bruce wayne must maintain his secret identity as the city's saviour "Batman", whilst trying to overcome the twisted ways of the heinous antagonist.
The scene opens to a disguised individual wearing a stained and creepy looking clown mask in a medium close up shot holding a lethal weapon which he shoots a rope arrow out of a building window, the camera then tracks to a high angle shot making the individual seem belittled even though he appears to be committing a crime,Through his mise en scene the audience can gather that this individual is possibly carrying out a crime and is quite a dark natured person due to their dark clothing which connotes evil and fear, which is trying to be given off towards the audience making them feel weary of the character, as also the clown mask he is wearing is a huge phobia within society for many people, so it may seem that they want to frighten the people that they will come into contact with that may put a strain on their plan and by wearing this style of mask will cause them to do what they say due to their frightening appearance. The non-diegetic sound of a soft violin note being played continuously, builds the tension of the scene and makes the audience wonder what pace is going to be set as at the moment the situations seems quite calm and slow.
We then see a medium shot of a hunched over male from a back shot, showing that he is holding also a clown mask, also his mise en scene shows that he is wearing a suit which subverts to his stereotype of being involved in crime that he would be scruffy and poor, he is also holding a large bag which being paired with the mask, the audience would describe as a robbery possibly. Suddenly we hear the diegetic sound of a car screeching and pulling up beside the man to which he quickly gets into the car. Due to the fact that the camera focused on the assumed antagonists for so long his character got prevalence, which makes the audience presume he could be an important essential to the groups plan. This then sets a fast paced rhythm, suggesting that now the robbery is about to take place. This is where the non- diegetic sound of a fast paced violin soundtrack which starts to build the tension.
We then see the two individuals at the start of the film appear to be sliding across the rope at a high angle shot, which then turns into a birdie view which shows the distance the two robbers are from the ground, which appears tone in a busy city as the buildings tower up and seems very crowded. We see the two clowns land safely on top of the building and we then cut back to the car to which the unidentified clown got into. Here we hear the first dialogue of the film were we see the two drivers at the front of the car who picked up the clown who is in the back, discussing the plan about shares of presumably the money that they will make from their crime. The clown who was given a lot of camera time initially remains quiet in the back and is shown preparing his gun, which sets a theme of violence and danger. The two men then state that "the guy who organised this" shouldn't get a share as he's sat backhand not helped toward the scheme, and identify him as "the joker", to which the other clowns on on top of the roof are involved in parallel action where the camera cuts to them where they are shown in a medium shot discussing who the joker is, they state that he wears war paint to scare people. which gets the audience to try and build an image of the character in their head as this must be a very influential character and is being kept hidden to build tension of to who he is and what he looks like.
The camera then follows the three clowns at a low angle shot as they walk up stairs towards the bank, which puts them at a powerful and superior position due to their weapons and frightening and intimidating appearance. We see the clowns run into the bank shooting their guns upwards in order to warn the hostages that they are real and they're not afraid to shoot them which makes the hostages panic and scream while the clowns yell at them to get onto the ground, during this time we hear the soundtrack which is a fast paced and high pitched track which set the rhythm of the scene as high tension and dangerous.We see a man in his office appear to be calm and hide from the clowns. The camera is constantly tracking around the bank to fit in with the rhythm of the scene of danger and quickness.
We then cut to the two clowns on top of the building who now appear to be trying to disarm the alarm system, in a close up shot where we see the other clown out of focus behind the clown disarming the system holding a gun to the back of his head unbeknownst to the clown in front of him. Again we go back to the bank where the silent but well concentrated on character is setting up the hostages with grenades, giving the impression that if the hostages cause any trouble then the clowns will blow them up. Then cutting back to the two clowns where now the man has finished disarming the alarm and the clown behind him shoots him, making the audience believe that there will be a bigger cut for the rest of the clowns if he kills him off, this shows a theme of distrustful characters, making the audience believe that the characters in the film will show betrayal often.
The clown then makes his way down the stairs in a medium high angle shot, showing him as a guilty ad untrustworthy character where he approaches a large dark green vault, the colour of the vault shows it as a sign of dirty and dark money making it seem as a dangerous and possibly stupid idea to steal money from this bank. The man we previously saw who was in his office is seen in a close up shot taking a large gun out, The camera then cuts to one of the clowns beating the security guard in a medium shot to which we can see the man's office window smash to pieces from the gun which hits the clown and causes him to collapse, the other to clowns are seen in a straight low angle as they quickly slide to the floor cowering behind the desks as the Man who seems very authoritative and dominant screams "Do you have any idea who you are stealing from?" which makes the audience question whether this man is an antagonist or protagonist as this statement makes him seem dangerous. As he shoots a second clown he runs out of ammunition, making the mysterious clown who has yet to speak, jump out from behind the desk and shoots the man multiple times, the man is seen fall in a wide shot which we can see his mise en scene is a well tailored business suit making him appear to be a respectable and intelligent man.
We then see a close up of the mysterious clown appear to look at the now powerless man as weak but yet still confident and not fearful of the clowns. We then cut to the clown who was tasked with breaking into the vault where he confirms to one of his accomplice's that he killed the "alarm guy" for one less share, here we see again once he has broken into the safe he is shot by another clown, where we see him rush into the vault and start to bag up money. Again cutting to the inside the bank and there are multiple bags of money laying behind the now leader of the operation the mysterious clown is then threatened by another clown who is paranoid that he has been assigned to have been killed, but is shortly ran over by a bus after the mysterious clown says his first line "no, I'm supposed to kill the bus driver", the bus driver crashes through the building and help load the money into the bus and he then is shot by the mysterious clown showing him standing alone as the last clown making the audience feel very curious about who this clown is.
After being confronted by the shot man, he removes his mask where he states "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you, stranger", Revealing himself to fit the profile of the described "Joker" character which shows him in a close up shot, showing him in smeared clown makeup showing him with a white face dark eyes and smeared red smile which shows deep scarring around his mouth, with greasy green hair which makes him seem scary and makes the audience wonder how he got the scars, and immediately associates him with danger and evil but for the time being feel some sort of connection to the character and somewhat want him to make an escape from the scene.
After placing a grenade in the mans mouth the joker walks away from the man getting into the bus with purple string trailing behind him ready to set off the grenade when he gets to a certain distance, the string pulls the grenade to explode but instead of a real bomb, shows it as a smoke bomb, then revealing the school bus that the joker makes his escape on pull out of the bank and join a line of school buses in a long shot in order to blend in and make a hidden escape.
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