The Dark Knight is part of the Batman franchise and grossed over 1 billion and had many awards, whereas the opening from the video called Cruel Revenge from Longroad Media is perhaps not in the same league in quality, but I am going to analyse the thriller conventions of an opening in both films.
The camera work which was done in The Dark Knight and Cruel Revenge are very common in a thriller opening. In The Dark Knight, it starts with a establishing shot zooming in to a particular building resembling the start of the opening with tall buildings in Gotham City, there is nothing dramatic, there is just natural sounds for example door opening, drills in walls and gun fire which resembles more realism in thriller but when the sound starts which is typical of a thriller opening. While in Cruel Revenge it starts with an over the shoulder shot of the character retrieving a beer from the fridge with him then walking across the room which was shown with the pan shot right to left with this going on the sound in Cruel Revenge is very energetic and is used quite nicely in this, with some disoriented sounds throughout the opening which is stereotypical of a thriller and his costume is not mystery as it is casual clothes which connotes realism. In Cruel Revenge, there is about five close ups consistently of photos whereas The Dark Knight is using a vast majority of shots with a range of characters, with there being a mid shot of a character and zooming down to his left lower side and now begins the sound where the tempo increases, it is a mix of dark and intense music with maybe drums and piano. From both these videos, the sounds are very traditional for a thriller opening even though they are completely different in quality though. Following this is a two shot which connotes that there are two characters which the audience will know where Cruel Revenge there is a whole host of close ups with the character crossing and circling words and photos which is typical in a thriller opening. Then in the Dark Knight, there is an ariel shot of the two characters zip wiring themselves to another building which is counter typical in a thriller opening as normally they try and build suspense with close ups for example. There is a wide shot just angling off the car with another character leaving a house, and the editing is being portrayed with black and white visuals which are typical in a thriller opening. Back to the Dark Knight where there is a mid shot at the back of the car which always is a typical convention in a opening, and the fact that the characters are wearing identical clothes which emphasises a sense of mystery and enigma in the opening, watching three characters which now is building up suspense and terror upon the audience which is typical in a thriller and showing also a shot reverse shot of characters so there is no tension on screen as far as the audience is aware of. In Cruel Revenge, there are numerous shots of the character still in black and white which connotes that she could be a target to the character; the shots are pan shot left to right and a mid shot which is typical of a thriller opening. Then in the Dark Knight there is a quick and snappy two shot with the characters on the building. In the next five seconds of Cruel Revenge the camera pans right to left and follows up with a close up of a photo. The Dark Knight also has a pan shot from left to right with the characters running into the bank which is typical in a thriller opening because of the enigma being emphasised. Then in Cruel Revenge there is a couple of close ups firstly of the map, then another looking inside the map with him circling an area, which is typical in thriller openings. Throughout both openings, the sound stays the same which portrays continuity and very typical of a thriller opening as not many openings change their theme of music. Comparing both to enigma is not a given because The Dark Knight portrays enigma and a form of mistaken identity but Cruel Revenge shows the antagonist which is typical but no enigma on display. In the Dark Knight and Cruel Revenge, there is a similarity which is they both don’t show protagonists which is again typical of an opening. The Dark Knight in the opening does not show the movie title which is counter typical but perhaps wanting to keep that enigma going whereas Cruel Revenge does, it also shows names of people who are in the video, for example on 28 seconds it states ‘Henry Talbot’ which is typical in a thriller.
The Dark Knight however was successful in the opening but didn’t use many conventions in a typical opening whereas Cruel Revenge stuck to most conventions and techniques to get their opening successful.
