Batman begins opening sequence analysis

Batman begins opening sequence analysis 

Directed by:  Christopher Nolan

The budget of the movie was 150 million USD

Box office for the movie: 375.2 million USD

The cast of the movie: Tom Wilkinson as mob Boss Carmine Falcone

Gary Oldman as cop Sergeant James Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s butler, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Cillian Murphy as the main villain Scarecrow, Katie Holmes as Bruce’s friend Rachel Dawes, Liam Neeson as Bruce Wayne's martial arts trainer Henri Ducard who also works for Ras al Ghul and is part of the League of Shadows.

Summary of the opening sequence 

Batman Begins starts with Bruce Wayne falling into a well, then shows hundreds of bats flying in the sky. This is to set a tense tone for the audience and to foreshadow Bruce Wayne's fear of bats in the future and also to show a sense of danger. Low-key lighting is used in this scene is very black and dull, this could foreshadow that the film is going to have a dark and creepy theme to the movie as well as representing a sense of good vs evil for the film this ties with the binary opposition theory. In the next scene the lighting of his surroundings in the prison also gives the audience a feel of how dark and depressing Bruce’s prison life is and leaves us wondering why he is there the director Christopher Nolan used enigma codes really well in this scene by getting the audience to question what happened after the first scene about what happened to bruce to get him in prison, especially since he is the son of a rich billionaire. When Bruce walks out of his cell in to the courtyard a medium shot is used to show the surrounding areas of the prison this shows the poor conditions of the prison and what potentially Bruce is getting into. On top of the walls in the background you can see armed guards looking down at the prisoners. This shows the audience how high security prison is and potentially dangerous prison is for someone like Bruce Wayne especially from his background.

 also gets you to ask questions like ‘how long has he been here’. The camera then points towards various people in the yard. They all stop what they’re doing and look up at Bruce as he walks out. This could show that Bruce Wayne is clearly a very important person everyone in the prison knows what’s going to happen between him and the other inmates. It could also indicate that he is well known in the prison by other inmates since he is in a place which is not very normal for him.

The film follows a basic linear narrative with a beginning, middle and end to the movie with little stories put into these sections to help the audience understand the full theme and narrative of the film. In addition to this is different to some films that do not follow a linear narrative films like citizen kane and pulp fiction follow a non linear narrative which means their is no clear beginning, middle and an end there's just lots of different  narratives across the whole film. There are also many conventions portrayed in this film the main characters are introduced straight away in the opening sequence this helps the audience understand who they should pay attention to as well as there is a very clear theme and genre throughout the film the theme of redemption and getting revenge is the clear theme of this film and the genre is crime and action. Finally the most important convention of the whole film is the enigma codes used which help challenge the audiences thought process right from the beginning they're used straight from when we see bruce wayne in prison it also helps the audience to draw conclusions and think about possible endings from the get go.      

Cinematography

The director Christopher Nolan uses many different camera angles to help portray the theme and genre of the movie. The movie starts with a lot of medium shots to show the other aspects of the house to establish where the characters and to show its a flashback to bruce wayne's childhood. In the scene after he uses a low angle when Bruce is falling into a well, this scene is important and uses this angle to show the importance of the event, which creates a sense of realism as it is like he is falling into the audience. We see a wide shot, canted angle this has been done to make wayne manor look like a very important place which it is as the main character Christian Bale(bruce wayne) lives there and it is where all of his main problems extend from. The director then uses a series of shots to help portray the fear that young Bruce Wayne has for bats which would eventually lead him to becoming the Batman he used the technique of foreshadowing here, it then cuts to present seen on a close up shot of the older Bruce Wayne, we see here how he has changed from his younger self and it also creates enigma amongst the audience because there's gaps in the timeline of his life and we have to question where he is and what he has done. The camera then cuts to start  wide angle while panning around the prison to show where bruce wayne has ended up this to also show the poor conditions of the prison.

Sound

There are two main types of sound used in the film Batman begins these are non diegetic and diegetic sound. Non diegetic is the sound the audience can hear in the cinema but the actors in the movie cannot whereas diegetic sound is the sounds in the movie that both the audience and actors can hear. The non diegetic sound is used before we are introduced to the characters and before the opening sequence with the sound of bats, this helps to further convey the genre to the audience as bats are very nocturnal and are very erie so this could foreshadow the future of Bruce Wayne as Batman it therefore creates the effect that they will be very important to the movie, in batman begins their would be the many sound effects that were used to help create the atmosphere of the film for example the various gunshots used in the film, this is to help grip the audience and to help exaggerate the danger the characters may be in at the current time as well as theme music this helps give the movie specific identity to the film so people can recognise and remember where this theme music is from. In addition the most key non diegetic is in the fight scene between Bruce Wayne and his fellow prisoners The punching effects have been created by a technique called foley to help enhance the sound furthermore it helps add more realism to the sound effects so the audience are able to understand what it is showing it also helps show the meaning behind the fight scene and make it look like the actors are performing it themselves. furthermore there is more diegetic sound used in the film as we hear lots of dialogue between characters specifically between Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes and we mainly hear these dialogues when we are taken to the next scene in the prison with bruce wayne where we can hear his conversations with his fellow inmates but as well as the inmates around this gives the effect that they are important and the prisoners could be talking about bruce wayne which could show why the eventual fight scene happens.

Mise en scene

The mise en scene used in the opening sequence of Batman Begins is very important for the movie and creates meaning for the audience. The batman costume Christian Bale wears throughout the whole movie represents his fear of bats as they have connotations of death and rebirth, they are often referred to guardians of the night as the fly only at night time they are very widely fear-based so this could be the main reason why Bruce Wayne chooses it as his main embodiment as it represents his fear as well as others and furthermore represents him being a guardian of gotham the place he has loved all his life and is the whole reason he becomes Batman in the first place the bats can also help portray the genre further to the audience as it represents the crime fighting and redemption theme of the story in addition to this it could also represent the action genre  that will be taking place in the film and how important it is that people start to fear the batman . However before he becomes Batman we meet him in prison with him wearing his prison uniform we can see this is not like a normal prison in the united states we see its an old and dirty uniform this conveys that he is in an unknown location with high levels of poverty. This uniform can also represent that the audience may think that Bruce Wayne is violent and aggressive or has done something wrong which helps the audience understand the character and narrative of the film. The location of the prison helps the audience to better understand the story of the movie better. This shows that bruce wayne has changed a lot from his childhood as before he was a very privileged child who lived in a big house with lots of nice things however now we see him in a very inhabitable place in a foreign country with little access to basic needs like food and high standards of living. The main target audience of batman begins is for 14-35 mostly males due to the comic book nature of the film and the violent nature of the film however the secondary target audience of the film may be the girlfriends of the males going to the movies, so they have been exposed to the movie in this way as well as the casual movie goer may go due to the famous actors like christian Bale and cillian murphy as well as the very accomplished director christopher nolan.