The opening sequence to the joker only introduces 1 relevant character who has no dialogue, we can only assume what he's like from what is portrayed of him, and this is mainly done through his hair and makeup, the simple denotation of his appearance is that he looks 'clownlike' - a theme that was initially targetted towards small children as a comedic idea; however over time it has become a more sinister concept and one that many people have developed phobias about. The over the shoulder shot used, is unique as this camera angle is usually used between two people having a conversation and is used to establish dominance, and who's more important - but in this case, it's between the Joker in the mirror and a close-up shot of him, this may suggest that its two different emotions or perhaps two different personalities, one being who he truly is and another putting on a mask, literally through makeup and metaphorically through how he's portraying himself. We can see from just 3 minutes of the introduction that the film will include darker topics, such as murder, mental illness, and danger through the location of a busy city - adding to the sense of chaos - this instantly tells us that the film will be an adult audience. The Mise en Scene is also used to imply the narrative of the scene as we can see it's not going to be a 'feel-good' movie; this combined with the diegetic sound at the start on the radio where the words 'emergency' and 'dies' are mentioned gives us an idea of the genre and tone of the film, the sense of violence and a fast-paced introduction are the main conventions in a thriller film - it leaves a lot to the imagination as to what happens next.
The audience is immediately engaged from the dim lighting and the out-of-the-ordinary character we see, because of the radio and the way that the 'Joker'clearly looks in distress, we're eager to keep watching to see how he responds to being violently beaten up and what emerges from this. The audience will most likely feel pity for him which will then shape their response to the rest of the film, I feel like the whole point of them showing him going through this attack is to give a different perspective on how he behaves during the rest of the film and shows us a reason as to why he arguably becomes the villain and the victim simultaneously.
The sound is used effectively through pleonastic sound effects when the teenagers bang the sign against his head, causing him to fall to the ground, this emphasizes the pain aspect of the sequence, and while this is happening the contrapuntal music of the upbeat piano tune is fading out, representative of the infantilization of the film and showing us that the darker themes of the film are about become more present. The chaos sequence is made through the cars blaring their horns, while the piano music is still there and the shouting and swearing is over the top of both of these. In addition, the camera work is tracking them running in a dangerous place while they're running into cars, a stereotypical convention in a thriller film.
In conclusion, I think this opening scene is very successful and covers all areas of making an opening scene for engaging the audience and establishing the genre, character, and basic narrative.
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