Day 1: The Dark Knight

[Mary Albanese]

What I learned — I like how we have two action teams involved in the bank robbery. This gives us a chance to have dialogue that moves the story forward merged with multiple action. In the car there are three quick exchanges of dialogue. Followed by two quick exchanges on the roof. In a short space, dove-tailed with action, we get the entire set-up of the heist. Once we get in the bank, we have a very few exchanges, but it tells us that this bank (and the guy in the suit) are mob-related, setting us up for later intrigue. A fun surprise is the BUS. Nice twist. We think the end reveal is that the Joker is the 5th robber. But that was too obvious as we had probably guessed that. The real end twist is that Joker doesn’t kill the man in the suit. Why? Because it shows us that the dialogue was correct — Joker is freaky strange.

[Louis Henriquez]

What makes the scene great is that it introduces the character of the Joker as he is—an intelligent, chaotic individual who does not care for the mob. Within that scene, you’re also shown that he does everything with and for a purpose. The dialogue of the characters themselves describes the Joker and introduces his intentions. As the dialogue says, the robbery of a mob bank shows that he is crazy. The scene had a lot of setups and payoffs, a lot of action that drove the story forward, and the dialogue that described the character of the Joker perfectly.

[Karen Haas]

What I learned: I came to appreciate components of a masterful scene.

Basic scene components — Scene arc: from start to finish of bank robbery,
Situation: tension among robbers in car and on roof and later with bank patrons
Conflict: robbers against each other and bank employee with gun,
Moving the story forward: fast moving events happen like clockwork, well planned
Entertainment value: very interesting to be witnessing unusual heist
Setups/payoffs: broken glass leads to slides to the roof, bus driver joke, face paint,·
Intro to World — takes us right in –starts with broken glass and the man with mask
Lead Character Intro. He takes off mask and we see the Joker’s makeup/war paint
Challenging Situation· life or death
Intrigue- will they be successful?
Interesting Action- you don’t see a bank robbery every day
Intriguing Dialogue- dialogue about the joker’s face paint seemed forced so we would ultimately recognize him, but other than that it was tight and made me worry who would get killed next
Tone- sardonic
Lures us into the Story- from the moment the glass is broken, we are pulled in
Twist at Conclusion of the scene- whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger… and he reveals himself… I’m guessing he’s the masked robber who dissed the planner (himself) for not being there— hard to tell since they all were masked.

[Teresa Burnham]

The opening scene is intriguing. We can guess that these are bank robbers because of their masks.
The next scene with a man holding his mask is a nice set up. He doesn’t seem to be too important until the scene ends with that same man as the “Joker”.
We wonder why the banker doesn’t seem to be intimidated, until he opens fire on the robbers. We’re almost sure that he won’t survive otherwise there will be no story.
We learn that the ruthless joker is very smart by hiring the best and eliminating all of them at the end.
The dialogue between the banker and the joker towards the end of the scene had a bit of a twist since it makes us think that the joker will shoot him just like he did the others.