Day 1: What I learned …?

[Mary Emmick]

This scene establishes the Joker as a scary and unpredictable villain. The scene captures our attention, and we realize who we are meeting at the beginning of the film. The bank robbers know the Joker is in charge of this operation; they don’t know that they are going to be killed. We are immersed into the actual robbery as four of the Joker’s thugs who wear clown masks and the bus driver are shot, and the bank manager of the bank is gassed when a grenade is put into his mouth. The Joker takes off his mask and reveals himself, and he gets away in the bus with the money from the bank vault. Bank manager is mob boss.

What I need to do in my opening scene is to bring the scene to life by: 1) immerse the viewer into the world; 2) include shock and unpredictability in my thriller; 3) This opening scene was about 6 minutes, and had several locations; 4) Lots of questions as we wonder who these characters are and why they are doing what they are doing; 5) Intense music during and repeated drumming during shootings; 6) Lots of action, brief dialog, twists as we realize at the end of the scene how the robbery was devised and how it succeeded as planned.

[Ronald Neustrom]

What makes this a great scene from a writing perspective.

The Dark Knight…bank heist opening scene…

1^st time – Character introduction…It was designed to introduce the Joker. It accomplished that on many levels. He was an enigmatic planner and leader of an elite group of robbers. We knew they were elite because of the equipment they used. The extreme planning that went into implementing such an endeavor was over the top, but then they added another level of ruthless cruelty and greed…he executed all the other robbers as they completed their tasks, so in the end, he was alone to take the cash. This character was something so heartless and brilliant that anyone that goes up against him would be at a severe disadvantage. Good Luck Batman and Gotham!

2^nd Time – Twists and intrigue. One part that stands out even in the second viewing is the pace. It’s breathless. Breakneck speed. How do we reflect that in the writing? The first piece of intrigue is when one of the burglars kills the other. Jolts us. But not until we hear that the call was not to 911 but a private number. I assume that is a setup that will be paid off later. In fact, we find out later it is a mob bank. Not sure what difference that would make, perhaps just an act of extreme balls. Next two acts of intrigue are the bank manager has a shot gun and knows how to use it… and the drilling machine hits an electric current. We later find out it is a mob bank and it makes Joker even more dangerous to not be afraid of them. It is really a text book example of introducing a character as a mad arch-villain. “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger!” And then the grenade spews smoke…surprise…perhaps a homage to Batman from the TV era.

[juan solanas]

This is the intro of the joker and I suppose also the beginning of the movie. This scene makes a great job for introducing the main character. Very quick we get from here that the joker is clever, unpredictable, complex, pervert, fearless, a-moral and cold as a dead.

The key for being so efficient is the speed: I feel it’s not an editor inspiration: I was written this way. Thanks for the extreme speed of the event the audience can buy things that are not easy to sell without the speed. Usually super top professionals guy wouldn’t speak so much in the action, wouldn’t tell the partner about killing him, they are pro and stupid at the same time etc etc and more generally just tell us all we need to know. But here with the rhythm of the music, leading a very effective edit and few dynamic camera moves it’s take the audience by speed, and allow us to get surprise without questioning. If the speed would’d be less, all this beautiful mechanic will grip.

Other Exemple: We see the manager being afraid and passive, but then becoming a bad ass shooter killing a couple of bad guy but then again being not so good running out of amo and not protect him self, then at the end speaking to make himself kill then having his two arms loose and not take out the grenade in his mouth waiting dying ( normally you don’t by that ).

All that create surprise and great entertainment and it was made possible because of the frenetic rhythm of the scene plus originals information that build up the scene as the fact of being a mafia bank, the elimination game of the professionals killing each other, us not knowing witch one is the joker because of the mask and being more and more curious to discover him etc etc.

All together we have a very concentrate delivery of info in a very dynamic, sexy way. Forcing us to be always at the present moment, without the capacity of questioning things, we are surprise and oblige to buy it. That makes the scene very efficient.

[jonathan Paton]

What makes this scene great from a writing perspective?

So many places to start, but here goes:

1. Iconic Image: the image of the Joker holding his mask in his hands. This shot made it into promos and movie posters, etc. It might be something we see in the movie, but a writer put that in the script. But besides looking cool, it basically sets up the end of the scene when the Joker pulls off the mask and we discover he’s basically wearing another mask (makeup) underneath. This movie is a lot about identity and who the Joker is, so I think the beginning and ending of this scene are bookends of what we will see later, but they are entertaining in their own right.

2. Mystery: There are a lot of questions we are forced to ask in this scene, some of which get answered, some don’t. That mystery and these questions keeps us wanting to find out more:

a. Who are these guys?

b. What kind of bank is this? (A version of this is flat-out asked by the bank manager, when he says, “Do you know who you’re stealing from?”).

c. What kind of bank has a manager with a sawed-off shotgun?

d. Who is going to get killed next?

e. Which one of them is the real Joker?

3. Intrigue: All of the double-crossing makes us believe a lot is happening below the surface from the start and the pay-off is when we finally get to see the Joker as the last man standing who set this all in motion. We want to learn more about what is happening beneath the surface. Also, we have entered a world in which the mob controls a bank. That’s clearly a dark and broken world, which intrigues us more.

4. Surprises: Each time a robber gets killed it’s a surprise. From questioning the amount of ammo that’s left to the bus smashing the last one—all surprising. Then the last surprise is that the bank manager has a grenade in his mouth but it’s only a smoke bomb. The Joker taking off his mask, surprises us by revealing he’s the real Joker but he’s still in costume. Even the last line has a surprising kicker at the end, “That which does not kill us makes us stranger…”

5. Character Intro: This scene introduces the Joker by showing he is clever, manipulative, a loner, somewhat suicidal (he goes after a mob-run bank) and is someone who loves chaos. This sums up the Joker in a nutshell in an entertaining way under five minutes. The scene does this through concrete actions the characters take, but also through dialogue. We learn about the Joker through the conversations the characters have about him (one of whom actually is the Joker, which is funny in hindsight). They build him up in kind of the same way that Vincent and Jules built up Marsellus Wallace did in “Pulp Fiction.” (a movie, by the way, which also introduces a character by only showing the back of his head at first). These other characters and their dialogue create a reputation for the Joker long before we actually meet him and the cool thing is that his actions at the end of the scene rise to meet that larger than life reputation.

6. Serves the Story: All of these things previously mentioned are cool and entertaining, but they are not just random crap thrown out there to amuse us, they all have a purpose within the story. This scene serves the story by:

a. introducing the antagonist as a clever and dangerous opponent

b. creating an incident that the underworld will have to respond to, which moves the plot along

c. establishing the kind of story this is (an action story)

d. establishing the tone of the story (dark and mysterious)

e. introducing themes that will carry through the entire story (how one man can create chaos and the nature of identity).

It’s a scene that does double and even triple duty and you couldn’t take out any moment which would not have taken out a crucial story element. Nothing was wasted. The final line, “That which does not kill us makes us stranger” could very well be a freaking mission statement for how the Joker looks at the world!

[Deb Johnson]

My scene analysis is in the previous forum. This is what I learned when I re-wrote my opening scene:

This is my monster reveal scene. I added more conflict between the two characters being acted upon. I added another set-up by having them mention a character who will later be involved in the story.

[Claudia Wolfkind]

My insights are in the other post, I’m confused why we have to post twice. What I leaned for my own writing… is to keep in mind all of the elements not just for the opening scene, but for every scene, so we can elevate them to greater levels.

[Mary Dietz]

I learned that I would do well to add dialogue to what I was thinking I could communicate mysteriously through action and mood alone. I added questions to make guide the imagination of the audience. The mystery is still there, but it is now focused. Those setups will be paid off in the next sequence of scenes.

[Janeen Johnson]

What I learned doing watching this scene is that you can pack a lot of info about the characters into a small space.

The Dark Knight

1. Basic Scene components:

1. Scene Arc — goes from starting the heist to the bus pulling out — the heist is pulled off.
2. Situation — A bunch of jokers are robbing a bank with the “boss” supposedly not in the group.
3. Conflict — Anyone who doesn’t comply right away is dealt with, anyone who completes their job is killed.
4. Moving the story forward — The bank manager is injured, but not killed. Why?
5. Entertainment value — The dialogue was clever
6. Setups/Payoffs — A guy says “the sixth man, the boss” when talking about shares of the loot. He dies so the boss will get it all after killing all of his henchmen. The guy on the roof says he’s done with his job and the “joker ” with him shoots him. Same for each guy down the line. We see it coming and are only surprised when the Joker doesn’t kill the bank manager

2. Intro to the World: It’s clearly the Batman world since this is the joker.

3. The Joker is portrayed as having a sense of humor, no scruples about killing people, a mastermind of bank heists, and, as a matter of bragging, I suppose, left the bank manager alive.

2nd Time through:

1. Challenging Situation: The boss told each one of them to kill the guy they’re working with when the guy had finished his job.

2. Intrigue: Why does the bank manager say “What do you believe in?”

3. Interesting Action: The zip line to the top of the bank, the voltage on the vault, the masks.

4. Intriguing Dialogue: The line about the boss telling them to kill each other.

5. Tone: Humorous, but dangerous.

6. Lures us into the Story: Curious to know who can actually catch the Joker and wondering what the bank manager meant by “What do you believe in?”

7. Twist at Conclusion of the scene: Leaves the bank manager alive

[Isti Madarasz]

I’ve learned that I can’t afford not to have a tense, exciting, instantly engaging opening scene. I just need it. So I didn’t rewrite my current opening scene, because it’s a well-worked sequence, but simply wrote a new scene in front of it that starts in medias res, is interesting, somewhat mysterious and (I hope) intrigues the viewer enough to know what the world is that my story is set in.