How does a Camera tell a story?
Film Form
In the dark knight, Youtube movie analyser Nickolas Dobbie looks over the camera angles and techniques used by director Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister. In this analaysis we look at the scene where Batman is Interrogating the Joker as he’s held in captivity.
As the scene begins, the camera is planted behind the Joker, already showing the Jokers position of power, as the camera slowly zooms into Gordons face, we see that the words that the Joker says really have an effect on him. The Joker wins the confrontation, and Gordon leaves
However, the confrontation changes once Batman enters the scene. We initially see someone out of focus behind a closeup of the joker, both facing the same direction.
Camera angles look up on Batman and Downwards on Joker which presents the power dynamic of the two characters. Though, as Batman sits down opposite the joker, they are shot close up as equals.
I noticed that again, a huge amount of emotion is purely conveyed through the eyes, as mentioned previously by Tony Zhou.
Screen Direction is a technique to show continuity in film, usually the screen is shown from left to right, like that of a book.
I’m not sure I necessarily agree with it, but Nicholas argues that the joker changes from being presented on the left side of the screen to the right to confuse the audience on who is the antagonist and who speaks truth. But I really don’t think having a character on a particular half of a camera shot really has that much power to dictate the way we analyse characters moral standpoint.
When Batman grabs the Joker and lifts him into the air, the camera switches to being handheld. This conveys the wild unpredictability of the actions that are about to unfold. The Editing becomes faster giving the audience less time to think about what’s going on.
When Batman has lost complete control, we go to the scene of the Joker in a Dutch tilt, “twisting the scene into madness”
, and during the scene that batman is attacking the Joker, Batman’s fists are presented in the middle of the camera shot.
Showing us the extent to which Batman holds an advantage over the joker, purely through physical strength, and we find out that that is not enough.
The scene and camera work communicates that despite the fact that Batman has his enemy in captivity face to face with all his strength, he still does not have the power. Which creates a very interesting dynamic of knowledge over strength.
-Nick Dobbie
