Scene Analysis - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight
Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Scene Description: The Joker "brings Harvey down to [his and Batman's] level" by introducing him to a little anarchy while Harvey recovers in the hospital room from an explosion that destroyed the left side of his face. (About 23 shots)

Camera Angle: In the beginning of the scene, the camera is below eye-level signifying the Joker's manipulation of Harvey and the fact that he intimidates him. It helps that the Joker not only pins Harvey's wrists down, but also that Harvey is helpless in the hospital bed as he looks up at the crazed clown. From the two-shot aspect, they appear to be stacked -- Harvey on the lower diagonal gazing upwards at the Joker. This shifts with Harvey's shift from insecurity to confidence as the Joker manipulates him and by the end of the scene, Harvey and the Joker are level with each other and the camera reflects this by showing them from the same height.

Camera Distance: We begin with a medium long shot of the Joker from the waist up as he pins Harvey's wrists down. From there, most of the shots in this scene are medium shots from the chest up and close-ups of their faces. We get two more two-shots, one of the Joker leaning in towards Harvey as his lies and manipulation intensify and one of the Joker pulling a gun from the pocket of his nurse's uniform. The close-ups also allow for the camera to exploit Harvey's emotions -- the closer we get, the more the Joker's words start making sense to Harvey until finally, he and his double sided coin are right up in our faces as he takes the bait and leaves Joker's destiny in the hands of fate.

Camera Movement: The camera remains stationary save for a few adjustments on the faces in the close-ups as the actors move around. We get a little tilt when the Joker goes out of the frame to retrieve his gun. We also get a tilt when Harvey tosses his coin up in the air to decide the Joker's fate.

Lighting: Motivated; The source appears to be coming through the window as though it were the fading orange sunlight. We get a bleached glow on the Joker's face and deep orange with yellow highlights on Harvey. A severe shadow cuts a diagonal right across Harvey's face in the two-shots which symbolizes not only the actual division of his face by the burns but also the conflicting emotions running through him as he mulls over the Joker's words. We see hard shadows and bleached light even though this scene takes place in a relatively plain hospital room -- the lighting helps amplify the situation thereby voiding the neutral hospital setting.

Color: The colors pop -- the red upon Joker's Glasgow smile, the pink trim of his uniform, Harvey's golden hair and bright blue eyes, the green in Joker's blonde hair -- we get all this even in the bleached lighting.

Lens: Normal. Nothing is distorted, stretched, or smushed.

Mise-en-Scene/Depth of Field: The encounter is shown with Harvey's pillow out of focus and the background hospital equipment out of focus in certain shots. We care about Harvey and the Joker, who are in the middle layer.

Framing: We are framed by the pillow on the left-hand side, but other than that, the camera serves as the main frame.