Analysis of sub genre opening - Joker (2019)

Joker (2019)

 

I chose the opening of Joker, a psychological thriller about the famous villain's origin story and his descent into madness and insanity. The film also inspires a cultural, violent revolution in Gotham city, where it is set and the film is a box office success, with it grossing over $1 billion with 11 nominations at the Academy Awards, winning Best Actor and Best Original Score. I took inspiration from this film's opening because of the use of sound in the scenes and the way it presents the character's mental illness in the first few minutes.

Scene analysis

What I have taken away from this opening

The Joker opening focuses on the isolation of an individual and the affect that society has on them. I will take this and use it when producing my film opening and use some of the techniques, such as the use of a dutch shot to show power, or the first scene in front of the mirror, to show emotion in my film. The representation of the Joker as a villain is also interesting to me because I can use the way he is presented to create the villain characters in my film opening. Little details such as the way he is most happy when he is the Joker or the binary opposites with him smiling but also crying could be presented in my film through the eyes of my characters. Overall, analysing this film opening has helped me gain a deeper understanding of the sub genre Psychological Thrillers and will lead to me creating ideas for my own film opening with Olivia.