AH: Coventions of a thriller opening

Inception (Nolan, 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4

• The clip begins with a slow motion pan of the sea, emphasising the force and strength of the ocean.
• We are then introduced to the protagonist, having been swept up on a beach. Straight away there is enigma as we wonder how and why he's there. There is further employment of enigma as he lifts his head to see a little boy and a girl playing with a sand castle (on a desolate beach), you don't see their faces and wonder why their there. 

• The music which anchors the cuts is a dark rumble to create a sense of danger and/or uneasiness. This supports and builds tension within the opening.
• Dialogue builds the character exposition of the protagonist and introduces a second character (very old man). They have a connection through an object which was in the possession of the protagonist (a small spinner), it is as if the object has a significance much greater than first thought (enigma).

• There is then a sudden and unexpected cut, a jump back in time but the exact same location. At this point audiences have no temporal cohesion and requires complete attentiveness to stay with the story (there has been no establishment of what the film will or is about).
• The old man is now a lot younger, as we see by the use of close-ups. No Long shots are really used in the conversations between the characters, just close-ups to help audiences recognise the relationships that exist between them.

The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0KU16cpf8A

• The opening begins by the introduction of what appears to be robbers, they are wearing masks to conceal or mistake their identity, typical of action thrillers.
• The window smashing adds to the sense of urgency/chaos and the gunshots are hugely emphasised so there is no way you could miss it. This sense of chaos is further reinforced by the hostages screams.

• The clip begins with a ticking sound and then the music begins,this is also a common convention in action thrillers to build the pace of the opening.
• The first shot is an establishing shot of the city which then zooms in to the building in which the robbers appear through the smashed window.
• There is a low-angle shot of a clown/robber holding a bag, he looks around (as if he is assessing the area). The low-angle shot and prevalence gives an impression of his superiority.

• All the robbers are wearing clown masks, by command of the joker. They all end up shooting one another also by command of the joker. They all bare guns and this portrays them as dangerous, challenging the common view upon clowns.
• All through the clip the clowns talk of the joker as having war scars and makes him out to be mysterious (dialogue), this builds enigma to his entrance to the film.