Comparison of 2 sub-genres

The Black Swan and The dark night

Theme:
The Black Swan - At the beginning of the opening scene, it started off very calm and elegant which shows the audience that this is a good setting. It could also show that the character is a good person due to her wearing a white costume that contrasts with the darkness surrounding her. All of a sudden, a man in a dark costume and dark make up appears out of no where, making the woman in white very concerned and the look on her face showed that she was worried about the darkness consuming her.

The Dark Knight - From the beginning, you can see that there is something bad going on due to the deep music, the dangerous weapons and the use of scary clown masks that the actors wear whilst getting into a black van. This definitely indicates that there is going to be violence as it looks like they are the villains on a bad mission. 

Characters:

The Black Swan - The main character portrays innocence with her white costume and the elegance of her dancing, which could tell the audience that the innocence inside her becomes darkness.

The Dark Knight - At the beginning of the opening scene, you don't realise who the main person is until the end of the opening scene. His makeup is scary and his personality is very violent and doesn't care about anyone. I say this because at he starts off with a group of people trying to rob a bank and then he manipulates people into killing each other off and he kill people himself.

Devices:
The Black Swan - There we no devices used in this thriller film as this film is all about elegance and how someone so pure and innocent can turn into someone so dark and sinful.

The Dark Knight - There are multiple weapons used in the opening sequence of this film such as different types of guns, but the one that stood out the most was when the joker put a grenade into a civilians mouth after he robbed the bank. This give the audience and incite of what the Joker is capable of doing and how little he cares for other people.

Locations:
The Black Swan - Because of the theme of this film, the location is on a stage with one light beam to show that there is one main character in this film. This will intrigue the audience as it is pitch black and there is no one else but her and they might be wondering why there is not an audience that has appeared in the opening scene.

The Dark Knight - The main location for this opening scene was a bank. This shows that this is an action/crime thriller due to the robbing of a bank and tells the audience what kind of genre this film is straight away so that they will stay engaged to the rest of the film.

Props and Costume:
The Black Swan - You can see that the main character is wearing a white dress to portray her personality of being an innocent girl and during this opening sequence, no props were needed. This will tell the audience that she is a nice, young girl that doesn't get up to any trouble and most likely sticks to the rules.

The Dark Knight - You can see that the Joker is wearing smart clothes to deceive the audience of his true personality but also shows the audience that there is darkness to him through the mask he wears when robbing the bank and his clothes being dark colours. The props used were mainly weapons such as guns and grenades but also money, bags and a lot more whcih are all important for detailed mise-en-scene.