The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan - Opening Scenes Analysis

The film starts with the logos of the companies which produced the film; Warner Brothers, Legendary Pictures, and DC Comics. As these are high profile and well trusted companies, people expect the film to live up to these expectations, and it definitely doesn't disappoint!
The film starts with an establishing shot of the opening scene, which consists of a very large black building in the middle of a busy city landscape; this sets the scene for the next few shots. We see two men in clown masks smashing the glass of the building and shooting a metal wire as an 'escape route' onto the roof of the opposite building. The fact that the men are on the inside of this building. immediately makes us think that this is an 'inside job'. There is no music playing throughout this scene, which adds to the suspense.
The men are all wearing clown masks which hides their faces; this could be to make sure the security cameras don't see their faces, but it could also be them hiding behind mask, and almost hiding their identity as they want to isolate the crime from their normal life. The masks create a sense of mystery, but is also quite ironic; clowns are associated with comedy and children's parties, yet the criminals are using them out of fear and to make people believe that clowns etc. are almost bad and not to be laughed at or taken lightly. This could be a metaphor for the criminals themselves; they want people to take the seriously which is why they are robbing such a high profile bank and not committing 'petty' crimes. The criminals have a lot of equipment and they know exactly where they are going at what time, which shows that have planned this for a long time, and they are 'professionals'.
The music increases in tempo as the action in the scene increases, which builds suspense.
There are a lot of close-ups on the faces of the criminals, which is ironic as we can't see their faces because of the masks, but this could be Nolan's intention.