Film Opening Narrative Analysis

Establishing Shot - Establishing shots are used to connote the setting eg. the WS of  skyscrapers and buildings at the beginning. In this case the setting is a bank in Gotham City.

Match On Action - There is a lot of action in this sequence so match on action is key. An example is in the first shot a window get blown out and the sequence then cuts to an MCU of a masked man who has just blown the window out. The purpose of match on action is to make sure the narrative flows and does not confuse the audience by not making sense.

Use of shot order - More often then not this sequence cuts from close shots to mids to longs and then back the other way. This creates narrative flow as jumping from close shots to longs or using jumps cuts jars the audience.

Cross cutting - The sequence cuts between the armed robbers on the roof who then disarm the alarm and break into the vault and the robbers who hold up the bank. These two parallel story lines both add to the flow of the story as the audience reads them as happening simultaneously.