Research- Depth of Field ('The Dark Knight')

After experimenting with the manual focus on my camera, I have decided to look into the effect of a deep depth of field and a shallow depth of field. The best example i found of a comparison is in a scene from Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' film.



Director: Christopher NolanTM & © Warner Bros. (2008). (2008). "Why So Serious" Scene | The Dark Knight (2008) Movie Clip. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st__OsuetyM

This scene from 'The Dark Knight' shows the character of 'the 'Joker' threatening a Mob boss.

When the the scene starts, the depth of field appears to be deep, and everything is in focus. This helps to show the details of the scene as the character enter through the door.

When 'The Joker' suddenly grabs the mob boss and holds a knife to his face, the depth of field becomes shallow and the close up of the 2 characters' faces are the only things in focus. This filters out the unimportant background visuals and places emphasis on the the 2 character in frame. The shallow depth of field also makes the scene more intimate, along with the close up shots. 

Christopher Nolan commonly uses a shallow depth of field when filming a scene where there is a more intimate tone between 2 characters.

I will further apply this to the film to create a more intimate tone that will allow the audience to relate to the character more effectively. A more intimate tone to my film would intensify the positive and negative emotions through out the film.