Saving Private Ryan

Opening Scene• Films use the opening scene to entice the audience, the scene will use something to

entice the audiences attention and make the want to watch the remainder of the film.

• The genre for a war film would usually start in the middle of a war or introduce a character leaving to fight in a war. However, Saving Private Ran begins in the present with the veteran looking back on his time in the arm, this breaks the genre convention

• The opening scene will introduce an enigma to keep the audience intrigued. For example, the enigma introduced in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan is the story of the veteran by the grave, the audience will want to know his story and how his time in the arm affected him; why is he crying. In addition, the audience will be curious about who's grave he has gone to visit. The only way to find this out is by watching the film, this excites the audience and the will want to know the conclusion to these questions.

• The unique selling point (USP) of this opening scene is the mystery around who’s grave the veteran is visiting

Synopsis• Saving Private Ryan is a film set

during the invasion of Normandy in the Second world War. The film mostly takes pace during the assault on Omaha Beach on June 1944

• The film follows the story of John H. Miller and his squad as the search for a missing paratrooper: Private Ryan

• The film was directed by Steve Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat

Camerawork-Close Ups

The opening shot of the film begins with a close up of the American flag. The use of this establishes the setting of the film, it provides the audience knowledge that this is set in America and has some relation to war. This is a reoccurring shot and it has been used in films before, this type of shot is often used to symbolize America’s patriotism and their praise to the soldiers who have died for their country. Some of the audience will recognize this type of shot and its meaning. This type of shot links to the war genre of the film, it also relates to the idea of American soldiers fighting wars for their country.

Camerawork-Close Ups • The next example of a close up is the

scene where the camera angle starts as a close up, the camera zooms in towards the veterans eyes. This is used to establish the character, a close up is used to demonstrate the characters distraught because he is at a war cemetery. The camera zooms into his eyes which provides the audience with more information, it shows he is crying at the sight of the graves-it adds detail to the scene

Camerawork-wide shots

This shot is shown towards the middle of the opening scene. A wide shot is used to establish the number of deaths seen during the war, it provides the audience with information regarding the scale of the war. A close up or a medium shot would have less effect because the audience would see less, they would have a limited understanding of the amount of deaths and the real impact of the war.

This wide shot establishes the atmosphere for this film. It perspectives the seriousness of the film because it shows a veteran alone walking towards a cemetery. A wide shot makes the shot more symbolic, it makes him appear alone after the war

Camerawork-wide shots

Editing-Transitions • The film opens with a fade in from black to an American flag, this is used to

establish the setting. It provides the audience with information, opening from black informs the audience that the film is dark-it sets the tone of the film for the audience straight away

• Furthermore, fade in from black is used in other media to suggest to the audience that the film will not be light-hearted. The audience will instantly recognise this and assume the film will cover a darker topic

Editing: jump shots

Most of the shots change through the use of jump shots, the jump shot is very simple is will go unnoticed by most of the audience. The jump shot is simple therefore it won’t be seen and distract the audience, the simplicity of it maintains the realism of the film. The jump shot won’t distract the audience from the film because it isn’t complicated, it is used in most media types and it will most likely go un-noticed during the film

Sound• The film uses both diagetic and non-diagetic sound • The non diagetic soundtrack is very prominent

during the scene where the veteran approaches the grave. This is done to make the scene more tense and creates a sad and grave atmosphere

• The orchestral tones of the soundtrack connote to war which heavily relates to the genre of the film. Similar orchestral music has been used in similar genres, often this type of music is used to symbolise the disastrous effects of war and how it has affected the people. The audience might have heard this music in similar war films and have a knowledge of why this music is used, they will assume the music has been added to this scene to symbolise the soldiers pain caused by war

Sound

• The diagetic sound is very limited during the opening scene, there is not much dialogue which adds to the atmosphere of the film. However, one significant piece of diagetic sound is the crying of the veteran. This sound emphasizes the tone of the film, it demonstrates to the audience how harrowing the war was and the effect it had on the veteran

Sound-J cut

• In this scene, the audio from the future clip can be heard before it is on screen. The film uses this J cut to transition between scenes. The J cut emphasises the traumatic memories of the war, the film uses the J cut as a memory sequence, the overlapping sound demonstrates that the veteran’s experience in the war was harrowing

• Furthermore, the film uses the J cut as a transition between the modern day and the past

Mise en Scene

• The scene opens with a shot of the American flag, this type of shot has been repeated in the war film genre.

• Often this type of shot is used to symbolise America's patriotism during a war, it symbolises how the American people respect their soldiers. Furthermore, this shot is often used in other media types to mourn the dead. Typically this type of shot is used at military funerals.

• Assuming the audience has seen other war films, they will have a shared knowledge and an understanding of why this shot is used. The audience will now that this shot is used to demonstrate patriotism

Mise-en-Scene

• The barriers seen in this shot strongly connote to the war, the audience watching will notice and make their own connotation about the barriers. This shot will require some shared knowledge to understand that this scene is in the past in World War II, assuming the audience know of these barriers and their connotations, the audience will know that this sets a darker tone for the scenes in the past. The barriers in the scene have a lot of similitude to WWII

• From watching this opening scene, multiple media techniques can be taken and applied to our own media piece

• Firstly, the transition between the two time periods can be used. The camera zooming in into the eye and J cut can be applied to our opening scene to transition between the present day and the past

• The varying camera angles and shots, it will make the piece more interesting to watch

• Saving Private Ryan incorporates many transitions from jump cuts to fade ins/outs, we could apply this to our own piece to add variety between shots