Mise en scene
This current semester, I am taking Introduction to Film. I decided to take the class only because it was in a convenient time slot, and not because I had any interest in taking the class. I am, however, enjoying it; for instance, we watched Quentin Tarantino’s, Reservoir Dogs — it was the first time I had ever seen the film, it was weird, but cool. Anyway…
The first major paper in the class is a scene analysis. We could pick any movie, any scene. I choose the movie, Saving Private Ryan; hopefully you are able to figure which scene via my essay…
The world as we experience it through our own senses is limited in its scope to the singular perspective. In film, however, using the same setting with the use of many different camera angles and positions, producing shots that are choreographed with crisp sound into a sequence, can take even an otherwise boring event and present it as epic. Filmmaking has the ability to broaden perspective — exponentially. In an essential scene in Saving Private Ryan, the film maker manages the elements of cinematography, sound, setting and editing to grab the audience’s attention and put them on edge for what will be coming next.
Released to theaters on July 24, 1998, and the winner of five Academy Awards including a Best Director Oscar for Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan quickly became the benchmark for what a movie depicting war should aspire. Written by Robert Rodat, the story begins with an elderly James Francis Ryan (Harrison Young) recalling a time during World War II when a squad of United States Army Rangers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), is ordered to locate him to ultimately send him home because he was now the only remaining son of four — his three brothers were all killed in battle. His memory starts with the Rangers landing on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of World War II, and follows them as they seek to locate him, the soldier, Private James Francis Ryan
The first major paper in the class is a scene analysis. We could pick any movie, any scene. I choose the movie, Saving Private Ryan; hopefully you are able to figure which scene via my essay…
The world as we experience it through our own senses is limited in its scope to the singular perspective. In film, however, using the same setting with the use of many different camera angles and positions, producing shots that are choreographed with crisp sound into a sequence, can take even an otherwise boring event and present it as epic. Filmmaking has the ability to broaden perspective — exponentially. In an essential scene in Saving Private Ryan, the film maker manages the elements of cinematography, sound, setting and editing to grab the audience’s attention and put them on edge for what will be coming next.
Released to theaters on July 24, 1998, and the winner of five Academy Awards including a Best Director Oscar for Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan quickly became the benchmark for what a movie depicting war should aspire. Written by Robert Rodat, the story begins with an elderly James Francis Ryan (Harrison Young) recalling a time during World War II when a squad of United States Army Rangers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), is ordered to locate him to ultimately send him home because he was now the only remaining son of four — his three brothers were all killed in battle. His memory starts with the Rangers landing on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of World War II, and follows them as they seek to locate him, the soldier, Private James Francis Ryan