This is our research and textual analysis of the opening of the film Saving Private Ryan for our Main Task.

1. Main Task Genre Research:
Saving Private Ryan
By Matthew Haddock and Ben
Treloar

2. Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis
• The first shot is of the film’s titles and credits being
listed in white text over a black background, this
emphasises the solemn nature of the following scene,
this uses Barthe’s Cultural Code as the audience will be
familiar with the black and white plain text that is
commonly employed at funerals, and this links to the
cemetery setting. From this we can understand that a
reverent mood can be conveyed through the use of
slow and monochrome text titles, this can be applied
to the film we are making as the mood we are trying to
convey is a somewhat melancholy one,

3. Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis
• The next shot shows a United States Of America flag waving in the wind,
its colour washed out, this also uses Barthe’s Cultural Code, in that the
film is mainly about the events during the Second World War, the washed-
out colour symbolising the passage of time since the War, this would make
the audience understand that this film is exploring the events of the past
from an American perspective, this tells us that flags can be used to
communicate the national identity of a film, however our film will not be
set in a specific country, so this will not be used in ours.
• The following shot is a tracking shot of the back of the elderly man's legs
as he walks down the path towards the ceremony, the camera follows his
pace and pans up to show only his head and shoulders from behind, while
still keeping up with him. The effect on the audience here is one that first
communicates motion by showing the legs of the elderly man as he walks,
and then focuses primarily on his character by showing the back of his
head, this also reveals his grey hair, showing his age. This tells us that not
only can panning be used effectively in conjunction with tracking, but that
panning can be used to reveal aspects of a character, while our character
is the main focus of the film, his appearance is not something we intend to
withhold and reveal, so we will not use this aspect in our film.

4. Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis
• The next shot is a tracking shot, facing towards the elderly man's family, an adult
man and woman, an elderly woman and three young women, the camera moves
away from them at the same pace that they walk towards it, following the elderly
man. This makes it clear to the audience that the man has lived an eventful life
and raised a family, this also shows him as a respected man, as his family are going
with him to visit the military cemetery, a task that would not be very enjoyable,
but shows that they understand him and will provide him with support. This shot
teaches us that many things about a character can be inferred from their relation
to other characters, another example of Barthe's Cultural Code, we will employ
this in our film by showing the main character's loneliness through a photograph
of an absent love interest.
• The next two shots show the adult man of the family about to take a picture, the
camera facing towards his face and continuing the tracking pace, the next shot is
from behind the family and shows the adult woman, implied to be his wife,
shaking her head at him as if to say it would be disrespectful to take a picture,
notably the elderly man is kept in focus in the centre of the frame, however the
exchange between the presumed husband and wife is the main event of the shot,
this tells us that the focus of the shot and the main action in a shot do not always
have to be the same, we will employ this by focusing on a still tin of beans in one
shot, while a picture is turned face-down out of the shot's focus. The following
shot is faced towards the elderly woman, tracking away from her as she walks
towards the cemetery, revealing a small boy holding the adult woman's hand, this
shot does not provide anything new of note that we can learn from.

5. Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis
• The following shot is a long tracking shot, showing the elderly man
walking down the path to the cemetery, the camera following him
as he walks, slowly zooming in so his family are out of frame, until
he gets to the entrance of the cemetery, faces the towards the
camera, and his family gather behind him. This shows us that a long
shot can be rendered more dynamic with elements of a reveal by
using a combination of tracking and zooming. We could employ this
for some outdoor scenes in our film, however it may end up
betraying the staid atmosphere we are attempting.
• The next shot again shows the United States of America's flag
waving, however this time it is in full colour at the top of a pole and
shot from a low angle, a POV shot from the elderly man's
perspective. This is another reminder of the film's American setting
and perspective. This is followed by a shot of a French flag in the
exact same state, a Culturally Coded reference to the battle at
Omaha Beach that takes place in the film, an attempted American
invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

6. Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis
• There is a brief shot of the elderly man beginning to walk towards the graves, followed by a
long tracking shot of him walking amongst the graves that sees the camera move from facing
towards him, to facing towards his left side, and then behind him, pulling back to reveal the
hundreds of gravestones. this is to emphasise the loss of human life that comes as a result of
war, and from this we can learn a pull-back-and-reveal technique that means that the
audience has a different viewpoint from that of the characters, the elderly man would clearly
be able to see the gravestones for a long time before this shot, however it is the first time the
audience would see them, this is something we could employ for dramatic effect by having
an object relevant to the plot hinted at, and acknowledged by the main character, but not
looked at clearly until when it would be most dramatically effective, we will use this with a
photograph of a woman in our film.
• The elderly man then collapses in front of a gravestone and his family surround him to
support him. The next two shots clearly show the names of the gravestones in front of him,
focusing on nothing else, this tells the audience that the names of these men are relevant,
and probably have some emotional significance to the elderly man. From this we can learn
that the written word can be an effective tool for visual communication, and that by giving
the audience clear shots of text they can have a good vantage point to read them, however
as the film we are making focuses more on action than language, it is unlikely we will employ
this technique.

7. Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis
• The camera then zooms into the elderly man's
crying eyes in the next shot until they fill the
frame, concluding the opening sequence, this
conveys to the audience the emotional nature
of the film, and teaches us that intensity can
be generated by slowly zooming in on the face
of an emotional person, however our film will
be somewhat emotionally detached, so we
will most likely not use this technique.

8. Saving Private Ryan: Mise-En-Scene
• This setting is in modern day while the rest of
the film takes place during the Second World
War, the message here is that war results in a
catastrophic loss of human life, this teaches us
that changing the time of the mise-en-scene
can be used to powerful dramatic effect to
display change, however we will not employ
this technique as our film will be set in an
ambiguously modern time.

9. Saving Private Ryan: Audio Analysis
• The only audio in the scene besides low ambient noises such as birds chirping, footsteps and
wind is an original score, it starts off as solely mournful brass instrumentation, most likely a
cultural reference to military music such as Taps and The Last Post that are brass pieces,
linking with the film's story of the American military in the Second World War. As the elderly
man walks towards the graves cellos are added to the instrumentation, conveying movement
and dramatic progression,violins come in soon after, and the piece takes a more uplifting
turn, as the elderly man begins to cry the instrumentation becomes more quiet, mournful
and brass-focused, reflecting his sadness towards his fallen comrades, the last instrumental
phrase is an ominous brass tune that becomes overpowered by the sound of crashing waves
as the film switches to the Battle of Omaha Beach and the narrative is set in motion. The
score here works with the onscreen events to telegraph to the audience how they should be
feeling at different points of the film.
• This tells us that the mood and movement of an original instrumental piece can be used as a
fitting companion to onscreen action, however as we are likely going to use an existing song
as the soundtrack to our film, we will not follow this technique exactly but the editing will be
done in tandem with the song's movements.
• Only one word is spoken in this opening, as the elderly man collapses and cries the adult man
runs up to him and says "Dad!" an obvious exposition of the character's relation to the
elderly man, this makes the audience aware that the man is his son and that the people
behind the elderly man are almost certainly his family.
• From this we can learn that sparing words can be used to convey necessary plot information
without dialogue taking over the film, however we intend for our film to have no spoken
words besides those in an existing song used as a soundtrack, this also seems too obvious of
a method of exposition, we would prefer to show instead of tell where possible in our film
opening.