The first 500 words of my analysis

A micro analysis on mis-en-scene and sound within a 4 minute sequence from ‘Saving Private Ryan’

My sequence is the opening of the film form 6minutes in to 10 minutes. The micro aspects I have chosen to analyse the clip of the film I have decided to talk about are; Mis-en-scene and sound. I feel that these micro aspects work well together because the sound will create the emotion for the audience on what is happening in the scene. They both indicate the genre of the film instantly which is ‘war’ and are also both important in constructing the narrative of the entire film. Mis-en-scene can be defined as what is in the scene, this mainly focuses on the setting, the props used and how they are used, the staging, the costume is an important part of mis-en-scene also especially for this film, also the movement and expression of the characters. My other micro aspect is sound, sound creates and effect on the audience, whether it be tension or sympathy for a character, it can also convey a meaning about a character.                                                                                                                       

          Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg. The opening scene concentrates on the emotions of the characters, and the struggles through fighting in the conditions of war. It creates emotion for the audience, and can concentrate on escapism.

          In the opening of the sequence, we see a close up of a solider, it is indicated to the audience this character is a soldier because of the costume the character is dressed in, it is a typical outfit that the audience would relate to soldiers with, also from this costume it indicated to the audience that the genre is war. We see the location as a war ground too and in the background are other soldiers. The close up of the character contacts the audience, and they get to feel the emotion of the character. We also see the character kissing a cross that is around his neck, this symbolizes that he is praying to survive, this conveys a message to the audience about the character, and it plays on the emotions of the audience. The sound in the opening of the sequence also connects to the genre, we can hear the sound of rain hitting the ground which constructs the mood of the setting, to be depressing, the rain within mis-en-scene can be seen as pathetic fallacy which indicates things are going to get This is diegetic sound which happens within the diagesis, there is also non-diegetic which happens outside and is added in after for example a voice over. Shortly after that we hear a whistle and then someone shouting, this suggests that it is a ‘captain’ ordering the troop to get in order. Shouting is a high tone and can play on the audience’s emotions as the scene becomes tense.

Sound

The sound throughout the scene i have chosen, connects and relates to the genre of the film. We don't hear a lot of voices and conversation the construct the narrative, but instead shouts and screams. This type of communication between the characters creates tension and suspense of the situation, it makes the audience connect and feel as if they are apart of the film.
Te sound is very much focused on the sound of the gun shots and then the reaction of that, weather it be a scream or the sound of the bullet hitting something. Most of my sequence is underwater, or in water. Therefore we hear a lot of water sounds, where the sound tends to be a lot more quieter which isolates the situation, and creates the atmosphere of the sequence. Also towards the end of the sequence when the camera focuses purely on one solider who is the main character, the sound becomes distant and then the audience can feel the emotion of the character throughout the sense of isolation, scared and vulnerability. Sound is a micro analysis technique which constructs the narrative and contributes towards the genre and atmosphere.

Looking at Mis-en-scene

Straight away from the first shot of the opening scene to Saving Private Ryan, we can see that the genre is war, we are able to tell this because of the costume that the actors are dressed in. The composistion of the image is dark which creates the mood and atmosphere of the scene, which is depressing, tense and very sad. We see the solider kissing a cross in this image which tells thew audience that, he is worried and is almost praying to god for him to be okay, which makes the audience feel as though they are apart of him and are praying for him to.

From this second image still looking at Mis-en-scene we can now see a battlefield which again indicates the genre and the setting of the film. The composition of the image is still dark , however it now has a slight blue colour too it which turns the feel to being cold and isolated. We cans see and explosion which indicates that people are being killed by this violence. The sea in the background looks rough, which contributes towards the atmosphere of being fast paced and violent.

In this image there is a clear indication of death from the connotation of the use of red, meaning in this genre danger or death. It is set underwater which emphasises the colour of red making it look more harsh and dramatic. The setting has now moved to underwater and although now we have a bright dominant colour of red the colour blue is still with us again making the audience feel cold. Also being underwater creates isolation from the "outside" world.

We can see from this image the struggle of the soliders struggling with the battle, we see the mass of soilders which creates the sense of realism for the audience because soilders do come in a mass. The image is very grey which is pathetic fallacy because we as the audience know that the film is about to get worse. We also see dead soilders lying around the battle field, this makes the audience relate to whats happening and they will feel as though it is happening around them from the way they are posistioned through the use of 

mis-en-scen.

Here we get another dominant clour of yellow, it is clear to see that in this image there is an explosion, which is a common aspect of war. We still see the soilders struggling, however thorough the use of yellow it brightens up the scene. However this is ironic beacuse although yellow is seen to be a happy bright colour, it does not change the mood. But also another reading of yellow is fire which indicstes danger which is the case here.





My Film Clip

For my film analysis, i have chosen to analyse the opening scene to 'Saving Private Ryan' This is a film about war, the opening scene is very graphic and contains a lot of strong images that i will be able to analyse in a lot of depth. It is a typical war scene which brings heartache to the viewing audeince through the different micro and macro techniques used in the sence.
I have chosen to use the micro aspects of mis-en-scene and sound to analyse my clip of 'Saving Private Ryan' as i feel these two aspects are what really creates the atmosphere and clearly show the setting and the gere of the film withyin the opening of the film.
This is the full movie of 'Saving Private Ryan' but i have chosen four minutes of the clip from 6 minutes to 10 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toipOBs5oos