Research - Saving Private Ryan

.
Analysis of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan:

• At 00.00 we see the quiet beach. This beach is fortified which suggests to the audience that there is going to be a attack soon. 
• Between 00.07 and 00.12 the date and were the beach is comes up on the bottom of the film, this is to inform the viewer and so that they can see its set during World War Two and what they are about to witness is one of the many landings that took place during D-Day. 
• At 0.18 - 0.24 the camera bounces up and down, this is done to try and give the audience the sensation of being on one of the landing crafts in the choppy shore, this is to try and make it more realistic so that the audience can get a feel for what it must have been like on the approach to the beach. 
• 00.25 the viewer sees an extreme close up of a soldiers hand shacking, this is because the director wants to show the viewer how scared the solider must have been and so this close up of the shaking hand does this very effectively. Also it shows that they could just be cold and shivering.
• 00.31 - 00.55 Starts with a extreme close up of this solider and then it pans out down the center of the landing craft from this solider, this shows the audience that this solider is very important in the film and may even be one of the main characters. This is also good camera work as it allows the viewers to see all the different reactions to what is going on by the other soldiers such as being sick or shacking ect.
• The camera angle from the landing craft looking onto the beach at 01.54 shows the audience how as soon as the landing door was lowered all the men got shot to pieces, those also shows what a solider would have seen and how as he looked up the beach all he would be able to see is smoke this smoky effect also symbolises the unknown and how the soldiers did not know what they were walking into.
• The camera angle behind the Germans soldier's at 02.02 shows the audience the wide scale destruction on the beaches. It also helps the viewer to sympathies for the soldiers who are latterly walking to their deaths.
• At 02.45 the camera goes in the water then out, this is a pov shot making the viewer believe that they are trying to drag themselves onto shore with bullets flying past them and bombs going off all around. 
• During the frames of 04.17 the camera shakes, this is go give the effect of the power of the mounted machine gun that the recoil is creating vibrations, it gives a sense of the power of the gun.
• Between 04.38 - 05.34 the audio goes rely quiet this is for a few reasons such as it shows that the solider has been stunned and deafened by the noise of explosions and gun fire. This sielence also makes the viewer concentrate on what they are viewing which is lots of suffering and death, this quiet scene makes the viewer reflect on all the pain rather than the actction of war.