Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998)

Pre-production and mise-en-scène

From the sequence and magazine, we see how the Spielberg’s concept was to represent the Omaho beach landing in a convincing authentic style. Spielberg and his production crew were unable to use Omaha Beach itself so they used Beach in Wexford, Ireland instead. This place was chosen as it was the most silmilar thing to Omaha. This is known as mise-en-scène. At Omaha many things that were included were things such as the multiple trenches along the beach, the laying of barbed wire fences, sandbag gun encampments as well as the construction of heavily fortified concrete gun turrets. Obviously, none of these existed on the Beach in Irelandand each had to be hand-built by the production crew at the actual location. Finally to keep the war like atmosphere and maintain a historic reality Spielberg wanted the production designers to have the same vehicles as those used in the actual Normandy landing. These were eventually sourced from around the world: two were brought from Burtonport, Donegal to Ballinesker Beach while another two were shipped from Southampton, England.

Production

During the production there were also many things involved that helped to acheive the old war like look. Sceens were shot in tight and intimate close-ups showing us the terror of the soldiers. While their costumes and props all signify power and authority, their actions some how some tremble in fear. In a terrifyingly quick and brutal real-time sequence, his many men are almost instantly killed as the craft's landing bay door drops and the German defences open fire. In this quick succession of medium and close-up shots the audience is witness to the intense horror of war

As Miller drags himself through the waves towards one of the many hedgehogs that defend the beach, the film is steadily overcranked. Overcranking is a technique whereby the unexposed film stock is moved past the open shutter at a speed much faster than normal. When played back at the standard speed the action it has recorded appears to move in slow motion. The effect of this technique is, quite literally, to slow the recorded movement down in order to allow the audience to see virtually every single detail of the unfolding action.

Post production

Editing is used to show and illustrate the war. The sequence continues to unfold in slow motion and is constructed around a pattern of cutaways. Sound effects are also very usefull. The sequence ends with a close-up of a soldier looking directly into the camera and mouthing the words 'What now sir?' as the sharp whistle of a falling mortar is heard in the background. This whistling acts as a sound bridge over the cut back to the close-up of Miller. He stares blankly into the camera as the whistling gets louder until the mortar lands, the sound of its explosion 'knocking' Miller back into the violent reality of his situation. The soundtrack had many sounds, including constant gunfire, the sharp 'whizz' of the tracer bullets, the 'crack' of bullets, soldiers shouting orders or screaming for their mothers, the dull 'thud' of explosions and the equally constant sound of waves crashing upon the shore. All these sound effects are layered together to create a soundscape of violent and relentless combat.