This study will deconstruct the scene of the landing at Omaha Beach in Steven Spielberg's “Saving Private Ryan”, paying particular attention to the cinematography of specific shots. As the full scene is about nine minutes long I will breakdown a number of shots that I believe to be the most visually stunning segments of this entire scene. Using clips and stills from the film to assist me. I will analyse the shot choices and compositions that were made to help achieve the over all look of this scene. To appreciate the shots I think it is important to understand how they were physically achieved so I will also study the principle photography, such as the types of equipments, filters and movement throughout the scene and how they effect the visual style of the overall piece and what this does to contribute to the film.
The Director of Photography, Janusz Kaminski has worked with Spielberg on various films before this, so I believe that he will have brought in a lot of visual styles that will have influenced the scene. Therefore I will briefly look at Kaminski’s techniques to see how they have influenced the scene.
Spielberg states in the special features interview for Saving Private Ryan that this scene had influences from the surviving work of Robert Capa's D-Day photographs and general war news footage. So I will show how they appear to have been replicated in this scene.
I chose this film, and in particular, this scene because it has had such a huge impact on me as a student in cinematography. That is the reason why this deconstruction will be from my point of view and how I personally believe the scene was accomplished.
