Photograph 33
This is a matching shot to Miller as it is a tight close up of the boys face, but this shot out of the whole sequence is completely different to all the others it is the only one that appears to have little grading or colour correction done to it. The skin tones are fairly natural in comparison to the blue/grey shot that we have just seen of Miller. There is a large age gap between the two men, Miller being one of the older fighting soldiers in the scene and the other male being in his late teens. The choice to use a younger male to bring Captain Miller out of his dream state works well as it reminds Miller that he has a job to do an foresees his connection to the younger soldiers as he revels later that he was a teacher before the war, but at the moment he is charge of making sure that these men many under the age of 20 get across the beach to do their job and survive, hoping to go back to normality. The young male, and in relevance to the rest of the cast would be seen as a child in this war.
Children are almost always seen as icons of hope and provoke others to change something or do something better. In this case it’s a trigger to allow Miller to pull himself together and continue to help his men.
This ideology is also shown by the way that he is shot. As mention the colour is different, the flesh tones are stronger showing youth in his face, his bright flash of colour is a sign of hope rather than the blue grain colours of war.
Once more there is placement in the centre shown the importance of what the boy is trying to say. The shot is also fairly still with no image shaker being used, it also seem to have been done with a steady cam as there is little natural shake from a hand held camera. The lack of movement, the colour and the positioning of the soldier emphasised what has still to be done to Miller, it is also another very short resting point for the audience before going through the next set of quick shots.
