The whole opening scene uses a variety of shot types. Some of which are, long shots, wide shots, close up, midium shot. The very opening shows a close up of the American flag waving in the wind, than cutting to a close up of Private Ryan from the back walking fast, yet seemingly stuggling due to his old age. Than that is proceeded with a wide shot of his family behind him and another close up of some of their faces. Showing the dramatic and slightly upset faces of everyone, showing that this family day out is not to celebrate but irs for remmembarance and time to mourn the losses which in Private Ryans mind are still as fresh as ever. The amount of shots which focus on him indicate to the audience that he is the main character and the one they should alos focus on. The director also uses a long shot to esablish how large the graveyard is showing hundreds upon hundreds of white crosses.
Mis-En-Scene -
The lighting of the scene is very clean, seeminly sunny and bright day. This puts forward the idea of it being a nice day out, with him and his family. It dosent really reflect the mood, keeping the viewer guessing as to whats actually about to unfold. There isnt really any props in the scene, keeping the viewer focused on the character and his surroundings, making the whole scene seem all the more dramatic, as there is nothing the viewer can distract him self with on the screen.
Use Of Sound -
Sound really does play a key role in this scene, the most noticable is the music playing in the background, its military, the sort used at a military ceremony or such. It hints to the viewer what is taking place and who this man is. There is not much speach, except a few words echanged in a mummble, it gives the scene a sort of tranquility. You can hear birds singing the wind, and possibly the sea? With some few distant water splashes bieng heard every now and than. As he approaches his old companions graves, he proceeds to burst into tears, no words of comfort are heard, just whimpering and crying as a younger man asks "Dad?" setting a sort of ambigious vibe to the opening. Than the pleasent sea sounds and bird chirping fades out into harsh short noises of waves smashing on the beach as he has a flash back of storming the Normandy beaches. This allows the audience to further connect with the character.
Use Of Editing -
The scene is not edited all that much, it certainly uses continuity editing however it is left at a subtle and basic level, it does contain cuts from one type of shot to the other, for example a close up form Private Ryans face, to a wide shot of him and his family behind him. Its a constant flow of different shots as he and his family move along the cemetry to the graves of his brothers in arms from the war.
Typography -
The text used for the opening scene remains brief and does not show a lot, accept for the movie title and the production company. It lasts about 10 seconds and transitions slowly, its in an old fashioned sort of font sort of like the one you would expect to come out when using a typewriter, making it apropiate for the time the film is set in. It remains a solid white colour all the way through and is underlined.
Saving Private Ryan Opening:
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