The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan establishes a mystery that intrigues the audience. It shows an elderly veteran crying at a grave in the present day, leaving the audience to wonder about his story and experience in World War 2. Through close-ups and wide shots, the camerawork conveys the veteran's emotion and establishes the somber atmosphere of the war cemetery. Fades and jump cuts transition between scenes in a simple yet effective way. Non-diagetic music and the veteran's crying add to the tense and sad tone. Symbols like the American flag provide context about the film's setting and patriotic themes within the war genre.

1. Saving Private Ryan

2. Opening Scene
• Films use the opening scene to entice the audience, the scene will use
something to entice the audiences attention and make the want to watch
the remainder of the film.
• The genre for a war film would usually start in the middle of a war or
introduce a character leaving to fight in a war. However, Saving Private Ran
begins in the present with the veteran looking back on his time in the arm,
this breaks the genre convention
• The opening scene will introduce an enigma to keep the audience
intrigued. For example, the enigma introduced in the opening scene of
Saving Private Ryan is the story of the veteran by the grave, the audience
will want to know his story and how his time in the arm affected him; why
is he crying. In addition, the audience will be curious about who's grave he
has gone to visit. The only way to find this out is by watching the film, this
excites the audience and the will want to know the conclusion to these
questions.
• The unique selling point (USP) of this opening scene is the mystery around
who’s grave the veteran is visiting

3. Synopsis
• Saving Private Ryan is a film set
during the invasion of Normandy in
the Second world War. The film
mostly takes pace during the
assault on Omaha Beach on June
1944
• The film follows the story of John
H. Miller and his squad as the
search for a missing paratrooper:
Private Ryan
• The film was directed by Steve
Spielberg and written by Robert
Rodat

4. Camerawork-Close Ups
The opening shot of the film begins with a close up of the American flag. The use of
this establishes the setting of the film, it provides the audience knowledge that this is
set in America and has some relation to war. This is a reoccurring shot and it has
been used in films before, this type of shot is often used to symbolize America’s
patriotism and their praise to the soldiers who have died for their country. Some of
the audience will recognize this type of shot and its meaning. This type of shot links
to the war genre of the film, it also relates to the idea of American soldiers fighting
wars for their country.

5. Camerawork-Close Ups
• The next example of a close up is the
scene where the camera angle starts
as a close up, the camera zooms in
towards the veterans eyes. This is
used to establish the character, a
close up is used to demonstrate the
characters distraught because he is at
a war cemetery. The camera zooms
into his eyes which provides the
audience with more information, it
shows he is crying at the sight of the
graves-it adds detail to the scene

6. Camerawork-wide shots
This shot is shown towards the middle of the opening scene. A
wide shot is used to establish the number of deaths seen
during the war, it provides the audience with information
regarding the scale of the war. A close up or a medium shot
would have less effect because the audience would see less,
they would have a limited understanding of the amount of
deaths and the real impact of the war.

7. This wide shot establishes the atmosphere for this film. It perspectives
the seriousness of the film because it shows a veteran alone walking
towards a cemetery. A wide shot makes the shot more symbolic, it
makes him appear alone after the war
Camerawork-wide shots

8. Editing-Transitions
• The film opens with a fade in from black to an American flag, this is used to
establish the setting. It provides the audience with information, opening from
black informs the audience that the film is dark-it sets the tone of the film for the
audience straight away
• Furthermore, fade in from black is used in other media to suggest to the audience
that the film will not be light-hearted. The audience will instantly recognise this
and assume the film will cover a darker topic

9. Editing: jump shots
Most of the shots change through the use of
jump shots, the jump shot is very simple is will
go unnoticed by most of the audience. The
jump shot is simple therefore it won’t be seen
and distract the audience, the simplicity of it
maintains the realism of the film. The jump
shot won’t distract the audience from the film
because it isn’t complicated, it is used in most
media types and it will most likely go un-
noticed during the film

10. Sound
• The film uses both diagetic and non-diagetic sound
• The non diagetic soundtrack is very prominent
during the scene where the veteran approaches the
grave. This is done to make the scene more tense
and creates a sad and grave atmosphere
• The orchestral tones of the soundtrack connote to
war which heavily relates to the genre of the film.
Similar orchestral music has been used in similar
genres, often this type of music is used to symbolise
the disastrous effects of war and how it has affected
the people. The audience might have heard this
music in similar war films and have a knowledge of
why this music is used, they will assume the music
has been added to this scene to symbolise the
soldiers pain caused by war

11. Sound
• The diagetic sound is very limited during the
opening scene, there is not much dialogue
which adds to the atmosphere of the film.
However, one significant piece of diagetic
sound is the crying of the veteran. This sound
emphasizes the tone of the film, it
demonstrates to the audience how harrowing
the war was and the effect it had on the
veteran

12. Sound-J cut
• In this scene, the audio from the future clip can be heard before it is on
screen. The film uses this J cut to transition between scenes. The J cut
emphasises the traumatic memories of the war, the film uses the J cut as a
memory sequence, the overlapping sound demonstrates that the
veteran’s experience in the war was harrowing
• Furthermore, the film uses the J cut as a transition between the modern
day and the past

13. Mise en Scene
• The scene opens with a shot of the American flag, this type of shot has been
repeated in the war film genre.
• Often this type of shot is used to symbolise America's patriotism during a war, it
symbolises how the American people respect their soldiers. Furthermore, this shot
is often used in other media types to mourn the dead. Typically this type of shot is
used at military funerals.
• Assuming the audience has seen other war films, they will have a shared
knowledge and an understanding of why this shot is used. The audience will now
that this shot is used to demonstrate patriotism

14. Mise-en-Scene
• The barriers seen in this shot strongly connote to the war, the
audience watching will notice and make their own connotation
about the barriers. This shot will require some shared knowledge to
understand that this scene is in the past in World War II, assuming
the audience know of these barriers and their connotations, the
audience will know that this sets a darker tone for the scenes in the
past. The barriers in the scene have a lot of similitude to WWII

15. • From watching this opening scene, multiple
media techniques can be taken and applied to
our own media piece
• Firstly, the transition between the two time
periods can be used. The camera zooming in into
the eye and J cut can be applied to our opening
scene to transition between the present day and
the past
• The varying camera angles and shots, it will make
the piece more interesting to watch
• Saving Private Ryan incorporates many transitions
from jump cuts to fade ins/outs, we could apply
this to our own piece to add variety between
shots