Shot by Shot Analysis of Stephen Spielbergs Film Schindler's List - Essay Example

Shot by Shot Analysis of Stephen Spielberg’s Film "Schindler's List" This sequence involves many changes. The character of Oskar transformed from a businessperson to a savior. The film has a couple of themes as evident in this paper. Wasted innocence is the theme in this film that occurs during the Jewish plight during the occurrence of the holocaust, there is the theme of cruelty that the character by the name of Amon Goth this sequence lasts for two and twenty eight seconds. This paper is an analysis of this sequence focusing upon the subsequence of one minute and twenty-eight seconds concentrating on the central message. The sub-sequence starts with the perceiving of the girl that wore a red coat. Oskar’s apathy towards the mistreatment of the humanity all around him in his quest for success and money, this sequence witnesses the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto by Oskar and his mistress the previous sequences tell of Oskar’s detachment and anger at the sight of him being exposed to the Jewish workers and their pathetic plight. Sequence 42 remarks a turning point for Oskar. This sequence begins his program as a savior. It is from this point, in the entire film, where the variation of the real events takes a new and desperate tone. Sequence 42, the final sequence of this series, shows the brutality by the SS to their desperate victims. It escalates to the introduction of the girl in a red coat who now becomes an exclusive entity in the whole film. Shot Breakdown This subsequence, called the Outside of Ghetto, begins after Oskar caught sight of R as she threaded her way through some unspeakable atrocities while she makes her way to the hiding stop finds, in the ghetto. Oskar tracks her and follows her as she made her way around some certain death situations. This sequence concludes when R finally made her way through violence and the crowd (Keneally and Nancy 30). Shot (1) 6 seconds: The camera located at a high angle is from Oskar’s horseback, which is on top of a hill. This distance and angle are to bring out the feeling of the vast distance and the helplessness. Left at the center frame is R, who transverses along the street on a straight line; the street itself is in a diagonal form. R moves from the bottom left end of the frame, and a building framed in the foreground obstructs her. She moves to the next obstruction that is in the other foreground building, which is on the right side of the screen (Zaillian and Thomas 15). She boxes her tiny body in a V shape effectively; this brings out the appearance of a building facade that is running parallel to the street. People fling to the walls by the SS and lineup on the wall at the SS, through suitcases carelessly on the street as cars pass. This shot has a medium gray scale and has an accompanying wet ground that brings out the overcast nature of the day. The background music is slow and is a procession of a choral children’s song that lends a trudging and forlorn quality to the tiny march (Zaillian and Thomas 18). Shot (2) eight seconds: The camera’s angle is a low angle of Oskar that forms a vector of his gaze; this should give the effect of showing how high he is above the sequence. The angle frames the character up against the sky and the gray scale used to give a contrast of the different worlds involved. The trees on the background are bare, and the sky is overcast. This informs the spectator that the day is not only wet but also cold, as well. Oskar has an intense look on his face. This happens when he struggles to get his mount into a strong position that will enable him to see R. The children’s chorus still heard, in the background, and there is the sound of the hooves and the neighing of the horses, but not above the sound of music. The sounds of the fracas can still be heard to provide some continuity among the shots (Keneally and Nancy 36). Shot (3) 21 sec: ELS is tracking R, while making her way right and left through trees, running soldiers, and G’s car. She had just passed G and the SS soldiers, who are with him, while they execute a row of some Jews, before she finally terminates behind another foreground structure (Keneally and Nancy 37). This shot is busy with a lot of motion and activity. Far in the background is the assembly of some military vehicles and some lines of Jewish prisoners. G is at the bottom left of the foreground with a couple of his men. Right behind them is a pile of suitcases divided, in the frame. This is by the obscuring branches of a tree that tracks from the left, and comes to stop in the right frame of the shot. This is so that the viewer can see the execution of the prisoners, the sounds of muffled gunshots, and the yelling ring out that gives the sense of the distance, as the music continues to play (Zaillian and Thomas 20). Shot (4) 8 seconds: The camera placed at a low angle shows M mounted on her horse, and the horse’s left ear fills the frame diagonally to the upper center of the frame. She looks upset while urging Oskar for them to leave. They shot the spans to a low angle MCU of the pained expression that is now on Oskar’s face. The viewer can hear the fitful tromping of his mount as he lends his will to see her safe, the children’s choral can still be heard playing in the background (Zaillian and Thomas 28). Shot (5) eight seconds: The camera’s angle is a high angle panning R from the diagonal top right of the frame to the high center-left of the frame. The thong of people, being guided to the military truck, obscures R’s feet. She enters a door at the background behind the soldiers and the people (Zaillian and Thomas 29). She has now walked out of Oskar’s view, and the viewer can hear the people walking and clanking as they are climbing onto the truck. We can also hear the muffled voice of the soldiers as they give the orders. R and the background remain unfocused while all objects that are on the foreground are all clear. The singing of the children is still singing at the background (Zaillian and Thomas 20). Shot (6) four seconds: The camera is at a high angle that shows R running through the interior stairs of the building. The banister of the stairs, which she shoots through the slots as she runs through the stairs is on the foreground is. The banister slots are sharply focused, as she remains blurry in stark contrast, the singing continues in the background (Zaillian and Thomas 30). Shot (7) 15 seconds: CU of Oskar as he proceeds to turn around his horse and rejoins M to make their exit. The shot widens to MS, and shows the barren trees and snowy landscape seen as they exit. The background music of the singing children can still be heard (Keneally & Nancy 46). Shot (8) five seconds: FS is tracking the movement of R from left to right; she rushes towards the bed whistle in an overturned room. The background music ends abruptly upon the beginning of the shot. There is a loud noise resonating from her shoes on the hardwood floor. This is in the absence of any other sound, but that of her movement. The sounds of the happenings in the outside do not enter into this room. She goes ahead to hide under her bed, the room is overshadowed by the dark medium gray scale. There is the sound of a new and desperate musical sound that opens up for the next shot (Keneally and Nancy 40). Shot (9) 13 seconds: The camera angle shows her tucking herself under the bed. The only difference is the new, tragic musical score that has some innocence threaded in it. R is in the medium gray scale and has herself warmly lit, her coat is also grey, as well. The camera angel portrays a sense of intimacy between her and the coat returning to gray. This seems to put her back into some long lost history. This loss of color is to suggest the impending loss of her life (Zaillian and Thomas 33). This sequence forms one of the most essential parts of this film, and Oskar’s narrative program to this moment of the film has simply been one that is sensual and signifies accruement of wealth. This sequence forms a turning point of Oskar and his beginning as a savior. The character was at this point just indulging in his aesthetic and freshly pursuits. From here, the shift in the narrative has provided this character with the ever-risk taking and ever-growing conscience (Zaillian and Thomas 34). The openness of the space that is behind Oskar, in this sequence, is to show space and freedom. The film includes the fine and comfortable clothes that Oskar is wearing. This is while he accompanies his mistress, and his horse is further used to indicate the space that is behind the little girl as Oskar. The richness and adulthood enjoyed by Oskar have a strong contrast when compared to the innocence of the girl, who being so young and oblivious to the violence, which surrounds her. The two characters differ in every possible way, for example, she is a Jew, and he is one of the master racers. He is a rich man and she is enslaved and poor, he is well much aware of the danger and evil that is present, but she does not have a clue (Zaillian andThomas 35). From the first shot, Oskar is not able to take his eyes away from her let alone let her out of his sight. The third shot also holds another program concerning Amon. His continuing cruelty truncates throughout the film. The two characters have not introduced themselves to one another. People can debate whether Oskar would have noticed them as another huddle that the little girl had to overcome. One this spectacle has been passed we move on to the next huddle and thus the event itself is just one of the many horrors in a sea of horrors (Keneally and Nancy 97). The next several shots, specifically 2, 4 &7, follow the transition of Oskar. The down angles are to follow his expressions according to the situation that he is in. This is because they showed his disbelief, intense witness, and a man who was beside him, in a lot of pain. Shots 1, 3, 5, 6, 8 & 9 follow the girl as she zigzags her journey and everything else that is in her surroundings also changes. The little girl is always in danger and always hemmed in, but the change in her surroundings does not offer her a way out (Keneally and Nancy 90). Every shot has the road at different angles. This adds to the tension of the spectator as she cannot understand where she is headed and hopes that her walk will be safely concluded. She initially walked away from the view point moving from left to right; Oskar finds her again as she moves right to left in the third shot, in shot five as she comes down in the right left motion until she finally disappears from the view of Oskar (Keneally and Nancy 37). The heart touching transition, in the background music of the film, forms the children’s choral singing, which is forlorn ironic and lonely in nature, to one of a pained expression in its wail, as the little girl presses her tiny body from under the bed to one of wasted innocence. This music transition is crucial from the editing standpoint to the fact that Oskar is not able to see her, and the little girl is alone (Keneally and Nancy 45). This sequence utilizes sound effects effectively. The tone of the voices gives to the chaos happening at that moment, the color scale that is all grey and has little variance, the only significant difference in the scaling is in its brightness. This sequence is extremely defining for the entire film; the sublime layers found in this sequence are so much under the absolute contrast found in the red flicker compared to the overwhelming grey that is the color scheme (Keneally amd Nancy 47). The Schindler’s list is petrified with so many of these unforgettable sequences. This sequence, however, forms the most significant part of the film. It forbids the audience from turning away, and the well-placed shots take the viewer and places him into the eyes of Schindler and the viewer can now see the little girl as he was seeing her. Works Cited Keneally T, Nancy T. Schindler's List. Harlow : Pearson Education, 2008. Print Zaillian S, Thomas K. Schindler's List : Screenplay. Sydney : Cinestore, 1993. Print Read More