I will be looking at the opening video clip of 1917 which is released in 2019. The director of it is Sam Mendes, and the top casting are George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman and Mark Strong. It is produced by DreamWorks Pictures Reliance and distributed by Universal Pictures. It has a budget of $95 million. The opening is in a linear narrative.
The opening starts with a very special extreme long shot and a non-diegetic soundtrack. The beginning scenes seems peace and calm. The long tracking shot contains lots of informations in the background.
And it includes a perspective shift shot. We can clearly know the setting is in the battlefield. Also, the costume shows the timeline is during a war and they are all soldiers. This establish the genre of the film which is war. As they walked, many soldiers were walking too.
This reflects that they are very busy, and it also implies that something is going to happen. Their action are simple but the dialogue tells lots of informations. Next, the scene change to a dim place where the general is there.
The dark yellow lighting and the serious facial expressions gives a emergency feeling. It connotes a sign of the important mission. The soundtrack also change to a deep tone. The general said to them that “Down to get henna or up to the throne, he travels the fastest is to travel alone.” This quote conveys that they can only rely on themselves for the future road ahead, and it hints the hardships that may encounter in the future. In the last part, the soundtrack suddenly change to a up beating rhythm which connotes the hurry and emergence of the situation. Besides, I supposed the target audience for this film are adults especially men, because it is about war and also historical.
Base on the screen time, the two young soldiers are the main characters: one is Black and one is Schofield. In addition, the status has been showed in the scene. At the start, we can know the man is a sergeant from their dialogue and the two main characters have lower status than the sergeant. And then later, the general appeared and obviously he is the leader that has the most discourse and decision-making power. The representation of the status is obvious here, and it also reflects the importance of status in the barracks.
From their dialogue and actions, it shows their different characteristics. Black is more simple and more caring, but he is impulsive. However, Schofield is more calm and strategic. The audience can easily understand that they are friends in the barrack.
In the end, when they got the mission and Black realised that his brother is in danger, The dialogue can shows their personalities. “You just need to think about it”, “I have nothing to think about, it’s my big brother”, “We should at least wait till it’s dark”, “You would say that because that is not your brother is it.”. Black had been completely dazzled by worried, he just wanted to act regardless. In contrast, Schofield was more sensible, and he kept reminding Black that rash actions would lead to consequences. But Black didn't necessarily listen to his warning. The characters of the two protagonists are complementary.
So the beginning ends when both of them got a mission which is to send important information to the 2nd Battalion of Devonshire Regiment because the field telephone was cut off. This will involve the lives of 1,600 people. I think the next story line will be about what happened to them along the way to send information. As analysed from the beginning, they should all be young recruits, so there will be many unexpected incidents along the way. It might contain the adventure and actions too.
I think this beginning is very appropriate. The most surprising thing is the long shot, which contains many details.
It can make the audience feel like they are walking through the battlefield with the soldiers. Furthermore, the beginning and the end of this are very suspenseful, making the audience particularly curious that is their final task successfully completed or not and did they survived at last.
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