Cross of Iron Opening Scene

Opening Scene
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U9Sh91htIA

The opening scene of Cross of Iron shows some old fashioned film of Hitler Youth members climbing up the side of a mountain. This straight away tells the audience that the film is from the German soldier point of view.

More black and white footage is shown but then the footage freezes and the screen turns red just as the main character's name appears on the screen. This is a good effect because it changes the colour of the footage as well as stops it to allow the audience to read the actor's name.

The footage then changes back to black and white and more old fashioned footage is shown. In this scene, the camera is filming some German Soldiers who are being awarded medals. This is a good bit of footage to have in the film because the title is called, "Cross of Iron", which is a medal, so people being awarded medals is quite topical.

In this shot the colour yet angain changes to red, but this time the camera is focused on the medal on the soldiers chest. This is also good, because the name of the film is a medal, so it is good to see a medal in the opeing of the film. Also, the medal is not in the centre of the screen but in fact just off the centre. This is because people find things more interesting if they are not exactly in the centre of the screen.

Once the colour changes back to black and white, the footage then shows German soldiers running for cover. The camera is focusing on the lower body, because the camera man was probably taking cover when this was filmed. This is good because it makes the opening more interesting.

Yet again, the colour changes to red whilst the names of the actors appear on the screen.

As the opening of Cross of Iron comes to a close, there are more and more shots of combat footage. This makes the audience feel as though there will be a battle, or some form of skirmish in the next scene.