Bridge At Remagen Opening Scene

Opening Scene
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McDUIB9uzm8

In the opening scene of Bridge at Remagen, the camera is facing looking towards a bridge, that is above a river. Text then appears on the screen, giving a brief summary of what is happening. This sets the scene of the film, because it tells the audience where the film is set and what it is about. Also, the train is on the left hand side of the screen. This is good, because people find things more interesting if they are not exactly in the centre. This also applies to the text and the bridge, because they are not in the centre of the screen but just to the right of it.

In this shot, the camera is just to the side of the tracks and is looking up at the front of the train. This tells the audience that the train must be the main focus in the opening scene because the camera is focusing on it. The camera angle is slanted, which gives a sense of space around the train. This could aslo be seen as showing that the train is quite insignificant compared to the surroundings.

In this shot, the camera is placed on the train and is looking down at the soldiers just in front off it. This is a good shot, because it gives the audience a different perspective of what is happening as well as shows what they should be focusing on, which in this case is the troops on the bridge.

This is a worms eye view shot of the train, because it gives the soldiers on board a sense of importance as well as power. This is a goo shot, because it is a different look at the train and seems to tell the audience that the main focus in this scene are the people on board.

Even though the main focus of the opening scene is the train, the use of different and unique camera angles, like the one above, make the scene more interesting as well as give the people on board a sense of importance.

This is a good shot, because the camera starts off by showing the tracks of the tank and then zooms out to show the rest of the vehicle. Whilst doing so, the camera the "flies" over the tank to show the whole column  of advancing tanks. Also the camera angle is quite unique and as a result makes the scene more interesting.

In this shot, the camera is on the roof of the truck and is filming the soldiers sitting in the back. This is a good shot because the camera goes from being above the convoy, to then being a part of it. Even though this shot lasts for a few seconds, it still makes the opening scene intense because there are a lot of different camera angles and perspectives.

I like this shot because the camera is placed on the front of the tank. This is good because it gives the audience a different perspective of what is going on. Also, it shows the audience what the people inside the tank would see and it aslo lets them see the surrounding area and the countryside.