Short Sequence Analysis

                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo-3x2khwZ0&hd=1

War Horse is a movie well renowned for its stunning use of cinematography. I remember sitting down in the theater to watch this movie and being blown away by the visual components in it. The scene I chose to analyze is one where the war horse is being chased, gets tangled up in barbed wire, and ends up in “no man’s land.” Camera movements, distance, scene editing, and time compression will be addressed in this analysis. 

Throughout this entire scene, the majority of the camera movement changed its position to keep up with the occurring action. All of the shots that compose of this scene have the horse as the main focal point. Since the horse is constantly moving, up until reaching the barbed wire, the camera is consistently moving as well. For the majority of the scene, tracking was used as the camera followed the horse horizontally through the obstacles it encountered. There were a couple shots that involved using a dolly as well; being when the horse was in the barracks with the soldiers and it moved towards the camera to make the audience feel as though they were part of the scene as well. Once the horse became tangled in the barbed wire, the scene became static to help emphasis the importance of the horse being trapped. 

Two camera distances were used for this sequence; a long shot and a close up shot. As this scene concentrates on the action of the horse, the long shot was used for most of it. This long shot allowed the entire body of the horse to be seen throughout, helping to build the momentum up until the horse becomes ensnared. A full close up shot was used when the horse was caught in the wire, allowing the audience to feel near the horse.

A master shot combined with smaller fragments of the scene was the style of film editing used in this sequence. The main shot involved the horse running haphazardly throughout obstacles up until the very end. Much of the camera shots stayed true to keeping a consistent feel of having the whole scene shown throughout. In order to keep in interesting, several smaller shots were intertwined that moved the camera in front of the horse instead of directly parallel to it. A good example of this is the very beginning of the sequence. The smaller shots of the front view of the horse help introduce it to the viewer before the main action begins. 

This sequence was indeed effective. It meticulously combined both fast paced action with a deep level of emotion. In order to improve upon this sequence, I would include more variety of shots when the horse is actually running. Along with having full shots and close ups, including medium close up shots would allow more detail of the horse to be shown in the middle of all the action.