1. Schindler’s List Techniques

2. Long Take  A shot which focuses on something or someone for longer than the rest of the film is emphasising a character and allows the audience to become more involved  Examples: Schindler ’ s badge Star of David bands Gold teeth Dead girl in the red coat

3. Subjective Camera Angle  View things from a particular person’s perspective  When we follow someone’s gaze  Makes us sympathise with them and to understand their thoughts  Examples: Massacre in ghetto where we see Schindler follow the girl View Schindler from wife’s perspective

4. Camera Position  In front – helps us feel intimacy as if they are looking/talking to us (Stern cries at end)  Behind – mysterious and diminishes sympathy (Schindler at beginning)  Below – makes them appear dominant (First image of Schindler’s face in club)  Above – makes them look small (Schindler, when his wife looks at him)

5. Distance of shot  Close up – where the image is focused on in detail (can suggest importance, sympathy)  Extreme close up – not all of the image is in the frame, (can feel claustrophobic)  Long shot – can make the person seem small

6. Parallel Editing  Where two scenes occur at the same time and are interwoven with each other  Illuminates the stark difference between the scenes  Examples: Jews forced out of their home and the comfort of Schindler Goeth and Schindler before the massacre in the ghetto

7. Lighting  Used to create mood  Low lighting to suggest something dark and sinister Example: opening scene where the family vanish  Lighting from above highlights importance of character Example: when we first meet Schindler

8. Sound  Music – throughout is sombre, created through use of strings (emotive sound)  Sound from within the film such as the train at the beginning and the crying baby at the entrance of the ghetto

9. Black and White  Colour intensifies emotion, so Spielberg’s lack of colour, particularly in the violent scenes, allows him to be explicit without becoming tastelessly graphic and gory  Adds to our sense of watching something real, a past historical documentary  Also suggests the dark and grim world the characters inhabit

10. Colour  Only a handful of colour scenes in this film  Highlights key scenes  Colour is used to symbolise hope and innocence through the candles and the little girl in red coat

11. Set/Setting  Design of set – authentic historical props such as typewriters  Almost all in winter – bleak and cold  Camps are muddy as we see when the Jews are forced to run in mud during selection  Close up of their feet running in mud  Focus on wire to remind us of their imprisonment  Real place names give to give credibility

12. Other Techniques  Structure – optimistic hopeful conclusion  Dialogue – look at what the characters say to reflect theme and characterisation  Motifs – (symbols) names and lists used to reveal the way in which Jews were dehumanised