My First Story Board

I have been producing tv news stories for years, but I never had to produce a story board. It proved to be a very interesting exercise and I am glad to have done it. The opening thirty minutes or so of Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" includes what has been described as one of the most realistic combat sequences in film history. I have watched it a number of times but never did a shot by shot analysis until now. It's painful enough watching this in real time, but stopping and pausing it made it more difficult. Speilberg used a lot of the "cinema verite" type of technique with handheld cameras and lots of "point of view" camera work. The shot sequences are quick. Some shots last only one second or so. Others go six or seven seconds and have pans and lots of movement. The sounds of whizzing bullets striking metal amidst shouts and screams still resound in my head.