Expressive movement unit 1

The beginning of the scene allows a pressure to create more dynamics grow through a fixed image into which movement comes through a figure's gestures. A tense feeling ,on which the scene remains focused as it progresses, is thus staged as the basic tension of the shot composition. 

A fade-in from black reveals an almost unmoving group image. A lighter frame within the darkly shaded background brings the group of five soldiers to the fore, so that they almost seem to have been arranged for display: Facing the camera head on in the foreground are Feingold (left) the Lieutenant (middle) and Dane (right), a little bit behind and to the side of them are, left and right, Sailor and Hardy. For a moment the Lieutenant and Dane freeze in a gesture that is brought to the fore by the frame formed by the other figures and their observing gazes: ducked slightly forward they look together at the Lieutenant’s watch. Bright, unmoving reflections on the smooth surfaces of helmets, rifles and faces also help to fixate this gesture. At the same time, the posture of the two central figures contains a dynamic that creates a tension in the image fixed by framing, character constellation and lighting.

The release of this dynamic is delayed in the course of the scene. Despite the movement of individual soldiers (Feingold leaves the frame, Sailor changes his spot) the positions of the ensemble remain more or less fixed by the framing (the Lieutenant turns to the left toward Sailor without leaving his central position; Dane and Hardy do not move at all). Even when the group breaks up (the Lieutenant, Dane and Hardy leave the frame to the right, Feingold and Sailor to the left) the image does not become dynamic: The unchanged framing (there is only a slight reframing in which the camera moves to the left to frame Feingold and Sailor) and the unchanging lighting allow the static matrix of the group picture to remain until the end.

This both creates a pressure of refusing to create more dynamic and at the same time introduces the movement of delaying that will be taken up in the course of the scene.