Expressive movement unit 1

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Through a series of multiple static shots the EMU begins with a step by step narrowing of the space on the level of shot composition. This narrowing is completed when the camera stops observing the soldiers and instead follows their line of movement. Like the soldiers before it, the camera ducks under the submarine’s bulkhead. The entire image is thus put in the position of the movement of the soldierly bodies. The narrowing of the space moves into the staging of the physical dimension of confinement.

In the course of the outdoor shots at the beginning, the overview (long shot), that matches the authorial mode of the voice-over, is slowly suspended: The camera position is lowered with each shot and the depth of focus is slowly reduced. As the outdoor shots end, diegetic noises and the speech of the characters begins. When the voice-over ends, disassociated from the framed image, the image now also matches the acoustic level. The spatial staging thus generally becomes more forceful.

At the same time, with the cut to interior space the narrowing on the level of shot composition continues. In the course of the edits, the depth of field decreases and the framed image also becomes smaller. The soldiers’ movements are brought closer and objects at the edges of the frame obstruct more of the view. This development ends with the camera itself taking on the soldier’s movements and “ducking” into the staged space (low camera angle).

After the opening overview of a visual expanse and the acoustic distance (voice-over) to the space is revoked, the point of view itself is embodied. The camera makes the movement it has just documented. The image thus created stages the physical dimension of confinement. This is taken up on the level of shot composition through dark shades of gray and the obstructed image in the last frame of the EMU.