I would like to talk about the Soviet movie “Ballad of a Soldier”, filmed in 1959 ("Ballad Of A Soldier (1959)"). This film is not so much about the war – the movie is about human relations during the war and love. The film is simple and naive, the character named Alyosha is a simple Russian soldier, who aims to help everyone and everything, sacrificing himself, his desires and his time. He was released on a vacation to his native village for a few days to his mother, but he could see her only a few minutes. Because he helped the needy – disabled soldiers to meet with his wife, the girl to get to Aunt Shura, children not to be killed by the bombing and he is sincere in his actions. In my opinion, this is the film about the sincerity, the simplicity of communication and human feelings. This is a movie about the war – though there are no horrors of war, battle scenes and explosions of shells, the mouth of soldiers on the battlefield, and tanks exploding over the trenches. This is a film that despite all the difficulties and sorrows everyone needs to be himself. I chose a scene from the film (from 40th to 44th minute) ("Ballad Of A Soldier") and would like to consider it in terms of importance in the context of the overall theme of the film, and consider individual cinematic elements used in the scene.
One of the most interesting scenes in the film was the scene, when Alyosha tries to get to Georgievsk together with Shura, whom he met just there as a part of the tier. He persuaded her to stay and trying to negotiate with the guard that she was going with him. And so, now let us go directly to the cinematic elements of the scene. I want to note camerawork, which perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the film. In the operator’s work what I most of all liked was, probably, lighting. It looked very natural and does not strain the eyes. No wonder they say that lighting is an important part of film making. The light is very important in the film industry. Bright light attracts the viewer's eye. The scene can be illuminated with ordinary light, but often there are used artificial light sources. In feature films, the light plays an important role, because the quality of the lighting will affect the impression about the professionalism of the filmmakers, and hence affects the overall impression of the viewer. In “Ballad of a Soldier”, they coped well with the lighting, it is artificial. In the scene, which I selected, there is using the so-called "hard light", emanating from a small source, most likely a large spotlight that gives a sharp image. Also, it gives sharp shadows in the background or on the faces of the actors. It is visible to the naked eye, because the actors in the scene are within a tier, but the faces of the shadows fall, if the sun shines. Although this type of lighting is not the best choice, the scene does not look bad. In addition, I would like to say about the shooting angle and size of the frame. Here, there is used the most common size of the frame – the medium one. But since there are a lot of medium frames, it is difficult to determine exactly what was used. But I think that the second medium frame prevails. It covers the film's actors from just below the hips ending with just above the top of the head. Regarding the direct angle in the film, there is also used by the most classic version – an objective perspective. It is the most popular in the movies. This is a review of, so to speak, "spying" when the audience sees everything that happens, but they feel like being at a safe distance from the place of events, as if they were there, but invisible. The actors cannot look directly at the camera, because the illusion of the objective perspective would disappear, and they would have to retake the picture. They look at each other, and the viewer is watching all the action, standing on the sidelines. In this the shots are so decorated that the viewer is kind of standing behind the characters, in the immediate vicinity, but has an indirect relationship to what is happening. One should say about the angle of the camera when shooting the scene. Here, there is the frame over the shoulder or as they call it, "eight" has been selected. In this shooting, the characters are at an angle to each other. When switching between cameras, each frame is a front view of the character, which is in focus, and a side view of another character.
In this scene, there are a lot of different kinds of cinematic elements. For example, one of them is music. It sounds so quiet and unobtrusive that it can sometimes not be heard. It is the most distant from the scene that would not interfere with the dialogues of the film characters. In fact, it can be heard if distracting attention from the dialogues and listening to the other sounds. However, so quiet background music was the idea, it was not supposed to influence the perception of dialogues in the scene. I would also like to note the clothes in the film, as they completely correspond to the selected period of the film. In principle, this is not surprising, because the film was shot in just 15 years after the Second World War. Regarding the facial expressions and gestures in the scene, there is no affectedness or some special nuances. This component looks quite naturally, a feeling that the actors simply behaved as usual, just this time they filmed on camera. The only, who stand out in a scene from this point of view, was this lieutenant, who was trying to pass the basic military gestures and facial expressions. This applies mainly to gestures of the hands, laying hands behind his back, and so on.
This scene is very important from the standpoint of the ideology of the film. Since the film is permeated with the theme of the protagonist, who puts others’ benefit above his own. The idea of the ideal soldier of the Soviet Army discerns throughout the film. This scene is only a confirmation that he is risking to lose the opportunity to get to Georgievsk, protects a girl, whom the guard is trying to pull out of the train. Alyosha is shown throughout the film as a fighter for justice and incredibly sympathetic person, so this scene confirms the main leitmotif of the film. The scene is not only important in itself, as a separate story in the character’s journey back home, but also in the context of the film. This scene is important in terms of maintaining the general spirit of the film and the promotion of its main theme.
Terminology Utilized
Hard light is usually generated from a point source and directed. Examples of hard light sources are: the sun in the clear sky at noon, spotlight, and a studio flash with a small reflector at a distance from the subject.
Lightening is very important in the film industry. Bright light attracts the viewer's eye. The scene can be illuminated by ordinary light (sun, moon, simple lighting) or with the use of powerful and expensive lighting equipment. That is how your scene will be filmed. It has the emotional impact on the audience reaction to your film.
Once we remove the person, the medium frame is just above the knee, somewhere in the middle of the thigh and there is a small space over the head. This frame clearly shows the action between several people. Why not exactly over the knee? When in the frame is a man, cut exactly at the joint, it looks as if his limb was amputated and there were no other parts.
The objective perspective. The viewer sees everything that happens, but as if it were invisible. The actors in this case cannot look straight into the camera, otherwise the effect will disappear.
(Over the shoulder / O.T.S.) is a standard frame for dialogue. The camera is located behind one of the participants in the dialogue, which usually takes about 1/3 of the space frame. This frame allows the viewer to understand the location in space of each character, and gives the feeling of an emotional look at him from a position of dialogue participant.
Works cited
“Ballad Of A Soldier”. YouTube. N.p., 2011. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.
"Ballad Of A Soldier (1959)". IMDb. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.
