Expressive movement unit 2

Shot composition, together with camera and character choreography, stage an image of coming together in solidarity.

At the beginning, the character choreography takes place within the images’ depth of space, expressing differences in hierarchy. The distance and proximity of the figures is choreographed, while the camera pulls back, as a relationship of the space between them and a relationship of tempos. Purckett waits for the swaying, slow Ramirez, carries his rifle and supports him while Lt. Bently walks ahead and answers Purckett’s questions without turning around to face him.

After the cut, obscured by plants and bushes in the foreground, the camera stops moving: The three figures are now close together and Bently turns towards the two others:  the commanding officer thus becomes part of a relationship based on solidarity. Afterwards, the camera renews its movements, this time backwards rather than horizontal and to the left, the image is flat. Back at the encampment a hierarchical relationship is again expressed by the placement of the figures in the image’s depths - Sergeant Dane and Lieutenant Bently in the foreground, the other soldiers in the background. In the next cut, Purckett in the middle ground prompts the Lieutenant and so acts as the connecting element of the solidarity established in this scene.