Schindlers List Techniques Essay

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Analyse how important techniques are used to engage your emotions in a text you have studied. The Film “Schindlers List” directed by Steven Spielberg is a story of a German profiteer, a slave merchant, in Nazi Germany saving 1200 Jews from being murdered in concentration camps. Different techniques such as lighting, shot types, colour and performance are used to effectively engage the audience and make them feel sadness and sorrow at the horrors of the holocaust and maintain these emotions throughout the film. The technique of “lighting” is used throughout the film to highlight the importance of objects or people. A key example of this technique is the opening scene where we, the audience, are first introduced to Schindler. Our first impressions of Schindler are negative as we see him put on a Nazi badge. The lighting on this badge tells the audience that Schindler is an immoral man and a member of the Nazi party, it is also the first introduction of the holocaust and Hitler, and this floods the audience’s emotions with hatred and sadness. We also see Schindler flaunt money, the money is lit up, this signifies the importance of money and also foreshadows moneys role later on in the film. Towards the end of the film we see Schindler delivering his speech to his Jewish workers and Nazi guards, “you can return home to your families as men or as murderers, it’s your choice”. We see that Schindler is lit up this shows the audience the change in Schindler from the beginning scene, Transforming into a moral man and becoming a symbol of hope and saviour for his Jewish workers in contrast to the beginning of the film Spielberg convincingly conveys Schindlers ominous presence in the bar during this scene lighting is used to effectively to display Schindlers motives as he only wants to make profit. We can see this through this technique as he is shadowed this engages the
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