Schindler’s List
Techniques
Long Take
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A shot which focuses on something or
someone for longer than the rest of the film is
emphasising a character and allows the
audience to become more involved
Examples:
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Schindler’s badge
Star of David bands
Gold teeth
Dead girl in the red coat
Subjective Camera Angle
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View things from a particular person’s
perspective
When we follow someone’s gaze
Makes us sympathise with them and to
understand their thoughts
Examples:
 Massacre in ghetto where we see Schindler
follow the girl
 View Schindler from wife’s perspective
Camera Position
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In front – helps us feel intimacy as if they are
looking/talking to us (Stern cries at end)
Behind – mysterious and diminishes
sympathy (Schindler at beginning)
Below – makes them appear dominant (First
image of Schindler’s face in club)
Above – makes them look small (Schindler,
when his wife looks at him)
Distance of shot
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Close up – where the image is focused on in
detail (can suggest importance, sympathy)
Extreme close up – not all of the image is in
the frame, (can feel claustrophobic)
Long shot – can make the person seem small
Parallel Editing
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Where two scenes occur at the same time and
are interwoven with each other
Illuminates the stark difference between the
scenes
Examples:
 Jews forced out of their home and the
comfort of Schindler
 Goeth and Schindler before the massacre in
the ghetto
Lighting
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Used to create mood
Low lighting to suggest something dark and
sinister
 Example: opening scene where the family
vanish
Lighting from above highlights importance
of character
 Example: when we first meet Schindler
Sound
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Music – throughout is sombre, created
through use of strings (emotive sound)
Sound from within the film such as the train at
the beginning and the crying baby at the
entrance of the ghetto
Black and White
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Colour intensifies emotion, so Spielberg’s
lack of colour, particularly in the violent
scenes, allows him to be explicit without
becoming tastelessly graphic and gory
Adds to our sense of watching something real,
a past historical documentary
Also suggests the dark and grim world the
characters inhabit
Colour
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Only a handful of colour scenes in this film
Highlights key scenes
Colour is used to symbolise hope and
innocence through the candles and the little
girl in red coat
Set/Setting
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Design of set – authentic historical props such
as typewriters
Almost all in winter – bleak and cold
Camps are muddy as we see when the Jews
are forced to run in mud during selection
Close up of their feet running in mud
Focus on wire to remind us of their
imprisonment
Real place names give to give credibility
Other Techniques
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Structure – optimistic hopeful conclusion
Dialogue – look at what the characters say to
reflect theme and characterisation
Motifs – (symbols) names and lists used to
reveal the way in which Jews were
dehumanised