New Aesthetic for Pre-Production- 'Where Eagles Dare'

Upon feedback advising me to look for an aesthetic for visual and sound creative elements that is more suitable for the time period which the story is set in, I started to look into old war films from the 1950s and 1960s.

After searching I came across the opening sequence to the 1968 film 'Where Eagles Dare' starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. The film itself centres around a rescue operation where the two leads, along with a squad, infiltrate a Nazi-controlled fortress in order to rescue an American who is holding vital information.

Upon watching the opening credits, I immediately noticed the blood-red text that appears on screen, displaying the names of the cast along with the main title. The text is almost gothic in its design, somewhat representative of the iconography of Nazis portrayed through British and American media at the time. I feel that this style of graphic would be very suitable for my own project, not only in reflection of the time period and this film's own visual style, but representative of both the evil force that is also present is 'The Keep'. It is also worth note that main title appeared with informational notices underneath, something which I should replicate for my own project for the sake of authenticity.

What struck me most about the opening titles was the score playing through them. The music was not as bombastic as some of the other older war films I looked at, instead being a slow, building march. The opening few notes, played by a selection of brass and string instruments almost seem filled with dread; a direct contrast to the more heroic and almost uplifting scores of several other war films. This dread is almost reflective of the war itself. Even when the music starts to sound more heroic, it does not sound uplifting. I feel that this direction for the score would be suitable as, although set during the Second World War, I am adapting from a Horror story. Therefore the sense of dread inlayed within the score would suit the story whilst still being reflective of the older war film aesthetic.

Here is the opening to 'Where Eagles Dare':

I will continue to look at other war films from around this time but I am very happy with this sort of style which I hope to pay tribute to within my pre-production project.