Further Ben-Hur studies

In an attempt to make this more interesting , I am now going to explain some of the observations I am making while studying the shots from Ben-Hur. I definitely encourage feedback and/or input from any one taking the time to read these entries on my blog.
I have drawn these as thumb nails as opposed to screen grabs, in order to exercise my problem solving while sketching the shot. In order to practice little techniques for drawing cinematography, lighting and staging of actors and objects in the shot.

The camera starts on a close up of the hands to pan out to reveal the entire stucco. It looks to me like a metaphor for god granting a gift to man( it becomes relevant as the story progresses and you meet the main character in the story.
The second shot opens on the farms of the natives as they realize what is approaching, the camera move (Crane shot) reveals the object of interest to the farmers. Due to the outdoor lighting, we reveal how hot it is in these lands, by the great use of color and temperature in the shot.Will be back later to finish publishing notes about the shots.