Benhur thumbnail studies

The camera pans as the soliders on horses pass by a little shop of a carpenter, which is cleverly used as a motivation for the camera to frame the villager in the window. A great silhouette of the figure is frame in the middle of the shot for the audience to immediately focus. There are strong darks and cools which help enforce the silhouette of the man, by further staging his body within another window, to get the contrast of dark against light. The edit uses the Soldiers in the foreground to not only establish scale in the shot, but as a wipe, as the horse were used to motivate the pan for a wipe.

The wipe and staging help bring the audience to focus on this new character introduced into the plot. The Light setup (possibly a kicker) to highlight the actors face to establish a connection to the actor.

Cut back to a wide shot, utilizing silhouettes to establish design in the shot, by use of space and to initiate the scene between the two villagers. The soldiers are contrasted with the light from the sun, while the carpenter is in silhouette to help reinforce a sense of space and separation. The device effectively moves the audience to the point of view of the carpenter, but helps relay the story of the marching soldiers without causing confusion by just haphazardly focusing ion this new figure in the story. A third figure is established in the shot by super imposing him in-between the carpenter and the soldiers, a visual cue to draw the audiences attention to this figure. Great blocking with in this sequence for establishing character blocking, and moving from a large over view of space for the soldiers marching, to a more intimate setting within the carpenters shop. The tree cuts have effectively moved the viewer away from the marching soldiers, to the story of this carpenter working while this huge event is happening within his village. There is no time spent establishing the interior of the carpenter's shop, so as to not have the audience become to invested in the characters. The moment serves as a story telling device to help establish the era the film, by the iconic reference.

Except for the close up shot,all the shots thus far are more outdoor established light. There is a difference when comparing the light set up -vs- the natural light from out door, In terms of temperature captured, but extremely effective lighting to get the audience to look exactly where the director,cinematographer and production designer wanted the audience to look.