Photographic adaptation in the saving private Ryan Film

Filmmakers use a variety of sources to create cinematic works. Movies are mostly adapted from literature and novels, but they are also adapted from other branches of art such as visual arts, music and even architecture. Photography is also one of the arts that has been adapted into movies. In the present study a film which has been adapted from photography is examined. Steven Spielberg's “Saving Private Ryan” is based on the photographs of Polish war photographer Robert Capa. The main question of this research is “How have Capa's photos been adapted to create this film?” The main purpose of the research was to determine the adapted items and to specify how these photos have been adapted. This is a descriptive-analytical research and the data is collected from written sources and internet sites. The movie has also been watched and analyzed. Since it can be said that the nature of photography and cinema is similar, photographers and filmmakers use similar tools to create images. The camera lens and film that are used, as well as the technical settings that are utilized for both media are somewhat similar, and this similarity makes it possible to create similar images in them. Except the subjects of Capa's photos, which are depicted in the first sequence of the film, the director, and especially the cinematographer, have adapted the photographer's work like composition and visual effects such as camera height, depth of field, contrast, color, sharpness and texture of the images. But such technical adaptations are not recognizable by ordinary spectators and do not have a strong effect on the audience's attention.