Apollo 11 launch

In the documentary film, Apollo 11 director Todd Millar uses a variety of cinematography and sound techniques to build up anticipation, suspense to draw us into the experience. In the final moments of the countdown, the audience is shown camera shots of the control room, the VIPS on the viewing platform and the public to show the audience how the rocket launch was the centre of the world’s attention. In the years since the moon landings, a plethora of science fiction films has taken viewers to the other side of the galaxy and back, in comparison the trip to the moon might seem mundane. Todd Millar uses these camera shots of the crowds to impress upon us, his audience, the fact that this event was the pinnacle of human achievement. Quite literally, the eyes of the world were on the Saturn V rocket and the moment of the launch. The use of wide, panning and close up shots of the various parts of the crowd gives us not only a sense of being there but also a look at the emotion, awe and scale of the moment. In unison with these shots Millar adds in sound elements designed to build up suspense by having a heartbeat in the background seconds before the launch.