Triumph of the Will

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• filmmaking techniques such as moving cameras, including one on an elevator attached to the mammoth flagpoles behind the speaker's podium, as well as another on Hitler's personal Mercedes (the latter requiring numerous takes so that the cameraman would not be filmed.) It also featured the use of telephoto lenses to create a distorted perspective. To capture other angles, Riefenstahl had pits dug below the speakers' podiums, tracks laid for moving shots, and aerial photography taken from several planes and a blimp. There were frequent close-ups of crowds watching and listening to Hitler, and poses of Hitler shot from well below eye-level to make him appear heroic. Aside from the prologue, Riefenstahl used no verbal editorial commentary in Triumph, preferring to make her points through rapid editing cuts, montages, and music. She also used "real sound" throughout the film. The film score was Wagnerian in scope (much of it was lifted directly from Wagner's operas), and tended to flow with Riefenstahl's edits, creating an atmosphere that was passionate and exuberant, frequently building up to a climactic frenzy whenever Hitler was about to speak.