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Rear Window (1954)

The opening shot gives is a medium wide shot (mws) and gives us a view through an apartment window; in the foreground we can see the neighbouring apartment buildings and part of the street below. After this shot, the camera slowly moves pans down and simultaneously

moves forward to the middle window where it stops on the sill. The shot then cuts to a crane shot that follows a cat up a set of stairs form the street below, before panning to the left slightly and moving up. Once the crane shot man overs its way up from the ground and away from the street we are allowed to observe the residents of the apartment complex, form this we can establish that this scene is happening sometime in the morning as all the residents are getting dressed and one man sleeping on his terrace. This shot opening shot is used masterfully by Hitchcock as a different kind of establishing shot and on a much smaller scale than most audiences are typically used to; more importantly this shot allows the viewer to gain an understanding of the characters who could possibly play a part in the narrative o the film and it also gives us an awareness of the location in which event within the film could take place. In this opening sequence the camera effectively goes from the apartment window to the area below, before panning round the rest of the apartment complex and then returning to the apartment of origin. Once the panning crane shot moves back into the original apartment, it stops focussing in on a close up of James Stewart, he is asleep and is sweating profusely, the shot then cuts top a thermometer which indicates that he must have a high temperature or a fever. The shot then pans to the left and shows another character a man shaving, and this time the character isn’t in the foreground; from this we are able to gain a greater amount of insight into these characters lives . The shot then traverses to a shot of a man whom we previously saw being woken up by his alarm clock next tom him, although lying the other way is what we can assume to be a girlfriend or a wife, the shot then pans down and yet again to character who we have previously seen from a distance, as she makes her breakfast we can intuitively say that she is a dance as she demonstrates a high degree of flexibility. From here the shot pans down slightly before zooming out and back to the first apartment again showing James Stewarts character again and that he is still asleep, it also reveals to

the audience the name of the character as the initials of his first and middle name are printed with his sur-name on his a cast on his leg, from here we can clearly deduce that our this character who so far can be identified by the audience to be the protagonist is going to remain static for some time. His apartment (L.B. Jefferies; James Stewart) is fairly disorganised and messy to an extent as can be shown by the cluttered books and broken camera. Once we are presented with the cameras and the photos captured that show to us several famous and historic events we can quickly establish our characters profession and that he is very good at his job.

The apartment complex that we are presented with seems to be inhabited by members of the middle and upper middle class this due to the fact that the majority of the characters seem to have jobs of sorts and a few are professionals i.e. the dancer and the musician as L.B. Jefferies. Hitchcock seems to have used a lens to make sure that all the colours present in this opening scene appear to be warm and vibrant, Furthermore many of the terraces are adorned with colourful flowers and the small opening in the centre of the apartment complex shows a neatly cut green, and more rows of flowers. The latter points all emphasise that this is a well looked after place where neighbours respect each other and ‘seem’ to live happy lives. Another point to make, with regard to the mise en scene is the instrumental music used throughout the opening sequence; my point being that it is upbeat and cheerful, yet still conveys an element of suspense and intrigue to the viewer who is left to interpret all of this information from their own unique perspective.