Fifth Post- Rear Window Camera Shot and Reflection

               

       Image Link: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/point-of-view-shot-camera-movement-angles/ 

The above photo of Lisa is stunning and the product of magnificent camerawork. A dark background contrasts with her face, as Hitchcock utlilizes low-key lighting to make her the center of attention. Jeffries is sleeping and Lisa hovers over him and is about to give him a kiss before he wakes up. Jeffries had been talking to Stella about the possibility, or lack therof, of marrying Lisa. Stella advocated for the marriage, claiming when two people fall in love they "should come together." Jeffries maintained Lisa is "too perfect, too talented, too beautiful" for him. He worried in his conversation with Gunnison about a husband coming home to a nagging wife, even whilst Gunnison attempted to convince him wives discuss. Marriage is drastic to Jeffries. He wants a woman who "will go anywhere and do anything."

StudioBinder defines a point-of-view (POV) camera shot as an angle showing the sightline of another character "in the first person" (StudioBinder). The camera serves as the eyes of the character and our view is the same as the character's view. We see the same as Jeffries sees. The camera is positioned between Lisa and Jeffries' faces. Jeffries is looking at Lisa, and we see Lisa's reaction. A first-person POV shot is meant to make the audience experience the emtions the character is experiencing (Nashville Film Institute). John Belton, in his article The Space of Rear Window, explained Lisa appeared "out of the dreams of the still-sleeping Jeffries" (Belton). Hitchcock chose this photo as our first glimpse of Lisa. A viewer sees the sophistication, elegance, and beauty of Lisa mentioned earlier by Jeffries. The stage is set for Lisa's role in the film, as she will be by Jeffries' side as his love interest.

Belton discussed filming aspects of Rear Window in his article. He highlighted the nuances with each character's apartments. Miss Torso's apartment had ample open space because she was a dancer and moved around frequently. Thorwald's apartment was segmented by two seperate windows for the kitchen/living room and the bedroom area. The two windows seperated Lars from his wife, who remained in the bedroom while her husband kept a prescence in the living room. Miss Lonelyhearts, who also had a segmented house, moved from room-to-room (kitchen to table, etc.) to fill in the empty space (Belton). Hitchcock utilized short-wave radios to communicate with his far-away actors. The actors were equipped with flesh-colored receivers. Belton acknowledges the fixed camera perspective (from Jeffries' apartment) may normally limit the amount of subplots or other character actions the viewer can see. Hitchcock eliminated the problem of missing key information by building the subplots (other apartments) into the set design. Since Jeffries' cannot move, he can only interpret the events he sees and hears from one location (Belton).

 Belton Article Link