Analyse the Editing Style and Technique of a Film, Describing Its Effectiveness and Commenting on Its Function in Respect to the Film’s Narrative Construction, Focussing on One Sequence in Particular. (Films: Hitchcock’s Rear Window)

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Analyse the editing style and technique of a film, describing its effectiveness and commenting on its function in respect to the film’s narrative construction, focussing on one sequence in particular. (Films: Hitchcock’s Rear Window) “What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out” Alfred Hitchcock. This quote from Hitchcock resonates throughout Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, USA) as it is a prodigious example of his auteur style as he turns the mundane and ordinary lives of the protagonist’s neighbours into a suspenseful thriller. This essay will provide an insight to the effectiveness of the editing style and technique also in relation to its function with the films narrative. The film is set around L. B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) Greenwich apartment whose rear window looks out onto a small courtyard and several other apartments. Wheelchair stricken due to an accident, out of boredom he passes his time by watching his neighbours. The use of a ‘peeping Tom’ concept throughout the film portrays the subjectivity of the protagonist point of view and feeds off of the act of voyeurism making the audience feel a part of this to. Furthermore with Jeff’s confinement to his apartment, serves as the films fixed spatial location thus limiting the protagonists and spectators vision. Rear Window begins with an opening shot that almost mirrors that of a curtain being raised in a cinema or theatre as the blinds are slowly raised after the credits. The establishing shot is often used to let the audience know where and when the story takes place and the master shots function is to show the viewer’s where the characters are in relation to each other and their surroundings. The master or establishing shot moves out from the window revealing the courtyard, which most of the narrative takes place. This already gives the audience a sense of security as

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