Blog #3: Rear Window

As the third time watching "Rear Window",  I still seem to notice different things each time. The opening scene of Rear Window, where we first are exposed to a story of some sort, later is a big part of the plot of the main character Jeff. We learn from the opening scene that Jeff is a photographer that was injured badly due to a racetrack crash he desperately wanted to photograph. We also see, that I didn't notice the first times watching, a picture with a negative coloring effect that we learn is Jeff's "girlfriend" Lisa. That opening scene pretty much tells us the story behind the whole plot before even starting the film, including introducing another character. This is one thing that Hitchcock adds to the film Rear Window is the romance between Jeff and Lisa. I think the romance added something more for the audience to engage in rather than the simple plot of Jeff looking out his rear window.

We can assume that Jeff is very dedicated to his photography work as he did mention on the phone that he really didn't need to get that photograph of the racetrack, but still did it anyways. This attitude plays out in the rest of the film as he is determined to figure out this mystery of his neighbor, Lars. At times I felt like Jeff was being too dramatic about the whole situation but I think that's what Hitchcock wanted. I think he wanted us to go against Jeff at times so we can later be surprised in the long run.

One of the sequences that uses a unique camera movements is the scenes where we see the pan movement looking out at the all neighbors. Even though this movement is not that steady, I wonder if we are suppose to be looking at Jeff's point of view during those scenes or just a third party. Since we see a lot in Jeff's point of view, at times it feels like it carries on way too long in that angle. It is a good thing that the other characters like Lisa and Stella came into this film giving the film more to work with. Besides the obsession Jeff has with the mystery across at his neighbors, these other characters bring out more of Jeff than we see. Lisa brings out his romantic side. Lisa is also some way his opposite since they have different outlooks in the beginning of the film.

One thing that some people may not notice the first time watching this film is the progress of the neighbor's song. At first the neighbor's song is very sloppy as we see him aggravated throughout the whole film. But the way I saw it is that the progress of solving the Lars mystery, is the same as the progress of the song. After Lars gets arrested, we then see that the piano player finishes song and even shares it with one of the female neighbors whose life was saved by the song. I thought it was neat how Hitchcock played the whole piano player's song into this film making it a part of the story as well as a part of the background music.

I find it hard to believe that this is the only neighbor to spot Jeff doing what he was doing considering he was peeping on everyone majority of the time. But I question if Hitchcock had this scene of Lars being the first to spot Jeff to make it more suspenseful that a neighbor finally spotted him and it just happen to be Lars on very important scene.

Every time a scene was followed by this scene, I assumed that we were looking from Jeff's point of view. Even though most of the time we were looking through a black hole to represent the lens, I was mistaken a few times there was no black hole. 

Blog Post #2: The Great Gatsby (2013)

After screening the 2013 version of "The Great Gatsby", I can say that I enjoyed this version more than the 1974 "The Great Gatsby". Both films were mainly based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel "The Great Gatsby” which gave us an guideline on how each film was probably going to play out which allowed us to observe closer to which version of the film adapted more from the original source. Personally I think the 2013 version adapted a lot more from the novel. If I were to say what type of adaptation was done I would probably say it was a traditional adaptation in terms from the original source of the novel. One of the biggest scenes from both films that expressed this is when Nick first met Gatsby. The 2013 version stayed true to the novel by having a similar meeting of Gatsy and Nick as the 1974 version didn't. I like to think that we watch the 1974 version prior to the 2013 one so we could point out more scenes that the 1974 version did not adapt. 

Some parts of the novel that the film translates really well is the scenes going back in forth from Gatsby to Tom's house. I observed these scenes towards the beginning of the film just how the novel describes it. While watching this part of the film, it felt like I was watching a quick and glamorous trailer for the film since the scenes jumped around with the use of the 3D effect. But I noticed later that this effect and use of jumping around really complimented how the novel was told. I think that the 2013 version had the advantage of illustrating a lot of scenes due to the use of special effects that the 1974 did not. As we discussed in class about the chronological order and psychological order, this really displayed the use of chronological order that reading a novel can't really illustrate. Overall the 2013 version really ‘spiced’ up the use of dramatics with the use of effects such as the Nick’s animated handwriting that was used throughout the film to create a great visual.

Another big thing that stuck out to me about the 2013 version is that we finally figure out where, how, and why Nick is narrating this story. I don’t recall the 1974 version really showing where, how, why Nick was narrating the story. Showing this part of the story really made the plot better creating a different view on the narration throughout the film. As far as the film relating to my faith, the obvious love affair conflicted with my faith. But since I’m sure marriages were treated a lot different back in the 1920s, the affair is a big part of the story so I guess that his shows the gratitude that a love affair has on people. 

This scene is one of the biggest adaptations scene that stood out to me as the 2013 version stayed true to the meeting scene of Nick and Gatsby.

This is a screen shot from Nick located at the doctor's office where we find out where Nick is narrating this story adding a lot to the feel of the 2013 version of this film.