Rear Window

We watched the opening sequence to Rear Winder, to  identify the conventions used to make the film a thriller. At first we both thought that all seemed to well for the film to be in this genre, but we then thought about it and realized that that is exactly what the film tries to do. Its luring the audience into a false sense of security by creating a sense of normality. It does this by using music that is joyful and upbeat, unlike the expected sinister sounds from a thriller movie. The surroundings help to trick the audience into believing that the story could be happy, by having summer weather and showing the high temperatures. Also the way the flats are laid out, all together creating a close neighbourhood feel, gives the impression its a safe place to live.

To establish the location, there is a long dragged out panning shot which introduces each of the neighbours at the their window but also represents the boredom of the protagonist as he is stuck in his wheel chair with a broken leg. His broken leg also shows he is weak, vulnerable and very isolated, meaning should anything happen to him, he would struggle to escape.


Another convention seen in the opening sequence is objectification of females. An example of this is when he is viewing another woman through his window into hers. She is dancing around in her underwear  unaware of who can see her.
The opening sequence does not introduce the antagonist to the audience, this is another way they make the audience feel safe as their is no threat.

The Opening Sequence.