REAR WINDOW Time-lapse
April 2, 2012 7:41 PM   Subscribe

 
That's amazing.
posted by codacorolla at 7:47 PM on April 2, 2012


wow.
posted by saul wright at 7:48 PM on April 2, 2012


this is truly great.
posted by sweetkid at 7:51 PM on April 2, 2012


Holy shit this is incredible.

I love, love, love Rear Window. Maybe my #3 Hitchcock.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:53 PM on April 2, 2012


So, is there something like this for "Disturbia"?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:55 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


SO COOL!!!


(And it still blows my mind that it was all a set built on a soundstage.)
posted by tantrumthecat at 7:56 PM on April 2, 2012


Fantastic.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:56 PM on April 2, 2012


I like the pretend the party in the Musicians' apartment is actually the party in Rope, myself.
posted by The Whelk at 7:58 PM on April 2, 2012 [14 favorites]


If you squint at the tiny opening out to the street over there on the left, you can see a Lifeboat bobbing in the sea.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:59 PM on April 2, 2012


So what the heck is happening in the bar, down the alley and across the street?
posted by crunchland at 8:09 PM on April 2, 2012


That's incredible.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 8:09 PM on April 2, 2012


That was fantastic.

Next project for this guy: create a scene with all of Hitchcock's Jimmy Stewart characters hanging out in the same room talking to each other.
posted by phunniemee at 8:24 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


This is fantastic!
posted by arcticseal at 8:29 PM on April 2, 2012


I'm going to go against the grain here and say that this was ridiculously awesome and I loved it.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 8:30 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Ok what the fuck – I've seen this 20 times and never realized that the party apartment was off to the right.
posted by nicwolff at 8:30 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


wow! i was just talking with someone the other day about how much i love Rear Window specifically for the set that was built.
posted by kuppajava at 8:34 PM on April 2, 2012


Ok what the fuck – I've seen this 20 times and never realized that the party apartment was off to the right.

If it makes you feel any better I was a little surprised to see the newlyweds where they were.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:35 PM on April 2, 2012


I need to watch this three or four more times to see if I can spot the gorilla.
posted by device55 at 8:37 PM on April 2, 2012 [10 favorites]


I need to put aside some time to watch this repeatedly. Pretty amazing.
posted by bongo_x at 8:42 PM on April 2, 2012


Excellent!
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:44 PM on April 2, 2012


Ok what the fuck – I've seen this 20 times and never realized that the party apartment was off to the right.

I was always confused where it was, and was surprised where it actually was.

Also, MAN THIS WAS A LOT OF WORK.
posted by jscott at 9:50 PM on April 2, 2012


And where's my fucking desktop wallpaper of this?! THIS I DEMAND INTERNET!
posted by Fizz at 9:54 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


SO delighted to see this! I watch Rear Window every Christmas afternoon, but I think I may have to put this on a weekly viewing rotation. SO good!
posted by honey-barbara at 11:43 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Wow, this is incredible. Seriously.
posted by venividivici at 12:13 AM on April 3, 2012


Ditto what everyone's said so far. Awesome project. In fact I'd be happy to see a "normal speed" version, with the original movie audio.

So what the heck is happening in the bar, down the alley and across the street?

Miss Loneleyhearts goes trawling for her younger man there.
posted by ShutterBun at 12:32 AM on April 3, 2012


Love this. Rear Window was the movie that turned teenage me on to the whole idea of classic movies, and film as art, and all that fun stuff.
posted by billyfleetwood at 12:40 AM on April 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Amazing! After Effects is a tool that seems to be capable of doing anything, including giving you a lucrative career if you can master it.
posted by asok at 2:22 AM on April 3, 2012


Could have sworn I've seen something similar before and went for a root around and found People Like Us AKA Vicky Bennet who made a photo collage from the same source. Don't know which came first, but I like both of them. Also found 4'33 - The Movie which is also great.
posted by djstig at 2:36 AM on April 3, 2012


Guess I'm going to have to watch it again real soon...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:00 AM on April 3, 2012


Miss Loneleyhearts goes trawling for her younger man there. -- I know she does, but if you watch it in this thing, whenever it's open (at night), there's something grey that moves back and forth in the window over and over.
posted by crunchland at 5:12 AM on April 3, 2012


I get frustrated when people say the Internet is just for porn because these people are often sex-negative so I think their comment demeans all the other genius that's out there. That said, there's plenty of genius porn on the Internet that I've wanted to fuck because it was so wonderful.

But I never thought there would be a video I'd want to fuck and marry. Yet, today, here we are.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 6:13 AM on April 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


Yeah, this video is fabulous. It's also a little strange. A key part of Hitchcock's art is creating that rear window tableau with conventional camera work. Of stitching together all those vignettes in our mind, with careful camera position and editing. It's sort of odd to see all that artistry cut apart and restitched into the literal thing. Imagine if the whole film were made with that one framing! Not saying this video is bad, I'm grateful to see the film in one giant panorama, just makes me appreciate more what Hitchcock did.
posted by Nelson at 8:22 AM on April 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


I wonder if you could pull back in to the next shot, and stitch the action that occurs from the angle inside the apartment look out of the rear window over top of the current composite. I actually haven't seen the movie in a while, so I'm not even sure how many scenes fit that description.
posted by codacorolla at 9:32 AM on April 3, 2012


Most of the stuff in the apartment IIRC faces away from the window.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:51 AM on April 3, 2012


I'm sure I'm missing something—maybe I need to watch Rear Window again—but I'm a little astounded at how flawless the "time of day" background stuff (clouds and moon, sky color changing) moves.

Looking at the clip again, it seems they have two general "rolls". One cloud one that moves horizontally (and gets recycled—with the same clouds going by every dusk), and one moon one that is rolled a bit on an upward diagonal.

I guess they must've had the rolls on timers or something—"move 30 sprocket teeth per minute"—or had specific notes on the script (e.g. "Scene 5 - cloud roll, should be set at 2,734th sprocket hole at beginning of scene")

Of course Rear Window is fantastic, but beneath it also runs like a fine precision watch.
posted by blueberry at 3:07 PM on April 3, 2012


I'm a little astounded at how flawless the "time of day" background stuff (clouds and moon, sky color changing) moves.

No doubt Hitch learned a lot while making "Rope," which plays out in real time and also features a color-changing cyclorama which accurately simulates the time of day outside.

As far as how the clouds move "flawlessly" in this reconstruction, I would imagine that it's more a function of the AfterEffects artist who assembled it, as opposed to real continuity in the film. Remember, this was all assembled strictly using "available footage," and of course the courtyard wasn't on screen for the entire 72 hours (or however long the events took place over) So the scenes of the night sky were placed as a separate element and re-timed accordingly. I wouldn't be surprised if the clouds themselves were "fixed" to correct their movement. (notice how the puffs of steam from under the moon seem a little too "similar" to each other.

As far as the "back and forth grey thing" seen in the window of the bar, I'm guessing that the artist used a short loop of film over and over, so a waiter walking back and forth would appear to be doing so over and over.
posted by ShutterBun at 3:49 AM on April 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Here's (approximately) what it would look like in real time (the info page says the whole thing is about 20 minutes long, so I slowed it down by 750%) The music gives it a wonderfully creepy feeling.

Rear Window Time Lapse segment
posted by ShutterBun at 6:34 AM on April 4, 2012


I like the pretend the party in the Musicians' apartment is actually the party in Rope, myself.

I HAVE ALWAYS PRETENDED THIS!
posted by crossoverman at 4:27 AM on April 6, 2012


careful camera position and editing...

There was always one shot in Rear Window that bothered me: the helicopter swooping in to spy on the nude sunbathers on the roof. For some reason, it seemed totally out of place, but more than simply being the only "location shot" in the film. It just seemed...well, out of place, like I said. I think I've put my finger on it.

The perspective. Granted, it's a composite shot (and not a terribly good one, by today's standards) but it's also the only shot that's from a perspective which is essentially "unavailable" to someone in the apartment. The building's perspective is close (though not entirely accurate, by my estimation), but the helicopter itself is way off.

Cannot wait to see this on Blu-Ray. It's been shown in High Definition on television occasionally, and it's beautiful. Sooooo much detail, especially in the telephoto shots.
posted by ShutterBun at 6:04 AM on April 6, 2012


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