A breakdown of Rope and how Alfred Hitchcock mastered the long take using blocking & staging and even editing.
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro to the Hitchcock's Rope
00:51 - How Hitchcock thinks about Perspective
01:43 - Technique 1: Long Takes
04:44 - Technique 2: Blocking & Staging
07:05 - Technique 3: Invisible Editing
09:33 - Takeaways
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Alfred Hitchcock and the Long Take
As a director, Alfred Hitchcock was always pushing his medium forward. When sound was introduced, he was one of the first to capitalize on this new storytelling tool. And, in 1948, with more than 20 years of filmmaking behind him, Hitchcock would make his most experimental film to date.
Rope is a claustrophobic thriller set in a single apartment in real-time. Hitchcock also shot the film using a series of long takes and minimal editing. In this Rope film analysis, we’re going to investigate how Hitchcock was able to keep us engaged and in suspense using long takes, blocking and staging, and editing.
Long Takes
Rope is comprised of 11 shots, ranging from two minutes to ten minutes in length. Perhaps the most obvious way to keep a ten-minute shot engaging is to move and rearrange the camera and characters. Going further, Hitchcock also changes the shot size and framing to keep the image fresh. And the final way Hitchcock keeps long takes engaging is by using off-screen audio to expand the world outside the frame.
Blocking and Staging
Not only does Alfred Hitchcock keep his long takes active and immersive, but he also uses blocking and staging to create suspense. More than just “a photographed play,” Hitchcock uses the camera to give the viewer a more subjective experience. For example, when Philip breaks a glass in a panic, we see this happen but the audience is unaware. Or when Rupert starts to suspect foul play, the camera pushes in on his reactions.
Editing
The popular myth about Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope is that it is meant to look like one long take. But this just isn’t true. As mentioned earlier, there are in fact 11 shots in the film and only half are meant to be unseen. These “invisible” cuts happen when the camera swings behind a character, blacking out the frame. The “visible” cuts, however, are hiding in plain sight. But rather than random moments for these cuts, Hitchcock does choose strategic places for them. For example, when Mrs. Wilson interrupts Rupert’s questioning, the break in suspense helps hide the shift in the shot from one to the next.
All in all, Alfred Hitchcock considered Rope to be a failed experiment but that doesn’t mean there isn’t much to learn from it. A pioneer in the use of long takes in film, Rope stands as the perfect example of how to keep them engaging and suspenseful.
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