Continuity Editing
in Hitchcock’s Rear Window

Continuity
✦ In film, continuity can refer to consistency (e.g.
making sure costume and hair matches from shot-
to-shot)
✦ In film editing, continuity refers to the (illusory)
sense of continuous and connected time and
space within the film narrative
✦ In other words, temporal and spatial continuity

Techniques
✦ A variety of techniques have evolved to
create the illusion of spatial and temporal
continuity.
✦ These include a variety of distance shots,
camera angles, sound techniques, edits, and
takes.

Temporal Continuity
✦ Techniques used to create temporal continuity
include:
✦ Continuous diegetic sound
✦ Match on Action
✦ The long take
✦ Dissolves and fades
✦ Cross-cutting
✦ Cutaways

Spatial Continuity
✦ Techniques used to create spatial continuity
include:
✦ Establishing shots and Master shots
✦ The 180° rule; the 30° rule
✦ Eyeline match
✦ Shot-reverse-shot
✦ Axial cuts

Establishing Shot
✦ The camera shot often used to let the
audience know not just where we are, but
when we are.
✦ Can be as simple as a skyline shot of New
York, Chicago, London etc.
✦ Or a more complex orientation of the
viewer to the action, as in Rear Window.

Master Shot
✦ Similar to an establishing shot, a master
shot has to show us where characters are in
relation to each other and their
surroundings
✦ For example, an establishing shot might
show a restaurant exterior at night; the
master shot would show the characters
sitting at their table.

Rear Window begins with an unusual, roving,
establishing or master shot. The camera initially
moves through the window

Inserts and Cutaways
✦ A cutaway is used in a sequence to hide
discontinuity, or to show something not covered in
the master shot, often in close-up.
✦ Cutaways can be used to imply action that’s not
being shown. For example, a character swinging a
sword to strike, a cutaway of the intended victim,
and a final shot of a severed limb.
✦ An insert is used to show detail of something that
has been shown in the master shot coverage.
Someone looks at a noticeboard: insert of what
they’re reading.

Hitchcock cleverly conceals a discontinuity in
the take by inserting what appears to be a
cutaway to a neighbourhood cat.

The camera moves up from the cat and
continues the roving master shot, establishing
the locations of the various characters observed
by James Stewart from his apartment.

The roving camera then moves back through the
window to leave us - more or less - back where
we started. The sweat on Stewart’s forehead
establishes the season.

Another shot begins with an Extreme Close-Up
(ECU) of the thermometer, emphasising the high
summer temperature (94° Fahrenheit is 34°
Celsius)

A series of static shots brings us closer to the
main characters - from Stewart’s POV.
1. The composer

2. The couple with the dog who sleep on the
balcony (this is the third way that Hitchcock
emphasises the hot summer!)

3. Miss Torso, the dancer. (The pigeons on the
roof “menacing” the blonde foreshadow The
Birds, which came nine years later!)

The dog in the alleyway is sharing our only
tantalising glimpse of the world outside the
courtyard.

A neat piece of visual storytelling, as the
camera tracks from the cast of L B Jefferies...

...to his broken camera equipment...

...to examples of Jefferies’ work...

...in trouble spots around the globe...

...and his “negative” views about the love of his
life...

...cover girl, Grace Kelly. This continuous shot
emphasises the narrative connection between
all these things. She’s smiling because Jefferies is
housebound and temporarily domesticated.

Eyeline Match
✦ The audience want to see what a character on
screen is seeing.
✦ So we see the lead character, we cut to a shot of
something or someone else, then we (usually)
cut back to see the lead character’s reaction.
✦ In other circumstances, eyelines need to match
between shots if characters are meant to be
looking at each other.

As Jefferies shaves, scratches, and fields a
phonecall, his eyes drift to the window, where a
series of eyeline-matching shots show us what
he’s observing

We look up at the bikini girls on the balcony

Across at Miss Torso

Diegetic Sound
✦ A diegesis is a summary of the plot of the film.
✦ Diegetic sound is that which originates in the action
shown on the screen
✦ Non-diegetic sound has no point of origin in the
action. Most often, we’re talking about voice-overs
or music.
✦ Apart from the opening and closing credits, all the
music in Rear Window is diegetic: it comes from
radios, or from the piano being played by the
composer.

Continuity Sound
✦ Technically, it’s quite difficult to match sound
between shots/takes
✦ Anyone who’s edited home video footage knows
how much variation there is in recorded sound,
depending on circumstances.
✦ The illusion of continuity is helped by having
consistent sound overlapping between scenes

Throughout this scene, diegetic background music (it
comes from a neighbourhood radio) provides sound
continuity. The sound throughout is consistent and
continuous, adding to the illusion of continuity.

Miss Torso dances as she prepares food

How is it that we are able to connect this neighbour’s
annoyed look at the ceiling to Miss Torso’s dance antics in a
previous shot? The connection is made through cross-
cutting, together with eyeline-matching cutaways.

Cross-cutting
✦ By rapidly cutting between scenes taking
place in different locations (in this case, in
different levels of the apartment block), the
director can communicate to the audience
that the action taking place is simultaneous.
✦ In the film story, the scenes can be thousands
of miles apart, but cross-cutting informs us
that they’re happening at the same time.

Our first hint at the psychodrama taking place
within this troubled marriage. Raymond Burr
arrives home, and his bed-ridden wife sits up

Eyeline-matching cut shows Jefferies observing
the troubled marriage

While a shot of the lower courtyard...

...is accompanied by another eyeline-matching
shot (i.e. he’s looking down). These are all
examples of the shot-reverse-shot in action.

30° Rule
✦ Between any two shots of the same
subject, the camera should move at least
30° so that the two shots aren’t too similar.
✦ Similar shots along the same axis which
show character (as opposed to camera)
movement are jump cuts, which are
deliberately used to imply discontinuity

As Jefferies’ insurance company nurse enters, we
see an example of the 30° rule. This first shot
shows the two characters from the window —
the view we’ve seen before.

Thelma
Ritter
(stella)
James
Stewart
(Jefferies)
As Stella comes
through the door, the
camera points back
from the position of
the window
Camera

This new angle takes us more than 30° away from
the previous shot. This allows the illusion that the
scene is continuous to persist without any jarring
jump cuts as characters shift around.

Allowing that Stewart is in
approximately the same
position as previously, in this
set-up, the camera position is
rotated around almost 90°
relative to the previous shot
Thelma
Ritter James
Stewart
Camer
(stella)
(Jefferies)
a
original
camera

Axial Cuts
✦ A type of jump cut, an axial cut might not
show character movement, but will bring us
closer to (or further away from) the action
✦ Rather than hinting at discontinuity, the
axial cut (along an invisible axis) is a way of
maintaining the illusion of continuity.

Here’s an example of an axial cut, as the camera
distance is close for the “intimate” massage...

...then pulls back to a wider angle along the same
axis as the massage comes to an end

Another example of eye-line matching. Jefferies
cranes forward slightly and looks to his left in
order to observe...

...the honeymooning couple.

Cutting back to Jefferies to show his slightly
embarrassed reaction (averting his gaze). This is
the classic shot-reverse shot sequence

In continuity editing, it’s important to flag
temporal discontinuity (the passage of time) by
means of the deliberate use of ellipses. In
writing an ellipse is … whereas in film, it might
be…

...a fade…

…fading into the next establishing/master shot,
which informs us that it is now night.

And that Jefferies is dozing again, this time
facing more towards the window

Grace Kelly’s first appearance is somewhat
dream-like

180° Rule
✦ In a scene, characters remain oriented towards
each other (she’s on the right, he’s on the left)
with their eyelines matching
✦ The cameras are positioned to facilitate shot-
reverse shot editing, without catching the other
camera in the field of view
✦ If the camera does cross the invisible 180° rule line,
the movement must be shown — unless you want to
disorient the viewer.

The 180° rule operates in these one-on-one
scenes

The camera stubbornly refuses to cross an
invisible line

A master shot establishes the characters’
relative positioning in space – with the all-
important window as the reference point

The first camera position is pointing towards
Stewart, showing Kelly from the side. Note that
Kelly is looking down at him and vice versa.

Stewart
Kelly
Camera
(1)

The second position points at Kelly, showing Stewart from
the side. Again, their relative positioning (he is looking up
at her) matches the previous shot. Meanwhile, the camera
doesn’t cross the invisible line (shown in green on the
diagram).

Stewart
Camera
(2)
Kelly
Camera
(1)

Match on Action
✦ Also known as cutting on action, this
technique allows for a cut between shots
with apparent temporal continuity.
✦ You might show a diver entering a pool from
one angle... and the completion of the dive
(the splash) from another.
✦ The position of the diver should match
between the shots to provide continuity.

Jefferies watches Miss Lonelyhearts as she
entertains an imaginary dinner guest

Matching on Action (or cutting on action): as
she raises the glass to her lips...

Jefferies shares the imaginary toast...

...and Miss Lonelyhearts completes the action. If
she had been in a different position after the
cat, there would have been an uneasy sense of
discontinuity

Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) is about to call
his lover. His suspicious wife sneaks from her bed
to eavesdrop

Axial cut: no continuity is lost as the camera
eye moves closer to the action

We’re still in Jefferies’ POV, but much closer to
the Thorwalds.

The Long Take
✦ The long take is the ultimate weapon in continuity
editing.
✦ The longer the take, the greater the sense of
continuity (we appear to be watching events unfold
in real time).
✦ Some long takes require complex set-ups, moving
cameras, moving scenery etc.
✦ In Rear Window, Hitchcock includes several long
dialogue scenes. Though there are edits, the illusion is
created of “long takes” as the actors deliver their
lines.

More 180° rule. After dinner, we note that time
has passed because the actors have adopted
different postures

Kelly is now looking slightly up at Stewart, and
he looks slightly down at her. The scene is a
lengthy dialogue.

More to come...
✦ Further examples of classical Hollywood
continuity editing will follow in due course.
✦ Visit http://westudyfilm.wordpress.com for
more on Film Studies and Moving Image
Arts.