Drama: Rope

I recently watched the film Rope by Alfred Hitchcock. It was made in 1948 and is based on a real life murder known as the Leopold / Loeb Murder. I really like this movie as I think the acting is great and the location is beautiful as the movie is locked in a lavish 1940's style apartment; overlooking the city. What really struck me when I saw this film was the use of long-takes by Hitchcock as he designed the film to look as if it is once continuous scene, unfolding the story through the course of an evening dinner party, it is not one long shot as Hitchcock faced the problem of only being able to shoot ten minutes at a time (as that was the amount of time you could fit onto a single reel of film) which meant he had to employ a mixture of camera trickery, smart set design as well as fluid acting in order to achieve his desired effect. Below is a list of where the shots cut and how Hitchcock masked the transition.

 

Scene			Start Shot	End Shot
1			CU (Close-Up), strangulation	Blackout on Brandon's back
2			Black, pan off Brandon's back	CU Kenneth: "What do you mean?"
3			Unmasked cut, men crossing to Janet	Blackout on Kenneth's back
4			Black, pan off Kenneth's back	CU Phillip: "That's a lie."
5			Unmasked cut, CU Rupert	Blackout on Brandon's back
6			Black, pan off Brandon's back	Three shot
7			Unmasked cut, Mrs. Wilson: "Excuse me, sir."	Blackout on Brandon
8			Black, pan off Brandon	CU Brandon's hand in gun pocket
9			Unmasked cut, CU Rupert	Blackout on lid of chest
10			Black, pan up from lid of chest	End of film

  In true Hitchcock form he pulls this technique off almost flawlessly and is something I would love to attempt in the creation of my film. This kind of stylistic approach could be useful during scenes where my protagonist is stalked or followed as well as when they are being chased towards the end of the film. I understand that this could be a very tricky approach to pull off but I would like to experiment nonetheless.