Jan 31

Show, don’t tell - Hitchcock’s Rear Window masterclass

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3:47pm on Saturday 31st January, 2009

If you’ve ever opened up a book on screenwriting, one of the cardinal rules drummed into writers is: “Show, don’t tell.” Film is a visual medium — if you want to convey some information, it is far better to communicate that information visually than have a character spell out what you want the audience to know. (A truism exploited by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers films, where all story exposition is delivered — with a straight face — by a character aptly named Basil Exposition.)

Phyllis is afraid of dogs? Then write a scene where she has to deal with an overly friendly mutt — but definitely don’t have her mention to someone else: “Hey, you know what? I’m really frightened of dogs.” It sounds forced; unnecessary verbiage that could have been avoided through better writing.

Forty seconds of perfect cinema

Hitchcock was a master of visual storytelling, and there is no better example of this “show don’t tell” philosophy than the introductory shot of James Stewart in the classic Rear Window.

Rear Window opening scene - Show, Don’t Tell from Matthew Pennell on Vimeo

With not a word of dialogue or voiceover, the audience has been told:

  • Our hero’s name
  • The most important aspect of his character (at least with respect to the plot) — a broken leg has confined him to a wheelchair
  • How he sustained that injury, capturing a shot of a dramatic motor-racing crash
  • Which tells us the type of man he is: a risk-taker
  • What he does for a living, and how good he is at it — would an enthusiastic amateur have their photo on the cover of a Paris fashion magazine?

Communicating all that information verbally, and in a way that didn’t seem forced or unnatural (“Why, good morning Mr Jefferies — it won’t be long before you’ve recovered from that terrible accident at the racetrack where you broke your leg; you’ll be back to work as a famous risk-taking photographer in no time!”), would have required several conversations with conveniently ignorant minor characters. Hitchcock manages it in forty seconds and one camera move.

Genius.

If you’re interested in more Hitchock

I highly recommend the Hitchcock Box Set, which has fourteen of his greatest films — Vertigo, The Birds, Marnie, Frenzy, Topaz, The Trouble With Harry, Torn Curtain, Psycho, Family Plot, Saboteur, Shadow Of A Doubt, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rope, in addition to Rear Window — and is available for an incredible sub-£20 on Amazon or in the shops. All the DVDs come with great extras, too.

Or, if you want to improve your writing, I also recommend the On The Page podcast, hosted by script consultant Pilar Alessandra. Each week Pilar and guests discuss various aspects of the “craft and business of screenwriting” and answer listeners’ questions. Despite the occasional LA-specific suggestions, it’s always an entertaining 45 minutes of discussion and advice.

I'd love to hear what you think - please use the form below to leave your comments. Some HTML is permitted: b, i, em, del, ins, strong, pre, code, blockquote, abbr. URLs or email addresses will be automatically converted into links.

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  1. erin doepker's Gravatar

    erin doepker at 2:47am on 28th May, 2009 #

    I am currently taking a literature and film class in college. We watched “Rear Window” in class. I’m writing a paper on the opening scenario. i just wanted to say that this website did a good job of highlighting Hitchcock’s use of “Mise en scene”... Words are not needed because everything shown in the open scenes tells us (the viewers) a little bit about L.B. Jefferies, and what we could expect from the film. the dialogue i did find important in the beginning is the conversation he has with his boss, Gunderson. He pleades with him a bit to get him out of the apartment or he’d do something drastic. Although, he turns the topic to marriage, which could be a minor MacGuffin, he does warn that being stuck in the apartment may cause him to do something drastic… this could be considered foreshadowing to what is to come throughout the film. Thank you for the insight on the opening scene.. Whom ever is responsible for this website: How would I cite this information in my paper, and on my list of works cited? Thank you i look forward to reading a response!

  2. Matthew Pennell's Gravatar

    Matthew Pennell at 2:19pm on 28th May, 2009 #

    Hi Erin,

    Thanks for your comment. I don’t know if I would consider marriage to be a classic Hitchcock MacGuffin, though - in his films he tended to consider MacGuffins to be actual objects, usually whatever device the protagonist and/or antagonist was trying to capture/retrieve.

    If you need to cite this site, just use the name of the site and this page’s URL.

  3. Erin Doepker's Gravatar

    Erin Doepker at 8:04pm on 28th May, 2009 #

    Thank you for the feedback! I guess that does make sense, i’m not sure how i would word what i’m trying to say then… Because although he is being sarcastic he talks about doing something drastic, and whether he meant it or not, when i was watching the movie I picked that up as a hint that something out of the ordinary was going to happen in this film. It was a really great way to catch my attention and begin building suspense early in the film. Thanks again for your help.

  4. gelinlik modelleri's Gravatar

    gelinlik modelleri at 7:32pm on 4th September, 2009 #

    Just finished watching Rear Window and it was fantastic. The film was refreshing compared to most of the new movies and it was good to watch a film worthy of being included in the saying: “they don’t make movies like they used to.” I was enormously entertained and it was very suspenseful. It did seem like the ending was going to have a big twist, but I don’t think a lack of one really detracted from the movie as a whole. This is really Grace Kelley and James Stewart at some of their finest work. The entire set was so well put together that it was like being in a dream in that it was real, yet it was noticeably different and strange to the viewer.