Maia+Gumnit

media type="youtube" key="N7sznnL0NZ0" height="390" width="480" Vertigo Opening Scene: This scene opens with a bar against a blurred background, so it is difficult to tell just what it is. Then there is a cut-in shot to a hand, with key-lighting over the fist to show the focus of the shot. This gives the viewer the context of it being a ladder. This first part of the shot seems to move slowly, which builds suspense. Then the a second hand, and eventually a face fall into the key lighting. At this point, the motion becomes faster to show urgency.

In the next shot, the camera moves away from the ladder a few feet and the background comes into focus. This wide shot reveals the location of the scene-- a rooftop in the city, at night.

Then it moves to a very wide shot, where the characters can only be seen running when they fall into the pools of light cast by houses/buildings in the background. This creates tension because the eye cannot follow the sequence of action completely.

Then, the leading lines of the buildings/shoreline in the background draw the eye to the slanted roof (which is the only section fully illuminated in the shot.) Because of this, even before the men jump, we know the rooftop is important. Also, in this shot, the natural sound of the men jumping on the roof adds tension beyond the already dramatic music playing.

After one of the men catches himself on the gutter, the side of the building appears to lengthen to seem much taller and more menacing. The key lighting on the man's face, as he looks down, only reveals half of his frightened face in a medium close-up shot.

In the next shot, the policeman above him parallels the top of the roof he is on. The leading lines in the shingles pull our attention downward-- not on the policeman himself, but on the man he is trying to save.

In a cut-in shot of their hands, the story is continued, and even escalated, because we see the man grasping the gutter (as it threatens to break) and the policeman desperately trying to pull the man back onto the roof.

Finally, the policeman falls of the roof. He lands in a circle of light cast by one of the windows, surrounded by darkness in another very wide shot. By having him land in carefully placed lighting, the viewer's attention is drawn to his broken body. Those who ran out to help him are also illuminated in the window light.