Watch Hitchcock's Rear Window Re-Imagined In Single-Shot Edit

 

Whether it's HD re-masterings of old favourites for a much-requested Blu Ray release, fan-made remakes through careful editing, or a post-production 2D-to-3D conversion (most recently seen in the likes of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and this week's anniversary re-release of Titanic for the big screen), technology is repeatedly bringing new life to some of cinema's most treasured flicks.

But never have we been so impressed with a brand-new perspective on an age-old classic than this particular effort by Jeff Desom, who has managed to produce a single-shot edit of Alfred Hitchcock's voyeuristic Rear Window. Famously shot on a single studio apartment set (constructed of 31 apartments), Desom's mesmerising re-imagining of the movie was made possible through painstakingly re-creating the apartment courtyard seen in the film with the help of Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and, it's fair to say, some computer wizardry on Desom's part, a scene that effectively represents the view from James Stewart's characters' window. What's even more impressive is the way in which Desom has managed to composite all of the events from the film into the surrounding scene – it's like being inside the very apartment habited by Stewart's wheelchair-bound photographer during the film.

“I dissected all of Hitchcock's Rear Window and stiched it back together in After Effects,” Desom explains on his website. “I stabilized all the shots with camera movement in them. Since everything was filmed from pretty much the same angle I was able to match them into a single panoramic view of the entire backyard without any greater distortions. The order of events stays true to the movie's plot.”