how different film aspects affect the production context of vertigo

Editing(Yuval)

Hitchcock uses continuity editing as it creates a unified space time in “Vertigo”. This is especially obvious in when Scottie meets up with Elster to speak about what he’s found out about Madeleine: we are shown an establishing shot showing the wealthy atmosphere of the gentlemen’s club they are meeting at followed by a sequence of shot/reverse shots showing Scottie and Elster during their conversation. 


“Vertigo” employs a lot of fades and dissolves as part of its editing to emphasize the transition between two settings. The editing is also always very slow paced; it was done to build up the tension throughout the movie, and therefore to affect suspense in a positive way; such a technique calms the audience down before the great resolution. 


The editing also features a lot of repetition, this was not only done to make editor’s work simpler, but also to make the spectators unconsciously draw connections between certain scenes and actions involved in them. 
The film also features a flashback, which is a crucial turning point in the film – it changes the way audience perceives the story, and it follows the 180 rule for most of the time to allow the spectators to continuously follow the story with no interruptions.


Quite often “Vertigo” uses establishing shots to allow the audience to study the surroundings, as well as the eye line matches, in scene when Scottie tries to persuade Judy that they are meant to be together, and somewhat recognizes Madeleine in her face due to the profile view. 


Firstly the opening sequence; it features an extreme close-up of a woman’s lips and eyes with clearly defined moving spirals in her eye; it somehow acts as a precaution of what the film is about and what the story might be hiding. 
Another scene is Scottie’s nightmare,which features a small cartoon with surreal photography; it employs colourful flashes, pictures of flowers (which represent Madeleine), as well as a sequence of flashbacks that put an emphasis on Carlotta Valdes’s necklace in the painting and her grave; this scene proves the audience that Scottie’s fears are real, and warns that his further actions might be out of his control.

Sound analysis(josh)

Sound in Vertigo is the work of a famous composer, Bernard Hermann, who masterfully used horror techniques to add more suspense to the film.


Throughout Vertigo music quite often mirrors Scottie’s vertigo, and sometimes represents the dreamy nature of Madeleine, whereas the classical music that accompanies scenes with Midge shows her realistic nature as well as represents the norms of society Midge falls into. For example, Hitchcock not only emphasizes Scottie’s vertigo with the vertigo effect, but also with exceptionally loud and dramatic music that allows the audience to realize the importance of his sickness throughout the film.

For most of the time sound in Vertigo is in sync with very dynamic non-diegetic music and sometimes exaggerated diegetic sounds. It also uses big intervals between dialogues with non-diegetic music in order to build up the tension and therefore produces the suspense throughout the film. When Scottie follows Madeleine into the chapel that leads to the cemetery; we hear the chapel bells ringing before we see where Scottie goes, what gives us a clue about what might happen soon; the sound coming earlier than the image acts as a sound bridge in this case, and also “throws” clues at the spectators thus inducing the suspense.

Also, when Scottie takes Madeleine to the forest in scene, we can clearly hear the echo there; it adds mysteriousness to the situation and emphasizes the emptiness Madeleine feels. Music in Scottie’s nightmare is also quite dramatic, it certainly emphasizes the necklace Carlotta wears in the painting in Scottie’s flashback and therefore shows its importance further in the movie.
Sound suggests the feelings to the audience, while at the same time works with other elements of the film to allow the audience to read the clues not only in the actual performance of the actors, but also in the surroundings and the atmosphere. Sound therefore is integral to the suspense being created throughout Vertigo.