It starts off with a happy, jazzy piece of music over a long shot of three blinds being raised which fills the whole screen. The audience is positioned in the main character's room throughout the film. This also applies to the opening shot which makes the audience feel as if they have been in the room the whole time and are watching out of the window. The blind is being raised as if it is revealing the scene but makes the audience wait to see what is behind the blinds. This compares to the curtain raising in a theatre. The first cast member's name, James Stewart, appears on screen. The font stands out because it is brightly coloured compared to the background and it is very big and embossed. All of the names throughout the title sequence are upper case. It almost fills the whole screen which attracts the audience's attention. The audience knows that this is an important person because his name stands alone.
As the title sequence continues the blinds begin to raise one at a time. Over the top it displays next the director's name and the title of the film. It fades the titles in and out over each other at the same time. The co-stars are shown in a small group of three names, the font is slightly smaller but keeps the same type throughout. Next a long list of the names of the rest of the cast is presented diagonally across the screen. Then it starts to show the creators of the film, first the writer of the screenplay and second the author of the short story it's based on. Then, more crew are listed, the most senior crew get their name displayed bigger then the other senior crew. The crew compared to the cast have to display both their name and their position. The crew's positions are in lower case. The last thing you see before the end of the titles is the director's name which is displayed almost as big as the first billed cast member.
The title sequence finishes and then the camera dollys forward and slightly downward until the shot is framed by just one of the three windows. The camera is positioned at the bottom of the window, we know this because we can see the sill of the window in the shot. This gives the audience the point of view of somebody sat in the window. This is foreshadowing what is to come because throughout the movie James Stewart's character is sat looking through the window at this height whilst in his wheelchair. Cut to the camera looking down into the courtyard from a high angle which give the audience the impression they are still in the window looking out. Next the camera pans right across the courtyard following the path of a cat, then it tilts upwards until level for the audience, then it pans left to display the other apartments opposite the window. This is a long shot that works as an establishing shot as it shows the entire courtyard.
Eventually the camera pans back round into the apartment where it shows a close up shot of the main character with sweat running down his forehead. As this is happening the music becomes more dominated by violins. Cut to an extreme close up of a thermometer showing that the temperature is more than 90 degrees fahrenheit, then it tracks across to the left and out of the window and focuses on the background action. The combination of shots of the sweat running down his forehead and the thermometer tells the audience that it's hot. This makes the film realistic because more people will have their windows and blinds open during a heat wave which means the characters can see into other people's apartments. As the camera tracks the music fades away and the sound of the radio in the next door neighbour's window. This mise en scene includes a man in his pyjamas shaving whilst changing stations on his radio. Cut to another long shot of a man and his wife waking up on their balcony in their pyjamas from an alarm clock. This sets a very natural, informal scene and the action is extremely everyday.
The camera then tilts down and pans across to another woman's apartment as she walks out into the view of her main window, she is wearing only underwear and the camera hovers over her window for a while whilst her bra pings off and she bends to pick it up, as a man's gaze would do if in this situation. She then puts her bra on and moves into the kitchen with a kettle and dances whilst putting it on to heat. The next shot clearly displays the gap between the apartments which leads into the street to show the audience that the character has a view though to the street.
There is no element of danger in the scene which is strange for a thriller, this shows that our group doesn't need to have anything overwhelming or fast-paced in our opening. Instead we could simply set the scene.
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