I really enjoyed watching Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. The sets filmed really well. I was very impressed by the realistic look of the studio set, pretending to be outdoors. For the time in which it was filmed they did it very well.
I suspected when watching it that the skyline backdrops where painted and hung. The mixture of false walls, fake brick work with detailed paint affects added worked really well with the green props really bringing the outdoors indoors and creating a believable 'outdoor' space.
The use of real animals also helps to create a realistic atmosphere- birds walk on the rooftops and a dog is let out by its owner several times to dig up real earth in the flowerbeds.
This also allows the environment to be completely controlled. Weather wise they can control it and make rain, wind whatever, or for the purpose of this story keep the place for the most part of the film dry.
The big wide windows and doors in all the apartments are deliberate for they help to tell the story.
It enables the lead character to watch/spy on the people in the courtyard apartment block with ease.
The story incorporates a heatwave, evidenced by the thermometer shot in the beginning of the film. This allows the windows and doors of the apartments to be wide open and the main character full visual access to their lives. The absent of net curtains or blinds seemed to do the same thing.
However the use of blinds is part of the story. At the beginning a newly wed couple pull the blinds down preventing the main character from viewing their business and more importantly the murder he suspects one of his neighbours has committed. Hitchcock uses blinds to create mystery and curiosity by hiding some of the action coming from the suspects flat.
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