blog 3 'North by Northwest'

Crop duster scene in 'North by Northwest'

In the film 'North by Northwest' we come across a scene that can bring a viewer to the edge of their sit, this scene is the crop duster scene. This is where we see Roger Thornhill try to escape death from a crop duster. Throughout the scene we see a wide range of camera movements, different types of sound, a variety of mise on scene and a couple of editing techniques. All of these combined help make the scene compelling.

Upon first look at the crop duster scene, it may not look like that there isn't much editing throughout the scene, however when analysing the scene that the editing has been done so that a viewer can feel differently about the on going scenes. Such as, at the beginning of the crop duster scene the scenes are long, this is because of the fact that there is not much action going on in the scene we only see roger Thornhill waiting for the so called George kaplin. Further on though we see how the scene starts to change and the scenes start cutting faster, this is because of the action that is starting to happen. We see roger talk to a person who is waiting for a bus, although roger believes that this person is George kaplin. After this this man says how the crop duster isn't dusting the crops, as soon as this scene ends we see the crop duster come into action as it tries to kill roger Thornhill.

As well as this the mise on scene of the scene that Hitchcock used complimented the scene in the way that the scene is based in the desert, and the only objects used in the scene are only really cars, the way that have been used creates suspense, we see a number of cars pass by Roger Thornhill, as the view hangs in suspense to see if George kaplin gets out of any of the passing cars. At one point we do see a car stop with a man get out, roger Thornhill along with audience is lead on to believe that this man is George kaplin due to the fact that roger was took that George kaplin we meet him in the desert. In this sense we see that the cars have been used to keep the viewer on the edge of their sits. 

The camera work in the scene can establish a lot about Roger Thornhill, for example the way in which some of the POV shots show how Roger Thornhill is on his own, but more 

then this, that he is vulnerable. Hitchcock achieved this establishment by using a range of wide camera shot, this shots are used so that the audience can receive a lot of information from the shot however when we come to the wide angle shots in North By Northwest we only see a desert with a crop field and a road going through the middle of it. Another bit of camera work used is the tracking shot of Roger Thornhill running towards of the camera while running away from the crop duster, by this shot being used it helps establish the nearing threat of death that is closing in on Roger, but not only this. By Roger being so close to the camera it lets us become aware of his reaction towards to near threat of death. 

Another part of the scene I feel has been put together very well is the sound. We see that Hitchcock put dietetic sound in the first part of the scene and non-dietetic sound in the second part of the scene. We also see essences of parallel sound and contrapuntal sound.