What If Alfred Hitchcock Had Access To Surround Sound?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is one of my favorite films, and I want to experience it in 7.1 Surround Sound! I want to re-mix it! Universal Studios, please hire me to do it!

Some films, which were originally produced with only stereophonic or monaural channels, have been re-mixed in Dolby Digital Surround Sound and/or Digital Theater Systems Surround Sound for release on DVD. Rear Window needs to be on that list; if ever there was a film that can take advantage of the dramatic opportunities that eight discrete audio-channels offer, then this classic from 1954 is it!

Even with the constraints of one-channel audio, Alfred Hitchcock was an expert with respect to manipulating sight and sound in order to evoke emotion from the audience. In Rear Window, he presents sight-sans-sound in order to stir the viewer’s curiosity into frustration, generating helplessness, and culminating in fright. He then employs the opposite approach, and achieves the same results: he presents sound-sans-sight in order to create curiosity, segueing to frustration, causing vulnerability, and climaxing in terror.

However, as mysterious, as suspenseful, and as scary as Rear Window is with only a mono signal, it would be EXPONENTIALLY more involving if it contained eight signals. As carefully and as artfully as the original audio-track was produced, all of the individual sounds would be significantly more discernible in Surround Sound, because they would not be muddled from being crammed into one transmission-channel.

In this film, it was Alfred Hitchcock’s goal to put the audience into the physical and emotional atmospheres of the lead-character, L.B. Jefferies. This goal was— and is— accomplished visually; the photography is as perfect today as it was in 1954. Although the film’s audio engaged movie-goers then, it does not work as well by today’s standards. Because of the advances in audio-technology in the past fifty-five years, a sound-field can be crafted today that would match the visuals. Remember one of the tenets of George Lucas-filmmaking: sound is fifty-percent of the experience.

During the production of Rear Window, if Alfred Hitchcock had access to Surround Sound, then:

1. We could be more enchanted by the frustrated songwriting-man’s beautiful compositions at the Center Right of the building complex, separate from Miss Torso’s dance-music at the Front Center of the building complex.

2. We could hear more of the conversation between the sculptress and the woman with the bird from Center Left, separate from the frolicking neighborhood-children at Front Left.

3. As Lisa’s shadow looms over Jefferies when she leans to kiss him, we could be even more tantalized by the whisper of the rustling taffeta of her dress and shawl from Paris, coming from the Rear Right channel, distinct from the aural-milieu of Manhattan, New York that emanates from the Center and Front channels.

4. We could be further enticed by the romantic, close-up, face-to-face conversation between Lisa and Jefferies at Front Center, while, from the Rear channels, the summertime magic-hour breeze and the tranquil community white-noise slip in through the open windows of the apartment.

5. From the Rear Right and Rear Left channels, we could shiver in panicked-anticipation of the unseen almost-certain-death that slowly walks up the stairs toward Jefferies’ apartment door!

I have listed just five examples of how Surround Sound may be applied to Rear Window, but EVERY minute of this film contains opportunities to exploit the ambient and dramatic capabilities of multi-channel audio. Because of the excellent acting, the beautiful imagery, and the PG/PG-13 nature of the subject-matter, I am certain that a 7.1 Surround Sound version of this film would be a huge financial-success in theatrical and DVD releases.

I want to experience a 7.1 Surround Sound version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window! I want to re-mix it! Universal Studios, please hire me to do it!

Cinema Studies Exercise
I have submitted, for your consideration, one small part of my proposal to create an enveloping sound-field for this Alfred Hitchcock classic. Please print this diagram, and have it at the ready as you watch Rear Window. Compare and contrast the film’s audio with the channel-positioning and channel-assignment of my diagram. Then, imagine how much more emotionally-intense this experience would be in 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and/or DTS Surround Sound!