Creating Homage: PERSON OF INTEREST

More than many network shows, Person of Interest works in shots heavily referencing a scene / character / movie they’re riffing on.

Below are two extended Hitchcock homages (Hitch’s themes mesh well with Person of Interest, and the writer’s room is clearly a fan) side-by-side with their influences.

Rear Window

1.11 “Super” is an entire episode dedicated to one of Hitchcock’s finest. The story involves a young woman with a stalker, a suspicious portly man with glasses, and something suspicious in a rose garden.

Recently-injured John (Jim Caviezel) sees all this through his window, long lens in hand, and “Super” stages a dozen or so shots to directly reference some of Rear Window’s famous imagery.

My favourite ‘bit’ is how they updated Jeff’s (Jimmy Stewart) view of his neighbours’ windows with John’s ability to use webcams in neatly arranged windows.

The tableau is complete with a hot dancer / yoga practitioner, Ms / Mr Lonelyheart, and several domestic reunions and disputes which may not be what they seem.

North by Northwest

In Episode 2.21 “Zero Day,” John helps Thornhill (sharing a name with Cary Grant’s North by Northwest character) avoid a drone fly-by reminiscent of a crop-duster.

Where “Super” follows a story similar to Rear Window and puts shots throughout, “Zero Day” goes more for one big setpiece reference to North by Northwest’s iconic, several-minute chase scene.

It’s fun to see where each has strengths and weaknesses; obviously a feature film has more budget and time for a setpiece like this, but in 2013 even TV greenscreen and CGI clearly exceed 1959’s capabilities.

Camera, lighting, and edit tricks are always in vogue, thought. In “Zero Day” a stuntie clearly rides the motorbike, and the foot-on-kickstand closeup lets them swap Caviezel in. In North by Northwest long lenses make the cropduster seem super close to camera, the better to make it seem close to Grant.

Though Person of Interest is blocked and edited quite differently, it has plenty of similar-enough shots to make quite clear what it’s doing.

A season later, Episode 3.13 “4C” shows the film itself — where else? — on a plane!

Takeaways

The scenes work on their own and within the plot, but putting an homage to classic films is more than a bit of fun; it draws on lore and connects to age-old themes.

Hitchcock’s films are a perfect fit for Person of Interest’s investment in the ideas of ‘The Wrong Man’, the horror of ubiquitous surveillance, and corrupt humans redeeming themselves while seeming paragons of virtue are revealed to be nasty all the way down.

If you’re going to bake those concepts into your writing, why not bring them into your visuals and setpieces!