Below is a comprehensive list celebrating one of the key cinematographic techniques: the through-the-window (TTW) shot! This list is comprised of major films that contain sequences in which the camera passes through a window, mirror, or other glassy/transparent substance that would be physically impossible to achieve without some kind of deliberate rigging, editing, or visual effects techniques. In parentheses are the number of times a TTW shot occurs in each title. A brief description provides what the camera passes through in cases where the camera does not pass specifically through a window, but some other material in which the effect is similar enough to count.
While through-the-window-like shots have been featured in commercials and other forms of smaller-scale media since approximately the early 1980s, the trend became more prevalent – and finally saw the light of day in feature films – in the early to mid 1990s, coinciding with the rise of digital effects in film production. New tools such as computer graphics, high-resolution film scanners and recorders, and digital compositing would increasingly free the camera from its prior physical constraints as these techniques were refined. By the 2000s, the implementation of TTW shots had reached a level of maturity to be integrated into a film’s overall cinematographic palette seamlessly, as in films such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). In the 2010s and beyond, TTW shots are commonplace and have perhaps lost their capacity to dazzle audiences like they once did. This list primarily focuses on the technique’s evolution, aiming to highlight the first films to pioneer it or normalize it into mainstream cinema.
Note: This is a work in progress and will be updated as I come across/remember more titles.
- 1991: Beauty and the Beast (2x)
- 1995: Toy Story (2x)
- 1996: The Frighteners (1x)
- 1996: Space Jam (1x through ceiling skylight)
- 1997: Contact (2x window, 2x through eye, 1x through mirror)
- 1997: Titanic (1x through TV monitor)
- 1998: Dark City (1x through eye)
- 1998: Run Lola Run (1x)
- 1999: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1x through eye)
- 1999: The Matrix (1x through human pod, 2x through monitor)
- 2000: What Lies Beneath (1x under floor, 1x through car window)
- 2002: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1x)
- 2003: The Cat in the Hat (1x through door viewer, 1x through window)
- 2003: Bad Boys II (~11x in one scene)
- 2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (7x window, 2x mirror, 1x eye)
- 2004: Spider-Man 2 (1x through sunglasses)
- 2004: 50 First Dates (1x through aquarium glass)
- 2004: The Polar Express (5x window, 1x book page)
- 2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (1x)
- 2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (1x)
- 2010: The Social Network (1x)
- 2011: Final Destination 5 (1x through eye)
- 2012: Man on a Ledge (1x)
