The second example happens in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds. Melanie Daniels has stepped out of the school building and sits down close to the playground to smoke a cigarette. Unnoticed by her, several birds begin to gather on the climbing bars located on the school playground.
The playground is framed in full shot, while a progressive succession of closer shots of the girl are spliced within that master shot. The scene is played completely in silence, and runs roughly like this:
Full shot. A lone bird arrives and lands on the climbing bars.
Full shot of Melanie Daniels smoking.
Full shot. Several birds on the bars. Another crow arrives.
Medium shot of the girl. She smokes.
Full shot. New birds arrive.
Close shot of girl. She smokes slowly.
Full shot. More birds join the crows already gathered in on the playground.
Close-up of the girl. She stops smoking and turns her head to the left to look off-screen.
A lone bird flying in the sky. The camera framing it in long shot follows its flight from left to right, to show how the crow joins the ranks of birds now fully covering the metal construction on the playground.
Close-up of the girl. She reacts frightened.
DANIEL ARIJON