Switchable windows
A switchable window changing from clear to private.
What is in this film
The detail worth watching for is where the film stops. In a city apartment and again in a room with a pendant light, only the middle band of the window is switchable: the panes above and below it are ordinary glass and stay clear. Privacy is wanted at eye level and nowhere else, so that is the only part treated.
One shot catches the switch happening. The change runs across the pane rather than snapping, and as it clears the boardwalk and the beach outside come back into view.
Two shots are taken from outside, from where a neighbour would stand. A bay window on a clapboard house and a glazed porch on a stucco one, both in the switched state, which is the view the privacy is for.
Everywhere else the windows are simply clear: a dining bay beside a sliding door, a room looking onto the street. That is the resting state this page argues for — clear with no power drawn, private for the hour it is wanted.