Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock started his illustrious career Britain. In 1939, Hitchcock left England for Hollywood. The first film he made there, Rebecca (1940), won an Academy Award for best picture. Some of his most famous films include Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). His works became renowned for their depictions of violence, although many of his plots merely function as decoys meant to serve as a tool for understanding complex psychological characters. His cameo appearances in his own films, as well as his interviews, film trailers and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962-65), made him a cultural icon.Some of his work has been compiled into collections.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed the "Master of Suspense" for employing a kind of psychological suspense in his films, producing a distinct viewer experience.

Here is a list of Film titles, the production company and a few notes.

Psycho opening analysis

Analysis of ‘Psycho’

Alfred Hitchcock’s powerful psychological thriller, Psycho (1960) is known as being the “mother” of all modern horror suspense films. This was Hitchcock’s first real horror film, however since this film he has been labeled as horror film maker.

Psycho broke all film conventions by showing the lead female having an affair, showing scenes in her under garments and killing off its ‘major’ star a third of the way into the film. Psycho is a very layered and complex film, so multiple viewings were needed to understand some of the films subtlety. There was symbolic imagery involving stuffed birds which foreshadowed the mans fascination with death.

The film begins by showing the film companies logo “A Paramount Release”. Instantly we can hear fast dissident music playing which creates the tension. Alfred Hitchcock, the famous film director, is then presented on the screen, making the audience more excited to watch the film. Next, the name of the film ‘PSYCHO’ is presented in bold, white capital letters, which then proceeds to move and split, this is done to create tension again and create an eerie atmosphere for the rest of the titles. This links with the conventions of a thriller as it is creating tension for the audience and making them feel on edge before the film has even started, this increases their interest of continuing to watch the film as they want to see what is to come later in the film. The bold white titles stand out against the black background, this is done to catch the audiences eye and get them to focus on the credits. 

Famous actors and important members of the film are shown next on the titles. The titles constantly show grey bars shooting across the screen, which creates the feeling of being locked away foreshadowing what violence may be expected in the rest of the film.

After the credits there is a high-angled establishing shot, setting the scene, allowing the audience to have a better understanding of where the film is set. The name of the place “Phoenix” and is then displayed on the screen. This is symbolic as it is the first reference to birds “Phoenix”, which shows a subtle hint of what is to come later on in the play. 

They use cross-fading to zoom in the focus and change the distance of the shots. By having the camera enter the action through the window, makes the audience feel like the voyer, giving the audience the feeling of spying on the characters, which fits in with the sense that the lead female protagonist is having a secret affair. The next shot is focused on the woman lying down, whilst the man is stood above her, showing he has more power than her and importance. This is done to keep the audience curious as to what his identity may be. The idea of secrecy links in with the thriller conventions as their is always secrecy as to what is going on in a thriller film, whether it be who the villain is or what events are to occur later. Using a medium shot, they show the characters making love, portraying a bad and awkward situation to the audience. In 1960’s America, if you weren’t married it was thought to be wrong to interact in such ways. The camera then proceeds to pan around the characters, showing that the woman isn’t innocent. A medium high shot is then used to show the woman getting dressed. Harsh music comes back in and makes us feel like something is wrong and not quite right. The man then begins to raise his voice and shows the audience his anger.

Se7en Opening Analysis

Se7en opening scene analysis.

The movie “Se7en” was originally released to North America theatres on September 22, 1995. The Director of Se7en David Fincher made a nail bighting dark masterpiece of psychological terror. The basic story of the film is 2 routine cops investigating the murders of a serial killer whom is driven by is obsession of the seven deadly sins and kills the victims in the style that they are perceived as being guilty for. For example a gluttonous man is force-fed to death. Morgan freeman cast as the experienced detective along side his new younger less experienced sidekick played by brad Pitt are both perfectly cast to play these roles moreover the characters they play are typical of the thriller genre. It is set in New York in an urban metropolis. ‘Se7en’ is a traditional thriller and riveting detective story, however there is no other thrillers that are similar and has its own style.

 

In the opening there is a shot of a man shaving off the skin on his fingertips. This isn’t a usual thing to do and instantly provokes the audience to think that there is something strange about the person doing so and wonder why and how it may lead to the further storyline about to be revealed.

This is another shot from the opening; it appears to be someone developing photos. The photo which is being developed appears to be a man dead. This instantly enphasises the fact that it is thriller. It also enphasises the fact that the person doing this come across as a psycho.

In this shot it is an image of someone pulling a needle out there finger. The opening scene doesn’t reveal much about the person who is being portrayed as a psycho and why they’re doing the things they are. However it paints the picture of what kind of a person they are and their mental health. This is a typical convention of a thriller because it wants the audience to start guessing and wondering rather than giving too much information at once to spoil the thrilling side of the film.

In the opening sequence we an establish rather quickly that ‘se7en’ is a thriller due to the music and the images including the credits .It has a creepy eerie feel too it and everything portrayed is quick pace giving it more of a thrilleresque feel to it. The opening integrates with what is happening in the film, however doesn’t give away any of the narrative. And is very quick and flashy making the audience feel confused. Each quick flash imitates death almost like the death flashing before a person’s eye. The typography is very glitch and wonky adding more confusion and disorientation. The use of cinematography shows there are extreme close ups for an unclear view. The shots are also taken from the killers point of view and a lot are taken from above this could show power and control. The use of shadows creates and enigma. Everything in the scene is old fashioned, looks like it could be set in a study or a basement somewhere that could make you feel trapped and surrounded. The whole opening has an eerie feel. The none diegetic music sounds scratchy, which is also used as a sound, affect of a scratching pen. The tempo is fast pace to build tension of the start of the film. 

codes and conventions of a thriller.

Codes and conventions of a thriller.

Some of the conventions of a thriller may be the low lighting in a scene, shadows, changes in camera angles and quick cuts. Quick shots and editing is used frequently in thrillers to accentuate the feelings of suspense and tension. They are often during important and significant scenes. It is sometimes used to create disorientation. Certain thrillers may also use flashbacks to contribute to a sense of tie and space disorientation in a thriller to confuse the audience; it helps to give an insight into the characters past. For example in the thriller ‘Memento’ by Christopher Nolan that is a perfect example of certain codes and conventions used in a thriller.

The characters of a thriller often include of a brave male who looks to restore the equilibrium. Then an antagonist who has some kind of hidden identity or secret which will slowly reveal as the film progresses. Often the antagonist is trying to get revenge from past events, or sometimes have physiological issues. There are often a lot of quick shots on the antagonist and often will be cut to hide the identity of them. Often the shots are filmed either from the back of shots of the antagonist or even just a shadow still hiding the identity. Where as on the protagonist there may be a lot of extreme close ups to capture the emotion on their face.  There may be a lot of jump cuts as there will be little things the audience wouldn’t be aware of but are essential for the thriller films to make sense. This is also another convention used to add suspense.

The music in a thriller plays a big part of building up the tension, especially psychological thrillers more than one character plays on the mind of others, using mind games, which results to demolishing other characters mental state. in a thriller is essential to understand the mood of the character or to add suspense so a significant part of the film. It also adds tension when needed, and would most likely start slow at parts and then builds up to make shots more dramatic for the audience.

Often the theme of a thriller is to make the audience believe it could happen to them, it isn’t too far-fetched and unbelievable. Of course this isn’t always the case.

Preliminary task

Preliminary Task:

Our preliminary task followed the basic guideline of the 180 degree rule. This states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same right to left relationship with each other. This means if the camera is filming over the left shoulder of one character it should then move to be filmed over the right shoulder of the other character, this is to make the scene look ordinary.

We found it rather difficult to achieve a good standard match on action shot as the timing had to be precise otherwise the motion would be distorted. Match on action is to connect two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in shot A which is then begun in shot B. For example shot A may be a person opening a door and then shot B the character walking through the door.

Our match shot showed a close up of a character opening the door. The close up showed only her hand on the handle, proceeding to open the door. This then cut to a long shot of the character entering through the door.

opening the door

Entering through the door

Before filming, my group and i created a rough story board and a script to accommodate the idea of the short film. We had many different ideas but all settled on a simple piece which required the basic shots needed in the piece. Filming our preliminary took us around 30 minutes, however when watching the footage back we realised our 180 degree angles weren't completely in sync with each other. We decided to take the next media lesson to re-film and we managed to get enough good footage to create our final preliminary piece.

We believe that through this task we developed our editing skills and our understanding of how to use the equipment effectively. This task really helped us to gage an idea of what camera angles and techniques our thriller will need to be completely successful.