The movie industry was crucially impacted by a movie director named Alfred Hitchcock. When Hitchcock was young he was poor and was made fun of by his own mother. Hitchcock also described himself as an overweight and lonely child. His father died when he was 14 and had to drop out of school to support his needy family. He worked in engineering before he started working in films in 1920 in London.
I am going to focus on the cinematic element of sound because I think it is a very important element in film when it comes to producing the whole effect of a scene. In the film High Noon, Will Kane goes to see Martin Howe at is home. Will was the marshal of the town, but as of today he no longer is. Yet, he is preparing to face a criminal he arrested that just got out of jail recently.
Hitchcock was born in England 1889 and moved to the United States to join the Hollywood film industry in 1940. He created over fifty films throughout his career citing ? my love for cinema is stronger than morality (Truffaut & Hitchcock, 1983, p. 20). Hitchcock often had reoccurring devices throughout his films like the famous MacGuffin that would drive the plot. ? Hitchcock discovered just the right mixture of humor, suspense, and revelation when using the MacGuffin?
Hitchcock Etudes were composed by Nicole Lizée in 2014, and released on her album Bookburners. With a combination of disjointed soundtrack music and dialog with similarly altered video segments, Lizée reconstructs a whole new experience of the Hitchcock films. Watching Lizée’s composition I really appreciated and enjoyed the way she deconstructed and recreated the works. As a Hitchcock fan I really enjoyed the new sense of terror and romance she brought to the piece. I believe this piece qualifies as fringe because of Lizée’s unique method of composition.
Alfred Hitchcock is remembered as the "master of suspense", most notably in one of his cinemas, "Psycho". Hitchcock used a variety of sensory details, to shock moreover frighten his audience. Three sensory details that he used, is when we notice a cop following Marion, we see that Norman is stalking Marion, and when a shadowy figure shows up while Marion is taking a shower. The first sensory detail that creates suspense is when we see the cop following Marion. We believe that the cop recognizes something is up furthermore, is going to assert Marion for stealing the money.
Both of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, North by Northwest and Rear Window, were great movies with lots of suspense. The suspense, however, would not have been created without the entire mise-en-scene of the movies. Hitchcock was a master at using the elements of lighting, sound, and cinematography to heighten the suspense in his movies. The first key element of mise-en-scene that played a significant role in both movies was lighting.
These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale
Alfred Hitchcock used various symbols throughout the film Psycho to allow the viewer to get an insight of what is happening in the film. Symbolism is an exceptional way to entice the viewer as it creates suspense and makes it better to understand the film. Alfred uses paintings as a symbol, which can be seen in multiple scenes, to symbolize a certain character in the film to the painting and foreshadow events in the film. This allows the viewer to get more detail on the character’s personality and what is about to happen.
A good example of this would be when Hannay and Pamela entered the hotel and talked to the hotel owners. Hitchcock zoomed into the owners face where no dialogue was needed to show that the characters were suspicious at first. Now, in order to show Hannay and Pamela’s marriage link through the film’s imagery, Hitchcock used a variety of imagery to suggest a romantic relationship link. The handcuffs could be seen as a symbol of wedding rings. Also the scene where they got into the car with the mistaken police, can be seen as the moment where they are off to their own honeymoon, which they later do go to a hotel and appear to be a recent married couple.
During the final scene when the killer, Mr. Thorwald, finds his way into the hero, L.B Jeffries room, the speed of the film is slowed down to create an engaging feeling of suspense. Pace and tempo is the speed of the movie and how quickly everything is happening. This is a very important aspect of movies and Hitchcock has mastered this technique, allowing him to create suspense for his audience. Hitchcock slows down the pace of the movie, making the viewers anticipate what is about to come and leave them with the feeling of suspense. This scene starts off with Mr. Thorwald slowly entering Jeffries room.
However, interdependence between image and sound was one of the reasons for successful interdependent creative partnership between the two people (Allen, Ishii-Gonzalès 150). This previous interdependence and recognition of each other’s “views” had been replaced by Hitchcock to formal “requirements” (Sinyard). Without the commitment to talk, or at least collaborate like it had been done previously, Herrmann and Hitchcock lost not only their shared vision, interdependence and trustful relationship, but also the established role framework, moving from
Tim Burton utilizes the techniques shots and camera movements, lighting, and music and sound in order to control the mood of the film and even the audience emotions. To illustrate, Tim Burton uses shots and framing to control the mood of a film. An excellent example of this is in Edward Scissorhands. When the lady is describing the mansion to her
Throughout his life in making films, Tim Burton has shown his unique talent and vision. He proceeds taking advantage of the cinematic techniques; lighting, sound, and camera movements creating a certain mood/tone. These three techniques are used numerous of times for the duration of each film. Although, many various emotions are constructed, there are feelings that anyone may connect to. Tim Burton is a successful filmmaker and has inspired many with the use of his cinematic techniques.
The film Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock employs various clever camera movements and sequences which seem to portray the main character’s state of mind. Right from the opening sequence the cinematography in this film had me intrigued. The viewer is show the red filtered eyes of a mysterious woman which zooms into a black void where animated colored rings spin and zoom to a menacing and mysterious sounding score, all of this provides the foundation for a film about illusions. The film also does a good job at using an unreliable main character who is oblivious to the trickery going on around him. The character of Scottie is flawed through his naivety and his investment in romance.
The Birds Critique Question to consider: How successful was is the director at creating suspense? The first film that I viewed for this class is The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. The opening scene of the birds squawking and flying gave me some insight of what this film’s feeling might be which is dark and ominous. The chirps in the background creates the sounds of what may happen throughout the film.
