Cinematic techniques
- Birds in films represent evil and danger
- He liked to use the dolly zoom
- Camera zooms out and dolly's in at the same time
- occurs in vertigo to give perspective
- Whirling camera around when a character feels lost
(C.Esper, (2014), Taste of Cinema, "The 10 most ingenious techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock", tasteofcinema.com, (28/5/16)
- Hitchcock once stated "Looking through camera has nothing to do with it at all. Its the rectangle where the composition arrives. I would say if I looked through a camera having asked for a certain composition of a given set up, it would be as though I distrusted the camera man and he was a liar and I'm testing him."
- The directors of photography always walked very closely with him but he ultimately trusted them.
- Hitchcock said what he wanted and would draw rough sketches
- he also had knowledge of how a camera and lighting worked
- Hitchcock took great pleasure in having "control over the light"
- It is not the lighting prescisely that makes the techniques unique and important, rather its the darkness that the lighting casts
- "Hitchcock does wonderful things with light, or rather lack of it."
- Often darkness will be used to set a mood
- Sunlight epitomises light and open ness
- He uses edge lighting to throw details into sharp relief
- "venetian blinds casting shadows over a person making them look as if they are in jail."
- An early example of Hitchcock's technical virtuosity was his creation of subjective sound
Reoccuring themes in Hitchcock films
- Innocent who are falsely accused
- ordinary people in extraordinary peril
- people who are not what they seem to be
- trust and betrayl
- hair breadth escapes
- perfect crimes
- double crosses
- As well as this just about every Hitchcock films have a central couple who are lovers who turn out to be either very bad or very good for each other
- There is usually a gorgeous blond woman who rescues a great guy from a tough spot; sometimes it's a bad guy with an idea for the perfect crime
- Often there is also a bumbling police man who is after the wrong man
- there are moments of macabre humour and lots of playful sexual tension and teasing --> Along with darker explorations of the unsettling relationship between violence and sex
- Hitchcock knew that the suspense is generated when the audience can see danger his characters cannot see, or can only suspect.
- he creased the "Hitchcock zoom"
- The foreground remains steady while the background swells closer producing the sensation that the world is closing in on a helpless subject
(Laurice Boedar, May 26 (2016), About entertainment, "Alfred Hitchcock: master of suspense", classicfilm.about.com, (27/5/16)
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