Mind the audience
- Nothing in the scene is more important than how it is going to effect the viewer
- The content must engage them and reel them in
Emotion
- Emotion is the ultimate goal in each scene
- This comes directly from the actors eyes
- the intensity depend on how close or faraway the camera is from the actors eyes
- A sudden cut from wide to close up can give the audiences a surprise
The Camera
- It should take on human qualities as if it is apart of the action
- It should roam around the room playfully looking for something suspicious
Dialogue means nothing
- One character must be preoccupied with something during a dialogue scene. Their eyes can then be distracted while the other person doesn't notice
POV editing
- Close up of actor
- cut to what they are seeing
- cut back to the actor to show response visually
- This explains emotions without using dialogue
Montage editing gives you control
- A careful selection of shots, often of hands, faces in close up or trivial objects to tell a story
- hide parts of the action so the minds of the audience are engaged
- Any time something important happens show it in close ups
Keep the story simple
- Use a simplistic linear story that audiences can easily follow
- Everything in your screen play must be streamlined to allow for maximum dramatic impact
Characters must break cliche
- Make your characters the opposite of what one expects in a film, if there is a dumb blond, make her hyper intelligent, if there is a cuban man, make him french
Use humour to add tension
- Pretend you are playing a practical joke on the main character in the movie
- give him the most ironic situations to deal with the worst possible thing that could go wrong
Two things happening at once
- These two things should be contrasting and causing the audience to follow the momentum of one and be distracted by the other
- The other should usually be a humorous distraction
Suspense is information
- Showing the audience what the characters don't see (something that is usually about to harm the characters)
- constant reminders of this looming danger will cause suspense
Surprise and twist
- Once you've built your audience into gripping suspense the story must never end the way they expect it to
- lead them in one direction then pull the rug out from beneath them
Use a Mcguffin
Monday, 18 July 2016
Hitchcock classic techniques to possibly consider form my film
Keeping a big secret
- Get your audience involved in a secret very early in a film that only one character knows. If the secret gets out all is lost and the story will end.
- Tease the audience so the secret almost gets out but then doesn't.
- Other characters are hopelessly unaware but just might stumble upon the secret by accident.
How I can incorporate this into my film
- So Libby's big secret is that she suffers from completely psychotic delusions.
- Perhaps the film can open with Libby speaking to a psychologist about her grand delusions and him diagnosing her with delusional disorder.
- Libbys doctor could give her an envelope of information about it and libby could stash it in her bag and leave it on the cafe table when she goes and see's her friends
- Nicole could see it sticking out of her bag while libby is in her apartment and have the bag whisked away at the last second, once Libby is dead Nicole could open the envelope and read it.
Tie your story to trivial objects and keep it simple
- The focus of the narrative should be small and simple and trivial
- Your scene could be about epic lovers fighting but they could be fighting about car keys or the remote
- Tying your epic story to trivial objects allows the camera to do the dramatic work and makes the story more easy to follow
- No one cares about lovers fighting but when a missing USB turns up in a meatloaf, thats visual story telling
How I can incorporate this into the film
- Well Libby is a psychotic character so possibly there could be little things in her house that infer that things are not a ok upstairs.
- E.g Libby has many many posters of Nicole and could even have photos of other leading hollywood stars at the time, maybe black out curtains to keep out the flashes from the imaginary paparazzi, letters from various psychologists opened saying the same thing about Libby's delusional behaviour
- Maybe the camera could pan around the room at the different images of Hollywood women perhaps then to the letters about her psycho behaviour, then to the black out curtains. This tells a visual story through trivial things: Here is Libby, a women who seems to love hollywood celebrity film stars, no she more than loves them, she thinks she is one, she has been psychoanalysed many times, she has even gone to the extent to get black out curtains to block out the imaginary paparazzi.
Eyes hands and feet
- There is lots of simplicity in the eyes hands and feet and Hitchcock likes to focus on all these aspects
- The eyes glance at something
- The feet show confidence in a surrounding or lack of confidence
- The hands show an important object
How I can incorporate this in my film
- My film could incorporate this in many aspects
- From eyes glancing to psychologist letters to fine jewellery
- Hands could catch letters, jewellery, film posters
- feet could show Libby's great confidence as she has a grand delusion that she is a film star.
Stream of conscious
- Stream of conscious is a way to get into a characters mind
- Let the audience hear the characters thoughts in real time while action is happening
How I could use this in the film
- There are many chances in this film for Libby to internalise her thoughts through a stream of conscious
- She could be looking at Nicole's life and talking about how she can't wait to jump into it
- She could be taking Nicole's jewellery thinking it is her own
- Going to her empty window and thinking that there are paparazzi all through it
Dramatic tension
- Long shots are very good at holding tension and Hitchcock is the master of suspense so this is a very important step.
- Allowing the set space to become a tension device is also helpful the way the actors stand and their blocking is important
- Adjusting a camera distance can help manipulate a shot
How I could use this for my film
- The space between Nicole and Libby can be very important. Perhaps Libby could stand far too close to Nicole and make things more tense and far more awkward than it needs to be.
- Maybe close ups of Libby in moments when she is feeling entitled to Nicole's wealth could be dramatic. This is something I will have to explore
Massive credit to no film schools website here is the link
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/10/5-hitchcock-techniques-you-want-be-using-your-films
- Get your audience involved in a secret very early in a film that only one character knows. If the secret gets out all is lost and the story will end.
- Tease the audience so the secret almost gets out but then doesn't.
- Other characters are hopelessly unaware but just might stumble upon the secret by accident.
How I can incorporate this into my film
- So Libby's big secret is that she suffers from completely psychotic delusions.
- Perhaps the film can open with Libby speaking to a psychologist about her grand delusions and him diagnosing her with delusional disorder.
- Libbys doctor could give her an envelope of information about it and libby could stash it in her bag and leave it on the cafe table when she goes and see's her friends
- Nicole could see it sticking out of her bag while libby is in her apartment and have the bag whisked away at the last second, once Libby is dead Nicole could open the envelope and read it.
Tie your story to trivial objects and keep it simple
- The focus of the narrative should be small and simple and trivial
- Your scene could be about epic lovers fighting but they could be fighting about car keys or the remote
- Tying your epic story to trivial objects allows the camera to do the dramatic work and makes the story more easy to follow
- No one cares about lovers fighting but when a missing USB turns up in a meatloaf, thats visual story telling
How I can incorporate this into the film
- Well Libby is a psychotic character so possibly there could be little things in her house that infer that things are not a ok upstairs.
- E.g Libby has many many posters of Nicole and could even have photos of other leading hollywood stars at the time, maybe black out curtains to keep out the flashes from the imaginary paparazzi, letters from various psychologists opened saying the same thing about Libby's delusional behaviour
- Maybe the camera could pan around the room at the different images of Hollywood women perhaps then to the letters about her psycho behaviour, then to the black out curtains. This tells a visual story through trivial things: Here is Libby, a women who seems to love hollywood celebrity film stars, no she more than loves them, she thinks she is one, she has been psychoanalysed many times, she has even gone to the extent to get black out curtains to block out the imaginary paparazzi.
Eyes hands and feet
- There is lots of simplicity in the eyes hands and feet and Hitchcock likes to focus on all these aspects
- The eyes glance at something
- The feet show confidence in a surrounding or lack of confidence
- The hands show an important object
How I can incorporate this in my film
- My film could incorporate this in many aspects
- From eyes glancing to psychologist letters to fine jewellery
- Hands could catch letters, jewellery, film posters
- feet could show Libby's great confidence as she has a grand delusion that she is a film star.
Stream of conscious
- Stream of conscious is a way to get into a characters mind
- Let the audience hear the characters thoughts in real time while action is happening
How I could use this in the film
- There are many chances in this film for Libby to internalise her thoughts through a stream of conscious
- She could be looking at Nicole's life and talking about how she can't wait to jump into it
- She could be taking Nicole's jewellery thinking it is her own
- Going to her empty window and thinking that there are paparazzi all through it
Dramatic tension
- Long shots are very good at holding tension and Hitchcock is the master of suspense so this is a very important step.
- Allowing the set space to become a tension device is also helpful the way the actors stand and their blocking is important
- Adjusting a camera distance can help manipulate a shot
How I could use this for my film
- The space between Nicole and Libby can be very important. Perhaps Libby could stand far too close to Nicole and make things more tense and far more awkward than it needs to be.
- Maybe close ups of Libby in moments when she is feeling entitled to Nicole's wealth could be dramatic. This is something I will have to explore
Massive credit to no film schools website here is the link
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/10/5-hitchcock-techniques-you-want-be-using-your-films
Saturday, 16 July 2016
Short film title
I think cause this film is based off Libby's grand delusion that she is a film star I should call this film "Grand delusions"
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Coming up with a plot III
The film opens with Libby who is sitting at a cafe
- Libbys friends are admiring her new jewellery and ask what man bought her those
- Libby smiles and says girls you know I bought these myself as I am a movie star and a highly paid one too
- Her friends laugh along like it is a huge joke
- Libby continues while they laugh, she says that she truly is a movie star and she has many adoring fans and all her time is occupied with radio interviews and her packed filming schedule.
- Her friends continue to laugh and tell her she is a film star in her own right, she just laughs and bids them farewell hiding her face from imaginary cameras as she leaves the cafe.
Libby buys a ticket to the cinema
- She walks in and takes her seat and her eyes go wide as she sees Nicole on the big screen looking glamorous and beautiful
- As Libby leaves the Cinema she tears down the poster of Nicole's film and stashes it in her bag.
Nicole sits in her house being interviewed by a news man
- He asks her several light hearted questions like what is it like to film if she gets along with the cast what she spends her money on
- He then asks her a serious question: "Have you ever worried about overly enthusiastic fans, stalkers if you will?"
- Nicole says in a more worried voice "No, I love my fans, they are why I am where I am, they would turn on me Im sure of it."
Libby tapes up what appears to be the 20th poster of Nicole onto her wall
- She looks over her window sill and appears to see invisible fans outside her window she yells at them to not take pictures despite the fact that there is no one there.
- She puts a gun in her bag and looks at the picture of Nicole
Nicole is doing a few things around town in large sunglasses and a large hat
- Libby follows Nicole wherever she goes
- Libby eventually stops Nicole from making a very bad purchase to which Nicole responds by being very grateful
- Libby asks if Nicole happens to be "That movie star I saw the other day at the pictures?"
- Nicole says yes and offers her tea back at her apartment
- Libby smiles and makes a comment about two movie stars having fun
The Two friends are drinking coffee and eating cake and Nicole's house
- Nicole is giving libby a tour around the house
- While Nicole is preparing coffee libby sneaks away to Nicoles room to try on her jewels and slip many pieces of expensive jewellery into her hand bag
- Libby has a gun in her bag unknowing to Nicole
- Nicole clearly finds the conversation odd as Libby keeps insisting she is a movie star and Nicole states she has never heard of her
- Libby becomes increasingly agitated eventually pulling out a gun and shooting at Nicole, she misses and hits Nicole's shoulder
- Nicole runs and hides in another room
- Libby follows her shooting everything in sight
- Nicole hides in her wardrobe and see's missing pieces of Jewellery
- Libby emerges wearing all of the jewellery and continues to shoot (and miss) at Nicole
- All the while Libby is very calm telling Lib "Now just stand still all this fuss is causing me to damage my house"
- Nicole is frightened at this
- Libby shoots until there are no bullets left in the gun, after that she proceeds to attack nicole they flight
- They walk onto Nicoles Balcony, libby attempting to choke nicole, nicole restraining.
- In libbys extreme concentration she doesn't realise how close she is to the edge of the balcony and is pushed over the edge
- She falls to her death
- Nicole is asking many questions at the hospital where the doctors explain to her that Libby was insane and living in a state where she believed she truly was a movie star
- Her grand delusion and obsession with Nicole's life killed her.
- Libbys friends are admiring her new jewellery and ask what man bought her those
- Libby smiles and says girls you know I bought these myself as I am a movie star and a highly paid one too
- Her friends laugh along like it is a huge joke
- Libby continues while they laugh, she says that she truly is a movie star and she has many adoring fans and all her time is occupied with radio interviews and her packed filming schedule.
- Her friends continue to laugh and tell her she is a film star in her own right, she just laughs and bids them farewell hiding her face from imaginary cameras as she leaves the cafe.
Libby buys a ticket to the cinema
- She walks in and takes her seat and her eyes go wide as she sees Nicole on the big screen looking glamorous and beautiful
- As Libby leaves the Cinema she tears down the poster of Nicole's film and stashes it in her bag.
Nicole sits in her house being interviewed by a news man
- He asks her several light hearted questions like what is it like to film if she gets along with the cast what she spends her money on
- He then asks her a serious question: "Have you ever worried about overly enthusiastic fans, stalkers if you will?"
- Nicole says in a more worried voice "No, I love my fans, they are why I am where I am, they would turn on me Im sure of it."
Libby tapes up what appears to be the 20th poster of Nicole onto her wall
- She looks over her window sill and appears to see invisible fans outside her window she yells at them to not take pictures despite the fact that there is no one there.
- She puts a gun in her bag and looks at the picture of Nicole
Nicole is doing a few things around town in large sunglasses and a large hat
- Libby follows Nicole wherever she goes
- Libby eventually stops Nicole from making a very bad purchase to which Nicole responds by being very grateful
- Libby asks if Nicole happens to be "That movie star I saw the other day at the pictures?"
- Nicole says yes and offers her tea back at her apartment
- Libby smiles and makes a comment about two movie stars having fun
The Two friends are drinking coffee and eating cake and Nicole's house
- Nicole is giving libby a tour around the house
- While Nicole is preparing coffee libby sneaks away to Nicoles room to try on her jewels and slip many pieces of expensive jewellery into her hand bag
- Libby has a gun in her bag unknowing to Nicole
- Nicole clearly finds the conversation odd as Libby keeps insisting she is a movie star and Nicole states she has never heard of her
- Libby becomes increasingly agitated eventually pulling out a gun and shooting at Nicole, she misses and hits Nicole's shoulder
- Nicole runs and hides in another room
- Libby follows her shooting everything in sight
- Nicole hides in her wardrobe and see's missing pieces of Jewellery
- Libby emerges wearing all of the jewellery and continues to shoot (and miss) at Nicole
- All the while Libby is very calm telling Lib "Now just stand still all this fuss is causing me to damage my house"
- Nicole is frightened at this
- Libby shoots until there are no bullets left in the gun, after that she proceeds to attack nicole they flight
- They walk onto Nicoles Balcony, libby attempting to choke nicole, nicole restraining.
- In libbys extreme concentration she doesn't realise how close she is to the edge of the balcony and is pushed over the edge
- She falls to her death
- Nicole is asking many questions at the hospital where the doctors explain to her that Libby was insane and living in a state where she believed she truly was a movie star
- Her grand delusion and obsession with Nicole's life killed her.
Coming up with a plot II
People in Hitchcock's films who are the hero's or heroines are usually beautiful, successful and generally quite happy. Thats how I want my protagonist to be.
I was also thinking of setting it in the 1920's as it is a time of great glamour and money and my film will be based around the prospect of money and greed.
I was thinking of using Nicole as my main heroine
- She will be highly wealthy, beautiful and a famous movie star., the highest payed star in the country.
- She doesn't have a care in the world and is perfectly comfortable with the world adoring her.
Libby is the villain in the film
- She too is beautiful but very poor getting all her clothes bought by men.
- She is an expert at playing the role of the gold digger
- She is also highly psychologically deranged and has the grand delusion she is a movie star
- When she tells people this they believe she is joking and it is part of her over confident personality they do not realise she has a delusional disorder and is completely serious
- She becomes obsessed with Nicole and her movie star life after seeing her on TV
- She realises the only thing missing from her life to complete her grand delusion is actual fame and fortune
- She gets it in her head that to really embrace and fulfil her delusion she must take Nicole's place because to her surely no one would notice after all Hollywood is so fickle.
I was also thinking of setting it in the 1920's as it is a time of great glamour and money and my film will be based around the prospect of money and greed.
I was thinking of using Nicole as my main heroine
- She will be highly wealthy, beautiful and a famous movie star., the highest payed star in the country.
- She doesn't have a care in the world and is perfectly comfortable with the world adoring her.
Libby is the villain in the film
- She too is beautiful but very poor getting all her clothes bought by men.
- She is an expert at playing the role of the gold digger
- She is also highly psychologically deranged and has the grand delusion she is a movie star
- When she tells people this they believe she is joking and it is part of her over confident personality they do not realise she has a delusional disorder and is completely serious
- She becomes obsessed with Nicole and her movie star life after seeing her on TV
- She realises the only thing missing from her life to complete her grand delusion is actual fame and fortune
- She gets it in her head that to really embrace and fulfil her delusion she must take Nicole's place because to her surely no one would notice after all Hollywood is so fickle.
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Coming up with a plot
So over the holidays I have seen a variety of different Hitchcock films:
Here is my list
Strangers on a train
The birds
Psycho
Vertigo
Rear window
The man who knew too much
Frenzy
suspicion
Ive noticed some similar reoccurring sort of characters and motifs in all the films that i Feel will help me come up with my own story. Hitchcock's storylines are deeply rooted in the Psyche and the psychological nature of the human mind and they are often full of crazies, betrayals and double crosses, there are also clever techniques such as the mcguffin used throughout his films and someone who seems to find the concept of murder funny, the bad can be punished in this film
Strangers on a train
- The film starts off fairly normally with the two characters of Guy and Bruno sitting on the train chatting.
- Guy seems pretty standoffish and stressed out and I suppose Bruno is meant to be charming but he honestly comes across as a little lonely and creepy, maybe he is meant to be interpreted differently by different people.
- The thing is they both seem like normal people
- The theme of murder comes in almost immediately with the mention of Guy's wife: Miriam and Bruno's father
- One of Hitchcock's themes "perfect crimes" comes in here as Bruno mentions the idea of exchanging murder and thus murder is mentioned and on the cards
- the idea of the psycho and the disturbed human psyche comes in with Bruno being revealed to be a bit of a crazy stalking down Miriam at an amusement park and strangling her.
- His crazy nature is also revealed when he becomes almost obsessed with Guy fulfilling his side of the deal, he gets to know Guy's new fiancee Anne and her sister Barbara who looks a lot like Miriam
- There is a guest at the party who finds the idea of murder amusing which is another Hitchcock theme
- A hard moment for Guy is when he is forced to confess what is going on to Anne
- Brunos is furious and thinks Guy has betrayed him and as a result he will try to Frame guy for Miriam's murder, he has really thought everything through. It is why he stole his lighter.
- Guy ends up dead thanks to his crazy ways, it seems the bad are punished
Psycho
- Marion is a character we grow to feel sympathy foreign this film. She really needs money and the man giving his money to the bank is just so into himself and so clearly spoiling his daughter you don't wish anything less for him than to have his money stolen right out from under him.
- You can see through Marion's facial expressions her own conflict at stealing the money and whether she is really going to do it.
- I honestly felt sorry for Norman throughout the whole film as he obviously had some serious issues and was absolutely deranged yet he was such a loveable character in the way he was so kind hearted and friendly and had this small stutter. He was also attractive which is not typical of a psycho killer. This is Hitchcock's genius exploration of the Human Psyche
- Marion is about to come clean and take the money back when she is brutally murdered which makes them mores o effected by her death.
- the fact that Norman is the way he is makes him seem very un guilty.
- He is absolutely insane in the way he becomes the mother and kills everyone in his way of exposing him for what he
- The fact he kept his mothers body and took on part of her personality when she dies just shows how truly psycho he really was.
Vertigo
- Some people regard this as Hitchcock's best film and there is just so much murder, betrayal and perfect crimes throughout this film. It is a Hitchcock master piece.
- The film opens with an exploration of Scotties Psyche, when he visits his ex fiancee and explains how roof top chase resulting in the death of a police man has caused his severe fear of heights and therefore vertigo.
- This therefore explores the consequences of a traumatic experience.
- Midge tells Scottie he may need another psychological shock in order to reverse his Vertigo.
- Scotties acquaintance Gavin expresses that he fears that his wife Madeline may be possessed by Calotta Valdes, who was her great grandmother who committed suicide
- This here explores more of the psyche, the idea of possession from an external source or the own human min, being either disturbed or working to achieve a perfect crime
- The idea of disturbances in the psyche is again brought up when Madeline jumps into the water near the golden gate bridge and is rescued by Scottie and the next day when, despite confessing his love for Madeline, can barely bring himself to run up the church steps to save Madeline from suicide due to his intense fear of heights.
- After "Madelines" death you can clearly see the inner workings of Scotties Psyche begin to unravel as he becomes clinically depressed and frequents the places Madeline visited imagining he is seeing her.
- One day he sees an actual woman who actually looks exactly like Madeline.
- She identifies herself as Judy Barton. And she was pretending to be Madeline. Here Hitchcock's theme of mistaken identities and perfect crimes come into play.
- Judy as part of a plan to murder Madeline was impersonating Gavin's wife.
- The films delves again into the psyche when Scottie doesn't want to accept Judy as Judy, he is in love with Madeline.
- the idea of perfect crimes comes in again when the truth is revealed. That Gavin got Judy to impersonate his wife Madeline after he killed her.
- Scottie and Judy go back the the bell tower and once again the psyche is introduced. The idea that another shock could stop Scotties fear of heights is reintroduced and Judy is pushed off the bell tower most likely healing Scottie of his vertigo.
Rear Window
- Rear window also explores the theme of the Psyche in a very different way. It is not so focused on the psyche of the killer (Lars's) psyche but focuses rather on the psychology of Jeff and the fact that his conscience makes him unable to let a crime happen without having it resolved.
- Lar's crime to murder his wife isn't like Hitchcocks normal perfect crime. I is loud and flawed and wakes Jeff with screaming.
- HItchcock explores Jeffs Psyche in the way he doesn't let this crime go, he calls a place man to keep an eye on it, he gets his girl friend Lisa and his Nurse Stella involved in his investigations, even getting to the point where Stella is arrested.
- In a very Hitchcock manner the good are rewarded and in the end Lars is caught despite the fact Jeff ends up with two broken legs.
The man who knew too much
- There is so much of Hitchcocks plot lines and common character themes in this film it is not even funny
- The family is a wealthy well off family who are content in their own lives as many of Hitchcocks characters are
- They meet a French man: Louis Bernard who isn't who he seems to be, he is a French intelligence agent and he is soon killed off giving a fatal piece of information to Ben, that there will be a statesman who is soon assassinated in London.
- The story gets even more twisted from there, as many of Hitchcocks storylines are complex
- Scottlands Yardsman Buchanan in London tells the familys that Louis was trying to uncover a perfect crime (another Hitchcock classic) an assassination plot. He tells the family to tell him if they notice any suspicious activity
- The Draytons who were Ben's family's friends are then not who they say they are (classic Hitchcock film style) they are double crosses and take Hank, (bens son) to a foreign embassy after knocking Ben out.
- Jo has seen a sketchy looking man that she recognises from her holiday and realises he is the actual assassin Louis was trying to uncover.
- He is heading to the royal albert Hally to assassinate the foreign Prime minister
- Ben regains consciousness and joins Jo to go to the Royal Albert Hall, the assassin is completing his perfect crime by waiting on the crash of the cymbals to hit the Prime minister but he misses.
- Lucy, who is married to Edward Drayton still has Hank.
- Edward Drayton wants to complete his perfect crime by escaping but is hit by Ben and falls to his accidental death.
Here is my list
Strangers on a train
The birds
Psycho
Vertigo
Rear window
The man who knew too much
Frenzy
suspicion
Ive noticed some similar reoccurring sort of characters and motifs in all the films that i Feel will help me come up with my own story. Hitchcock's storylines are deeply rooted in the Psyche and the psychological nature of the human mind and they are often full of crazies, betrayals and double crosses, there are also clever techniques such as the mcguffin used throughout his films and someone who seems to find the concept of murder funny, the bad can be punished in this film
Strangers on a train
- The film starts off fairly normally with the two characters of Guy and Bruno sitting on the train chatting.
- Guy seems pretty standoffish and stressed out and I suppose Bruno is meant to be charming but he honestly comes across as a little lonely and creepy, maybe he is meant to be interpreted differently by different people.
- The thing is they both seem like normal people
- The theme of murder comes in almost immediately with the mention of Guy's wife: Miriam and Bruno's father
- One of Hitchcock's themes "perfect crimes" comes in here as Bruno mentions the idea of exchanging murder and thus murder is mentioned and on the cards
- the idea of the psycho and the disturbed human psyche comes in with Bruno being revealed to be a bit of a crazy stalking down Miriam at an amusement park and strangling her.
- His crazy nature is also revealed when he becomes almost obsessed with Guy fulfilling his side of the deal, he gets to know Guy's new fiancee Anne and her sister Barbara who looks a lot like Miriam
- There is a guest at the party who finds the idea of murder amusing which is another Hitchcock theme
- A hard moment for Guy is when he is forced to confess what is going on to Anne
- Brunos is furious and thinks Guy has betrayed him and as a result he will try to Frame guy for Miriam's murder, he has really thought everything through. It is why he stole his lighter.
- Guy ends up dead thanks to his crazy ways, it seems the bad are punished
Psycho
- Marion is a character we grow to feel sympathy foreign this film. She really needs money and the man giving his money to the bank is just so into himself and so clearly spoiling his daughter you don't wish anything less for him than to have his money stolen right out from under him.
- You can see through Marion's facial expressions her own conflict at stealing the money and whether she is really going to do it.
- I honestly felt sorry for Norman throughout the whole film as he obviously had some serious issues and was absolutely deranged yet he was such a loveable character in the way he was so kind hearted and friendly and had this small stutter. He was also attractive which is not typical of a psycho killer. This is Hitchcock's genius exploration of the Human Psyche
- Marion is about to come clean and take the money back when she is brutally murdered which makes them mores o effected by her death.
- the fact that Norman is the way he is makes him seem very un guilty.
- He is absolutely insane in the way he becomes the mother and kills everyone in his way of exposing him for what he
- The fact he kept his mothers body and took on part of her personality when she dies just shows how truly psycho he really was.
Vertigo
- Some people regard this as Hitchcock's best film and there is just so much murder, betrayal and perfect crimes throughout this film. It is a Hitchcock master piece.
- The film opens with an exploration of Scotties Psyche, when he visits his ex fiancee and explains how roof top chase resulting in the death of a police man has caused his severe fear of heights and therefore vertigo.
- This therefore explores the consequences of a traumatic experience.
- Midge tells Scottie he may need another psychological shock in order to reverse his Vertigo.
- Scotties acquaintance Gavin expresses that he fears that his wife Madeline may be possessed by Calotta Valdes, who was her great grandmother who committed suicide
- This here explores more of the psyche, the idea of possession from an external source or the own human min, being either disturbed or working to achieve a perfect crime
- The idea of disturbances in the psyche is again brought up when Madeline jumps into the water near the golden gate bridge and is rescued by Scottie and the next day when, despite confessing his love for Madeline, can barely bring himself to run up the church steps to save Madeline from suicide due to his intense fear of heights.
- After "Madelines" death you can clearly see the inner workings of Scotties Psyche begin to unravel as he becomes clinically depressed and frequents the places Madeline visited imagining he is seeing her.
- One day he sees an actual woman who actually looks exactly like Madeline.
- She identifies herself as Judy Barton. And she was pretending to be Madeline. Here Hitchcock's theme of mistaken identities and perfect crimes come into play.
- Judy as part of a plan to murder Madeline was impersonating Gavin's wife.
- The films delves again into the psyche when Scottie doesn't want to accept Judy as Judy, he is in love with Madeline.
- the idea of perfect crimes comes in again when the truth is revealed. That Gavin got Judy to impersonate his wife Madeline after he killed her.
- Scottie and Judy go back the the bell tower and once again the psyche is introduced. The idea that another shock could stop Scotties fear of heights is reintroduced and Judy is pushed off the bell tower most likely healing Scottie of his vertigo.
Rear Window
- Rear window also explores the theme of the Psyche in a very different way. It is not so focused on the psyche of the killer (Lars's) psyche but focuses rather on the psychology of Jeff and the fact that his conscience makes him unable to let a crime happen without having it resolved.
- Lar's crime to murder his wife isn't like Hitchcocks normal perfect crime. I is loud and flawed and wakes Jeff with screaming.
- HItchcock explores Jeffs Psyche in the way he doesn't let this crime go, he calls a place man to keep an eye on it, he gets his girl friend Lisa and his Nurse Stella involved in his investigations, even getting to the point where Stella is arrested.
- In a very Hitchcock manner the good are rewarded and in the end Lars is caught despite the fact Jeff ends up with two broken legs.
The man who knew too much
- There is so much of Hitchcocks plot lines and common character themes in this film it is not even funny
- The family is a wealthy well off family who are content in their own lives as many of Hitchcocks characters are
- They meet a French man: Louis Bernard who isn't who he seems to be, he is a French intelligence agent and he is soon killed off giving a fatal piece of information to Ben, that there will be a statesman who is soon assassinated in London.
- The story gets even more twisted from there, as many of Hitchcocks storylines are complex
- Scottlands Yardsman Buchanan in London tells the familys that Louis was trying to uncover a perfect crime (another Hitchcock classic) an assassination plot. He tells the family to tell him if they notice any suspicious activity
- The Draytons who were Ben's family's friends are then not who they say they are (classic Hitchcock film style) they are double crosses and take Hank, (bens son) to a foreign embassy after knocking Ben out.
- Jo has seen a sketchy looking man that she recognises from her holiday and realises he is the actual assassin Louis was trying to uncover.
- He is heading to the royal albert Hally to assassinate the foreign Prime minister
- Ben regains consciousness and joins Jo to go to the Royal Albert Hall, the assassin is completing his perfect crime by waiting on the crash of the cymbals to hit the Prime minister but he misses.
- Lucy, who is married to Edward Drayton still has Hank.
- Edward Drayton wants to complete his perfect crime by escaping but is hit by Ben and falls to his accidental death.
Coming up with a plot
So over the holidays I have seen a variety of different Hitchcock films:
Here is my list
Strangers on a train
The birds
Psycho
Vertigo
Rear window
The man who knew too much
Frenzy
suspicion
Ive noticed some similar reoccurring sort of characters and motifs in all the films that i Feel will help me come up with my own story. Hitchcock's storylines are deeply rooted in the Psyche and the psychological nature of the human mind and they are often full of crazies, betrayals and double crosses, there are also clever techniques such as the mcguffin used throughout his films and someone who seems to find the concept of murder funny, the bad can be punished in this film
Strangers on a train
- The film starts off fairly normally with the two characters of Guy and Bruno sitting on the train chatting.
- Guy seems pretty standoffish and stressed out and I suppose Bruno is meant to be charming but he honestly comes across as a little lonely and creepy, maybe he is meant to be interpreted differently by different people.
- The thing is they both seem like normal people
- The theme of murder comes in almost immediately with the mention of Guy's wife: Miriam and Bruno's father
- One of Hitchcock's themes "perfect crimes" comes in here as Bruno mentions the idea of exchanging murder and thus murder is mentioned and on the cards
- the idea of the psycho and the disturbed human psyche comes in with Bruno being revealed to be a bit of a crazy stalking down Miriam at an amusement park and strangling her.
- His crazy nature is also revealed when he becomes almost obsessed with Guy fulfilling his side of the deal, he gets to know Guy's new fiancee Anne and her sister Barbara who looks a lot like Miriam
- There is a guest at the party who finds the idea of murder amusing which is another Hitchcock theme
- A hard moment for Guy is when he is forced to confess what is going on to Anne
- Brunos is furious and thinks Guy has betrayed him and as a result he will try to Frame guy for Miriam's murder, he has really thought everything through. It is why he stole his lighter.
- Guy ends up dead thanks to his crazy ways, it seems the bad are punished
Psycho
- Marion is a character we grow to feel sympathy foreign this film. She really needs money and the man giving his money to the bank is just so into himself and so clearly spoiling his daughter you don't wish anything less for him than to have his money stolen right out from under him.
- You can see through Marion's facial expressions her own conflict at stealing the money and whether she is really going to do it.
- I honestly felt sorry for Norman throughout the whole film as he obviously had some serious issues and was absolutely deranged yet he was such a loveable character in the way he was so kind hearted and friendly and had this small stutter. He was also attractive which is not typical of a psycho killer. This is Hitchcock's genius exploration of the Human Psyche
- Marion is about to come clean and take the money back when she is brutally murdered which makes them mores o effected by her death.
- the fact that Norman is the way he is makes him seem very un guilty.
- He is absolutely insane in the way he becomes the mother and kills everyone in his way of exposing him for what he is.
- The fact he kept his mothers body and took on part of her personality when she dies just shows how truly psycho he really was.
Vertigo
- Some people regard this as Hitchcock's best film and there is just so much murder, betrayal and perfect crimes throughout this film. It is a Hitchcock master piece.
- The film opens with an exploration of Scotties Psyche, when he visits his ex fiancee and explains how roof top chase resulting in the death of a police man has caused his severe fear of heights and therefore vertigo.
- This therefore explores the consequences of a traumatic experience.
- Midge tells Scottie he may need another psychological shock in order to reverse his Vertigo.
- Scotties acquaintance Gavin expresses that he fears that his wife Madeline may be possessed by Calotta Valdes, who was her great grandmother who committed suicide
- This here explores more of the psyche, the idea of possession from an external source or the own human min, being either disturbed or working to achieve a perfect crime
- The idea of disturbances in the psyche is again brought up when Madeline jumps into the water near the golden gate bridge and is rescued by Scottie and the next day when, despite confessing his love for Madeline, can barely bring himself to run up the church steps to save Madeline from suicide due to his intense fear of heights.
- After "Madelines" death you can clearly see the inner workings of Scotties Psyche begin to unravel as he becomes clinically depressed and frequents the places Madeline visited imagining he is seeing her.
Here is my list
Strangers on a train
The birds
Psycho
Vertigo
Rear window
The man who knew too much
Frenzy
suspicion
Ive noticed some similar reoccurring sort of characters and motifs in all the films that i Feel will help me come up with my own story. Hitchcock's storylines are deeply rooted in the Psyche and the psychological nature of the human mind and they are often full of crazies, betrayals and double crosses, there are also clever techniques such as the mcguffin used throughout his films and someone who seems to find the concept of murder funny, the bad can be punished in this film
Strangers on a train
- The film starts off fairly normally with the two characters of Guy and Bruno sitting on the train chatting.
- Guy seems pretty standoffish and stressed out and I suppose Bruno is meant to be charming but he honestly comes across as a little lonely and creepy, maybe he is meant to be interpreted differently by different people.
- The thing is they both seem like normal people
- The theme of murder comes in almost immediately with the mention of Guy's wife: Miriam and Bruno's father
- One of Hitchcock's themes "perfect crimes" comes in here as Bruno mentions the idea of exchanging murder and thus murder is mentioned and on the cards
- the idea of the psycho and the disturbed human psyche comes in with Bruno being revealed to be a bit of a crazy stalking down Miriam at an amusement park and strangling her.
- His crazy nature is also revealed when he becomes almost obsessed with Guy fulfilling his side of the deal, he gets to know Guy's new fiancee Anne and her sister Barbara who looks a lot like Miriam
- There is a guest at the party who finds the idea of murder amusing which is another Hitchcock theme
- A hard moment for Guy is when he is forced to confess what is going on to Anne
- Brunos is furious and thinks Guy has betrayed him and as a result he will try to Frame guy for Miriam's murder, he has really thought everything through. It is why he stole his lighter.
- Guy ends up dead thanks to his crazy ways, it seems the bad are punished
Psycho
- Marion is a character we grow to feel sympathy foreign this film. She really needs money and the man giving his money to the bank is just so into himself and so clearly spoiling his daughter you don't wish anything less for him than to have his money stolen right out from under him.
- You can see through Marion's facial expressions her own conflict at stealing the money and whether she is really going to do it.
- I honestly felt sorry for Norman throughout the whole film as he obviously had some serious issues and was absolutely deranged yet he was such a loveable character in the way he was so kind hearted and friendly and had this small stutter. He was also attractive which is not typical of a psycho killer. This is Hitchcock's genius exploration of the Human Psyche
- Marion is about to come clean and take the money back when she is brutally murdered which makes them mores o effected by her death.
- the fact that Norman is the way he is makes him seem very un guilty.
- He is absolutely insane in the way he becomes the mother and kills everyone in his way of exposing him for what he is.
- The fact he kept his mothers body and took on part of her personality when she dies just shows how truly psycho he really was.
Vertigo
- Some people regard this as Hitchcock's best film and there is just so much murder, betrayal and perfect crimes throughout this film. It is a Hitchcock master piece.
- The film opens with an exploration of Scotties Psyche, when he visits his ex fiancee and explains how roof top chase resulting in the death of a police man has caused his severe fear of heights and therefore vertigo.
- This therefore explores the consequences of a traumatic experience.
- Midge tells Scottie he may need another psychological shock in order to reverse his Vertigo.
- Scotties acquaintance Gavin expresses that he fears that his wife Madeline may be possessed by Calotta Valdes, who was her great grandmother who committed suicide
- This here explores more of the psyche, the idea of possession from an external source or the own human min, being either disturbed or working to achieve a perfect crime
- The idea of disturbances in the psyche is again brought up when Madeline jumps into the water near the golden gate bridge and is rescued by Scottie and the next day when, despite confessing his love for Madeline, can barely bring himself to run up the church steps to save Madeline from suicide due to his intense fear of heights.
- After "Madelines" death you can clearly see the inner workings of Scotties Psyche begin to unravel as he becomes clinically depressed and frequents the places Madeline visited imagining he is seeing her.
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