Psycho

·         Directed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock

·         Made in 1960 in America

·         Based on the novel ‘Psycho’ written by Robert Bloch

·         Originally received mixed reviews

·         Re-reviewed with great outcomes which led to four academy award nominations

·         Considered as one of Hitchcock’s greatest films and internationally appraised

·         From the films there has been two remakes, a prequel, a remake and a television movie spin off

Plot summary- taken from http://www.course1.com/

Hitchcock’s twisted tale of psychological terror begins in medias res with the introduction of Marion Crane, a secretary in a real estate office currently dating a divorcee named Sam.  In the opening scene, Hitchcock uses symbolism through color to portray Marion’s persona.  She is wearing a white slip and white bra, white being a common symbol for good or an indicator of the hero(ine).

One day, Marion is asked by her boss to make a $40,000 cash deposit at the bank before she leaves for the day.  The next scene takes us to Marion’s home where she is packing quickly for a trip, and obviously has neglected to deposit the money.  She is again characterized through color in her now black bra and black slip, placing her in the bad guy role.  As she packs, Hitchcock resorts to several looks of outward regard.  These looks are followed up by an eye-line shot of the $40,000 in a white envelope on Marion’s bed.  Apparently she is contemplating taking the money, fleeing town, and starting a life with Sam, which is exactly what she begins to do.  As she is leaving Phoenix, Marion hears an inner monologue of voices, voices of those she is running from.  These voices reveal speculations on her whereabouts, and also aid as Marion’s feeling of guilt setting in. 

After an exhausting trip, Marion decides to get off the main road and rest for the night.  She stops at the Bates Motel, a run down little place with a huge creepy home casting shadows over it.  Here she meets an odd passive aggressive man named Norman Bates, the main round character.  He seems harmless enough, but is clearly affected by his loneliness despite the company of his sick old mother.

After a chilling conversation with Norman about his mother’s mental condition, Marion decides to take a shower and turn in for the evening.  As she is showering Norman enters dressed as his mother and stabs Marion to death.  Hitchcock uses several different techniques to inte nsify the dramatic aspects of the shower scene.  He uses several close-up shots on Marion’s face and the showerhead bringing the viewer right into the action.  Using the rule of thirds, the camera then focuses on a shot of Marion in the first third of the frame, and a shadow beyond the curtain approaching her in the last third.  The shower curtain is whipped back and our villain is seen in the shadows to conceal “her” identity.  We watch as the focus is directed to the knife being thrusted downward into Marion.  As it does so piercing violin noises accompany each stab, intensifying the situation.  Norman later reappears as himself and cleans up the evidence.  Hitchcock films the clean up scenes from an objective point of view while using no dialogue and several ambient sounds.  Also the normal intense and suspense building score is spared during this time.

At home everyone is concerned about Marion.  A private detective sent to look for her traces her steps to the Bates Motel.  He is also murdered by “Norman’s mother.”  Feeling uneasy about the entire situation, Marion’s sister, Lila, and Sam decide to go out to the motel and speak with Norman so they might find Marion.  When they arrive we reach the climax as they uncover Norman’s dirty little secret, the body of his mother hiding in the fruit cellar.  A psychologist at the police station later finishes the story by explaining how Norman came to develop this internal conflict and how it affected him.  Norman killed his mother and then developed a split personality of her to compensate.  The story ends with a shot of Norman who has now completely become the “mother” personality.  An inner monologue speaks and informs us of “her” intentions to prove to them all that she “wouldn’t even harm a fly.”

The film is rather interesting and dynamic in its’ use of psychology as the fear factor.  Hitchcock’s ideas are well communicated through his visual motifs and use of score to intensify the emotional characteristics.  Also, Hitchcock managed to color outside the lines once again and push the limits of filmmaking by filming the ever-famous shower scene.  Its’ graphic murder portrayal and use of risky body shots became the template of scary movies to come.

Alfred Hitchcock the “Master of Suspense”

 

·         Born in 1899 in London, England

·         Died in 1980 in Los Angeles, North America

·         In 1956 he became an American citizen but remaining a British subject

·         His techniques pioneered those to come in future generations of the thriller genre

·         When he moved to Hollywood he already had made very successful films in the  United Kingdom

·         His career lasted over 50 years, making many films which gave him a name of a very successful director who had his own distinctive style of directing

·         He directed over 50 feature length films which were made over the space of 6 different decades

·         He created the style of filming, where it puts the audience in the position of the killer, as an act of voyeurism to make them feel uncomfortable.

Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task we were given the task of:

Subject A entering a room from a corridor and opening the door. Inside the room Subject B is sitting down without saying anything, A gives a pieces of paper to B. B reads it and reacts. A displays some kind of emotion and leaves.

I was in a group of four with Elle Fletcher, George Jackson and Amber Holt.

Genre

For our pre-liminary piece we decided to do our piece as a comedy, as we would be doing horror as the final piece so we could get an understanding in the differences when filming acting and directing. Also it meant that we could use a good mix of digetic and non digetic sound, camera shots and mise en scene to create an effective piece.

Location

When deciding upon the location, we had to choose a place which was easily accessible, would not change that much in the time we were filing, and that fit into our genre’s specification. For example we would not film our comedy in a graveyard.  Some of our ideas where:
A school classroom

Farm yard/drying sheds

A cinema

Bowling Alley

Restaurant                 

Props

When deciding on props we needed, as it was such a short piece, each prop would have to be used effectively, for example with the piece of paper, there would be shots showing the significance of it, highlighting how it relates to the storyline. The other props would be ones to show the personalities of the characters, for example Amber doing work reading from a book and writing showing her intelligence.

Camera Angles/Shots

When deciding on our shots for the scene, we thought that we would most likely begin with quite concealing shots, only showing part of the picture, leaving the audience wondering what’s going to happen but as the scene moves forward it will show more clear shots, revealing the full story.

Our Idea

Our basic idea was to start with an establishing shot of the school, which would pan across to a shot of the corridor which we would be filming in, this would all be quite slow. It would then cut to three quick close ups, of a hand flushing the toilet, which would move to hands washing, and then to the hands being dried, all three would only have the diegetic sound of the activities, these would all be very fast paced shots.  The next shot would be of George (subject A) walking out of the toilet and as he did a upbeat song would start. The camera would then cut to in the corridor where it would watch George walk away until he came to a door. It would then cut to a P.O.V of Amber (subject B) who would be sitting in the room doing work, she would look up and see George standing in the doorway. The camera would then move to a two shot where both characters are clear and you see George sit down and give Amber a piece of paper. It moves to an over the shoulder shot of Amber unravelling the paper with George looking excited in the background. She opens it up and it says ‘I Love You’ or ‘Hey’, either way the reaction of Amber is the same, it cuts to a P.O.V of George who is looking up at Amber who looks disgusted, and then to a P.O.V of amber who is looking at George and he looks anticipant. It moves back to the two shot and you see Amber throw the paper at George and walk out the room, although the camera does not move so leaves George alone in the shot. George then exits and it moves back to a shot at the opposite end of the corridor and you watch George walk away, and see that he has toilet paper stuck to his shoe.