Blog 4: psycho

Psycho

Psycho is a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock released in 1960. it is the story of a women named Marion who stays in a motel after stealing 40000 dollars. the hotel is run by norman bates and his "mother".Marion is killed in the motel, and after hearing no word from her her sister goes to investigate where she is.

The money in psycho is used as a mcguffin in psycho, Marion would not have stayed in the hotel if she was not fleeing from the city because of the money. The audience will likely forget about the money by the end of the film, and will only be worried about what will happen to the other characters. Alfred Hitchcock did not want the audience to focus on the money and instead wanted them to focus on Norman Bates, and the mystery surrounding him.

Alfred Hitchcock uses a number of thriller conventions in a way that engages the reader. For example there are scenes of fast paced action, one scene in particular is when an fbi agent investigates Normans mothers house at the motel. Whilst there he gets attacked, there and various quick cuts and the music is fast and suspenseful to match the action, this puts the audience on edge because they can see the urgency of the situation.

One thriller convention that psycho does not have, however, is a resourceful hero who outwits the villain. The villain in this story is Norman Bates however the main character, Marion, dies halfway through the film. Marion's sister might be considered a hero, however i believe that the main story of the film is not Marion's sister trying to find the truth, but Norman Bates relationship with his mother, and why he does what he does.

At the time of its release (1960) there was one scene that shocked the audience, the shower scene. the film was close to not being released because of this scene and some people in the audience had 'fainted' when they saw it. However, the editing and camera work of this scene is effective because we do not actually see who it is that is murdering Marion. we also do not see the blade physically cut Marion, so much of this scene is left to the audiences imagination.

sound exercise (evaluation)

Styles of editing/continuity editing

Styles of editing/continuity editing

Straight cut

• Most common and "invisible" form of transition
• One shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audiences attention
• Straight cut helps retain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief

Dissolves

• Fading one shot off screen while another shot is fading in
• The audience will be able to see both shots on the screen at the mid point of the dissolve used: if the film maker wants to show a connection between two characters, places or objects

Fades

• A gradual darkening or lighting of an image until it becomes black and white
• one shot will fade until only a black or whit screen can be seen

used to:

• indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative
• can show the passing of time

Wipes

• One image is pushed off screen by the other - left or right - more common to be pushed left, consistent with the sense of time moving forward

used to:

• A signal of movement between different locations that are experiencing the same time

Jump cut

• A jump cut is where the audience attention is brought into focus on something very suddenly
• This occurs by breaking the continuity editing
• This is known as discontinuity
• It appears as if a section of the sequence has been removed

Graphic match

• The film maker can choose to place shots in certain order so as to create a smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next
• When two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look it is called a graphic match

Montage theory

• Lev Kuleshev was among the very first to theorise about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920s. He argued that editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick-by-brick (shot by shot) the building (film) is erected
• Sometime around 1918, Russian director Lev Kuleshev conducted an experiment that proves this point
• He took an old film clip of a head shot of a Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different imaged

Continuity editing

• Retains a sense of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward
• May use flashbacks or flash forward. But the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way

Sound exercise (film)