Alfred Hitchcock info

2. Alfred hitchcock is also know as ‘the master of
suspense’
Alfred Hitchcock’s films also have a strong
thematic connection as they all feature varying
degrees of intrigue, suspense, murder, romance,
sexuality and dark humour.

3. Alfred Hitchcock was a fan of Pure Cinema. Pure
Cinema is the telling of a story via film by using
strong visuals, as opposed to lengthy dialogue,
to process/further the narrative. That is the
way Hitchcock directed his films, emphasizing
the visual, something that makes perfect sense
given he started his career as a director in silent
films where visuals were the most important
element in the telling of a story.

4. Quote from hitchcock.
"In other words we don’t have pages to fill, or pages
from a typewriter to fill, we have a rectangular screen
in a movie house,” said Hitchcock.
“People don’t always express their inner thoughts to
one another," said Hitchcock, "a conversation may be
quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a
person thinks or needs.”
These are quote from Hitchcock as he belives that the
scene should never be focused on what the character
is saying it should be focused on something else so
have the characters doing something else while
talking.

5. Carefully chose a close-up of a hand, an arm, a
face, a gun falling to the floor - tie them all
together to tell a story. In this way you can
portray an event by showing various pieces of it
and having control over the timing. You can also
hide parts of the event so that the mind of the
audience is engaged.
Hitchcock said this was "transferring the menace
from the screen into the mind of the audience."

6. Psycho.
Themes – thriller, mystery, horror.
The film Is black and white which helps to
represent the thriller/horror theme as it
makes it more spooky.
Hitchcock places the camera angle exactly
where all the emotion can be found to
really portray to the audience what the
characters are feeling. Also hitchcock
moves the camera around just like the
persons eyes. so the audience can
interpret what the characters are seeing.

7. Family plot.
Themes – comedy, thriller
Film is in colour
The story involves two couples; one couple
are amateur petty criminals, the other couple
are smooth professionals. Their lives come
into conflict because of a search for a
missing heir.
The film's title is a pun: "family plot" can refer
to an area in a cemetery that has been
bought by one family for the burial of its
various relatives; in this case it also means a
dramatic plot line involving various family
members.

8. music
Hitchcock wanted choir voices for Madame
Blanche to make her seem psychic towards the
beginning.

9. Saboteur.
Themes – thriller, war
Film is in a black and white colour shows the
oldness ie.the war and also makes it more
spooky for the thriller theme.
Art director Robert Boyle helped Hitchcock
achieve the mélange of larger than life set
pieces, setting the stage for their subsequent
collaborations on North by Northwest, The
Birds, and Marnie. Produced at a vulnerable
moment in the director’s American career,
Saboteur was the box office success

10. Camera shots.
High angle shots in Hitchock's films often occurs when the
main character come to a realization of some terrible truth.
They are also used to signify that a person is depressed or in
a crisis.

11. Example of high angle shots:
Family plot-
During the funeral when Humley is following
Maloney's mother to speak with her, we see this
from a high angle.
North by northwest-