Alfred Hitchcock Summer Assignment

Typical Narratives SUSPENCE:Hitchcock shows/tells things to the audience which the characters do not know about, consequently tension is built around what will happen to the characters when they discover the truth.BIRDS:Birds are featured in a verity of Hitchcock movies such as Birds featuring Tippi Hedren and Thriller, Psycho. Birds are symbolic od death, peace and love which all fit perfectly with Hitchcock’s typical narratives and story lines.

CameraworkHitchcock began filmmaking in the mid 1920s when coloured movies were not created and silent films were the craze. Over the decade, Hitchcock developed his ability to use modern camera angles, which no other director had tried before, such as Dial M for Murder, the use of high angles to show the status of the characters and portraying them as venerable and low in status.

In addition, as silent films were without sound, movie directors had to try to tell the story successfully in images and in angles. Human Qualities: the effect of using a camera to portray human qualities (see what the character sees through the camera lens) if the audience feels included in uncovering the story.

Settings TRAINS• Trains are featured

significantly in Hitchcock films because it’s a form of travel which is accessible to everyone and is also a good getaway for a villain. It adds suspense as characters are persuaded for committing a crime, when they are innocent.

• An example of a Hitchcock movie based on a train is the Lady Vanishes. The inability to exit of the train at certain train stations forces the two characters to accept that the lady who is missing is still aboard the train.

WEATHER• Pathetic fallacy is featured in

many of Hitchcock's films as it gives human emotions and traits to make it come alive.

• For example, Psycho. The effect of pathetic fallacy is to make it foretelling and foreshadowing. The audience can estimate the ending of the movie, making it thrilling for the audience.

Characters BLOND: Hitchcock and a dramatic preference to blond women, he believed the audience would be more suspicious of a brunette. Many of these blonds were of the Grace Kelly genre; perfect, aloof ice goddesses, who have a red-hot inner fire, as well as Hitchcock's favourite, Tippi Hendri. Moreover, its tradition to star blonds which began in the silent film industry such as Mary Pickford.

VILLIANS Villains usually come across rather charming (Norman Bates) and usually turns out to be vulnerable, emotionally unstable and sympathetic characters. As well as being upper class and wealthy business men/ women.

Music Alfred Hitchcock wanted music to covey emotion in ways images cannot. The soundtrack to his movies take on a role of themselves, becoming deeply compelling characters. Hitchcock has worked with many talented composers with the likes of Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa and Franz Waxman and many others.

Bernard Herrmann was a particular favourite of Hitchcock, movies like Psycho, Vertigo. Herrmann had been Hitchcock’s collaborator since 1955 although the relationship between Hitchcock and Herrmann was fruitful, but also had a volatile relationship, which led to Hitchcock sacking Herrmann in 1966, when Hitchcock listened to the prelude Herrmann had written for Torn Curtain and declined to listen further.