HOW TO BE HITCHCOCKHitchcock’s style was very unique at the time and he inspired many future films. The following is a basic outline of how his

films were made…

Design the film for the audience – He shot each scene with what effect it would have on the audience in mind. He used characters to engage the audience and keep them guessing. He

knew the audience well, he knew people went to the cinema to be absorbed into a different world and not worry about the outcome. For example, he could involve the audience in a

car chase or violent scenario and the viewers could just enjoy this experience from the safety of a chair.

Frame for emotion – Films are made to provoke emotions. Hitchcock used a variety of camera angles to incite these emotions in the audience. E.g. A long shot shows little

emotion in the scene whereas a close up has the ability to show a lot of clear emotion of a character.

Camera is not a camera – Hitchcock pioneered the technique of point of view filming. This made his films not feel like films but as if you, the audience, were in them. The camera was

like a person’s eyes - witnessing the events and searching around for clues.

Dialogue isn’t necessary – Words aren’t needed to express emotion. Facial expressions or close ups of eyes were regularly used by Hitchcock to represent how his characters were

feeling. He didn’t need dialogue to explain everything in the film, a great skill developed by the man.

Make it snappy! – Hitchcock developed the idea of using a succession of quick close ups during action scenes to add effect. A close up of a hand or a punch engages the audience in the specific action instead of them being distracted by other areas of the scene, which may

happen if it were, say, a longshot.

Simple story – Hitchcock’s films are easy to follow and understand what’s going on. This linear type of storyline means the audience doesn’t get confused or lost in the plot, they just

sit back and enjoy as the story unveils.

Don’t cliché characters – Hitchcock regularly made his characters the opposite to what you would expect. Wealthy men were criminals, policemen were fools, the innocent were

convicted and the villains ran free. Unexpected personalities made the characters more realistic and more susceptible to something happening to them.

Information = Suspense – Hitchcock showed the audience something the characters don’t see, such as a fire starting in a room opposite the characters but the characters play out the scene as normal, they have no idea they are about to be involved in a life or death situation

but the audience does. This creates suspense.

Surprises and twists – When Alfred builds up suspense it never concludes the way the audience expects it to, this constantly adds mystery. Hitchcock would lead the audience in

one direction then twist the scene to something completely unexpected happening. A great technique used to make his films extremely engaging.

MacGuffin – One of the elements Hitchcock is most famous for. A MacGuffin is a plot element, be it a dog, bin, anything, that is included in the scene to maintain suspense and the attention of the audience even though it has possibly no significance to the rest of the

storyline.