Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, 13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980 was a British film director and producer.

He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen, while remaining a British subject.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring violence, murder and crime.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism.




Psycho

Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The novel was loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein

Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted a re-review which was overwhelmingly positive and led to four Academy Award nominations. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and is highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics. The film spawned two sequels, a prequel, a remake, and a television movie spin-off. In 1992, the film was selected to be preserved by the Library of Congress at the National Film Registry.

The grudge

The grudge was presented by Daryl Meadows. The grudge has a wide variety of; Mise en scene, camera, sounds and editing.

He began the video at 3:20. The grudge was made in 2004 and was directed by Takashi Shimizu. The credits come in and are red and black, this related to death so already we know the film is a dark mysterious horror. The first interaction with a character is when we see a young Chinese girl riding a bike out of a dark shadow, maybe related to the darkness of the grudge. We see her riding through many places, they have used editing, jump cut and match on action to show her journey in the space of 20 seconds. This saves time and doesn’t bore the audience.

The house she arrives at is over ground un kept. This shows us that there is little life inside and gives the effect it’s not a nice place. There are a lot of good camera angles during the opening, the camera pans as she enters the house. There is an old woman in the house who seems to be ill. The house is also in a state and maybe this links to the old woman. Both the younger woman and the older one are wearing blue, this could be a sign they have both similar pasts. There is then a unusual her from a low angle, which should make her more intimidating but knowing that she is quite scared doesn’t make us feel intimidated. It then pans giving the effect that a creature is watching her, the sound then becomes high pitched and gives an eerie effect.

There is a long pause between shots, this builds tension. It also makes her seem venerable and powerless, also as she is in a small space it makes her seem trapped. The attic is a typical scary and mysterious, it has many cob webs and is very dark. This again implies something back is going to happen. Her lighter flickers may be showing it is coming to an end, like her. The sound used in this scene is very ghostly and makes us tense as we now know she is in danger. Without the sound in this scene it would not be half as affective. The sound makes us know her feelings and part of the future

Silent hill

Silent hill was presented by Georgia, Akshay, Catherine and Emma. Silent Hill is a modern film and the group made some good points on; Mise-en-scene, camera, sounds and editing.

Silent Hill was made in 2006 and directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary.
The film started with non- diagetic played by a piano, whilst the credits came in. The setting and music immediately tells us it is an Horror/Thriller film.

In the opening of the film we see a mother and father concerned about their adopted daughter. The daughter has been experiencing nightmares and sleepwalking while screaming the name of a town, "Silent Hill". The opening begins with a low angled close up of a women, this how’s she we have a large part to play in the rest of the film. But the father on the other hand was in darkness which could tell the us that he wasn't a particularly significant character in the film and was other looked a lot. Both the daughter and mother are wearing blue this could show there strong bong.

When she is walking through the forest you can hear the sound effects of birds and trees. The group made a good point that you don’t take any notice to it when it’s in daylight but when it’s at night it it’s a different story, this mystery adds tension.

The daughter then starts to sleep walk, and the same music from the game starts to play, relating the film to the game. There are deep notes in the background music like a choir, maybe like there praying for their child. The lighting used is very effective and gives a different view on each of the characters e.g. The mother is surrounded in red lighting symbolizing danger and death. The daughter is covered by white light, maybe like she’s innocent or like a blank canvas and doesn’t know what’s going on.

The ring

The ring was presented by Luke Papworth. The ring shows a wide range of mise-en-scene, camera angles, sound and editing.

The film opens with a view of dark clouds moving across the sky quickly. This could represent how quick time is going. We then watch them go in to a dark deep forest, like they are trapped. The lighting is very clever now as it is red maybe like she is staring death in the face.

We see the woman in an isolated house and almost every shot has the telephone in. By doing this it makes a normal object seem scary, as the voice on the telephone told them they had a week to live. The man in the house then loses it and starts to smash everything up, this tells us he’s fed up and doesn’t want to have anything to do with this anymore. This scene shows how the ring can destroy lives. The camera then focus’ on the women for a lot showing her facial expressions and her vulnerability, when the man is out of focus in the back ground. There is also a lot of use of dark and light showing the fine line between alive and dead. Whilst the man is braking things he lot of small marbles go underneath the rug, this means there is something controlling them underneath the floor. This is where the music starts to become more upbeat and gets louder. They then smash the floor to find a deep dark secret.

There is a deep dark pit underneath the floor boards, like a gateway to hell. We see the t.v fly across the room in a low angle, again making a normal house hold object look dominant. The t.v basically kills the women as she is pushed in too deep pit, this relates to the start when she is watching the film.

The silence of the lambs

This was my group who talked about Silence of the lambs. In my group was Toby Harvey, Ben Bowen and Dom Simmons. We looked Mise-en-scene, camera angles, sound and editing.The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres.  It was directed by Jonathan Demme.
The film won five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress , Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The opening scene began as an establishing shot of the forest with the credits and names of actors in the film appearing in a bold font. The camera then goes on to perform a tracking camera movement of the main women like she’s being chased. There is a lot of fog which could mean its unclear and the murders may be hard to figure out later on in the film or to imply it’s early and autumn. We also know this from the crunch of the leaves made as she runs.

We then see a close up on the woman, she looks determined and like a hard worker as the sweats on the face shows shes been running or a long time. The music then gets quicker and deeper and we see a view of her through the trees. This could show that she is running from something and where she is going. We then realise she is doing an assault courses, as she climbs up the rope the light shines down on her face, like she has completed it her and her joy it is over, or how she is a strong minded person.

We then then took it to another scene where the woman who is an FBI agent visits a jail. She enter the jail with a large red light covering her and bars covering her face, this could represent what she is about to do is bad. When the bars enter there is a beeping noise almost like a countdown, when she enters the bars close behind her making a loud noise, maybe meaning there is no way out. When she is walking down the jail we can only hear her footsteps, this makes the audience feel like they shouldn’t be there, or that she is vulnerable.

When she has got to the end of the jail, there is a man standing there waiting for her in his cell. He seems to be the most controlled, yet he was protective glass instead of bars showing his danger. Whenever he is asked a question, he answers back with a question himself so that he avoids answering, this could show he is hiding something or is trying to trick the young FBI agent.

Hide and seek

Hide and seek was presented by Ellie, Abbie and Hannah. They expressed all four elements and gave good explanations or their choices.

The first thing we hear is the non-diagetic sound of the music, the music is like a childish song and links to the title as hide and seek is a child’s game. The film starts with an extreme close up of a young girl with her doll on a park ride. This is another link to the name as it is relating to children again. The costumes of the mother change from her being with her family park to her house. She was wearing white showing how she was enjoying life, when she was trapped in the house she was in a black dress to show depression.

There was a lot of relation to red in her house like her red accessories and her red wine, this could represent death. When then see the mother joking around with her daughter tucking her in bed and wishing her good night. We see the mother in the bath and we can hear a dripping tap, this adds tension.

When the father wakes up we can still hear the tap. As he walks towards the bathroom we see him from a low angle looking up at him. When he opens up the sheet to find her dead in the bath it then changes to slow motion to show it is a key moment. We can see the young girl at the back  and a faint nursery rhyme in the back ground this relates to the start of the film.

in the back ground this relates to the start of the film.