Alfred Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim into a strange, life-threatening situation, in a case of mistaken identity, or wrongful accusation. He would use a range of cinematic techniques:-
'North by Northwest 'the crop duster scene'.
North by Northwest – crop duster scene
This scene has a lot of thrilling elements which keep the audience on the edge of their seats, enticed and anxious, also the quick pace of this scene keeps the audience nervy, excited and at the same time worried for the protagonist. These thrilling elements and the emotions created in the audience come from camera work such as shots of characters running towards the camera, this creates anxiety and excitement at the same time. There are also close-ups which again ties in with creating emotions of excitement in the audience and this is done by the audience being able to see the facial expressions of the character which puts them in the characters shoes, also the use of close-ups gives the audience a sense of claustrophobia, since they can't see what else is in the scene. There are also motivated cuts and the way the danger comes suddenly and from nowhere again assists in creating all these different emotions in the audience. This fast paced scene keeps the audience enticed and on the edge of their seat, which I think is an important emotion to create in the audience for any film and any genre and especially thrillers.
Psycho – Shower scene
In this famous scene in 'Psycho' Alfred Hitchcock has again used the same cinematic techniques to create emotions that he wants in the audience. A lot of this is contributed to by the camera work. Alfred Hitchcock again uses the element of surprise which is perfect for creating emotions anf feelings in the audience of anxiety or fear. Also this scene is deliberately shot in black and white as it has a relation to violence. The use of quick cuts for the stabbing in this scene adds to the anxiety, fear and it keeps the audience enticed which is what Alfred Hitchcock and probably all directors want to aim to do, and again the audience have to try and keep up with the fast pace of the scene. There is a slow zoom shot which builds up tension, but slowly which is really effective as it keeps the audience zoned in and anxious as to what this is leading to and what will happen, it also creates fear in the audience.
Another thrilling element Alfred Hitchcock uses to keep the audience confused and constantly questioning themselves is a 'red herring', this leads the audience to thinking one thing, but actually something much more sinister and evil is at hand. An example of this is in the psycho shower scene, the 'red herring' in this scene is the money and the audience think that the money is of some significance, but ion actual fact it ends up being a diversion and trivial.
'Tell no one'
In 'tell no one' Alfred Hitchcock brings all these cinematic techniques together again. There are:
- Wrongful accusations – proof of innocence
- Hand-held documentary realism (camera work)
- Strapped cameras to characters chest (camera work)
- Audience is favouring the characters (emotions created)
- Close-ups/over the shoulder shots (camera work)
excellent analysis about alfred hitchcock. one of the best director ever!!
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