Presentational Devices and Visual Images in Hitchcock's Psycho

In the shower scene in Psycho, The first shot he chooses to give us is

Firstly the directors and their team use a variety of different camera techniques to shape our view on the characters, and ultimately

Psycho is a 1960 American film directed by Alfred Hitchock. The screenplay of the movie written by Joseph Stefano was inspired by the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch on the year 1959. This film is categorized into the horror-thriller genre of film. The starring was Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, Vera Miles as Lila Crane and John Gravin as San Loomis.

expressions. Lighting was used in the film to portray this. Dim lighting was used whenever

For instance, in the intro of Edward Scissorhands when Kim was telling her granddaughter the story of Edward, they were in a room filled with warm light from the fireplace. This technique gave the audience the effect to become suspicious and watch more. Just like in The Big Fish when his Edward was telling the story of how he “caught” his wife with the fish swimming in the water. The lighting of the water made the viewer wonder if something good or bad is going to happen. Some of the viewers may not have noticed it but the camera framing plays a big role in establishing the mood.

The use of the color in the settings, make the film very unique in a very good way. For example all of the houses are colorful. The buildings and houses are very well placed throughout the film. The bright colors and well placed houses make the scenes and the overall movie unique. The bright colors make the movie memorable, because bright colors stand out more than other duller colors. Another example of the films features that make the movie memorable are the characters. The characters in this film wear very flashy clothing, which shows the audience that the characters have

On-camera interviews in both the films accentuate the films’ realism. In Shut up and Sing there is an interview in the beginning of the movie which took place after Natalie voiced her impolite comment about President Bush. This shows the audience that Natalie is in fact sorry she said what she had said but not sorry she had spoken up. Martie furthers her point by saying that their band would not be as eminent as they are now if Natalie restrained her outspoken attitude. Another example is when the Dixie Chicks are interviewed after the release of their new song Not Ready to Make Nice. The interviewer says that public opinion has changed much in the past three years and that Bush’s ratings have gone down. Natalie replies that they were compelled to write their newest album. This shows the audience the band’s determination to stick with their opinions and that Bush’s support has decreased while the band’s support has endured.

The movie Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960. When Psycho was first released they implemented a rule that no one could come into the movie late, and I guess that was a thing that happened a lot back then. People were just like “I got a few minutes, let me go into this movie, I don’t care if it started.” But they were having none of that with Psycho. Once the movie started the doors were closed, no one was allowed in. In the previews they asked the audience to not divulge any of the secrets of the movie to their friends or family after they see it. And audiences obeyed, they didn’t go out and blabber about it like people do these days. You could not get away with that today, but audiences were cool back then. Because they didn’t let the audience in after the movie started, they didn’t allow critics to watch the movie ahead of time either. The critics had to go with the audiences on opening day to see the movie. They were not happy about that because they were being treated like peasants, like any other viewer. I guess they thought they were better than everybody else, as some critics actually gave them bad reviews basically because they didn’t get a special screening. Even before audiences watched the movie, their psychological needs start to be met as hype and suspense is built with the secrets people need to keep. The suspense is kept up throughout the movie from Marion’s get away and death, to the twist at the end.

portrays a factual and lifeless image. There seems to be so much detail that the

Psycho is a suspense-horror film written by Joseph Stefano and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was loosely adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 suspense novel, Psycho. A majority of the movie was filmed in 1960 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Psycho is about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary from Arizona who steals $40,000 from her employer’s client. She takes that money and drives off to California to meet her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) in order to start a new life. After a long drive, she pulls off the main highway and ends up taking refuge at an isolated motel owned and managed by a deranged Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, symbols, character and point of view are three literary

In 1960 one black and white movie shocked us all. This movie attacked our minds and our hearts in one of the most vulnerable places in what is considered to be one of the greatest and most epic scenes of all time. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho made women and even some men afraid take a shower. This movie was the first of its kind and gave birth to a whole new genre of movies, the slasher film. Without this movie Freddie Kruger, Jason, Michael, Leatherface, and all of the other psycho killers would cease to exist. All these killers, even Ghost Face from Scream owe Norman Bates a huge debt of gratitude. If it wasn’t for him these killers would not exist Norman Bates was the first of the masked psycho killers.

Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking masterpiece ‘Psycho’ starring Anthony Perkins; as Norman bates and Janet Leigh; as Marion Crane, broke barriers of film in the 1960s. This film captivates audiences with its nail-biting suspense, shocking plot twists and carefully crafted themes. The repetition of motifs construct the audiences view on duality, how each person can possess the contrast between good and evil. Criminality draws in character interest with the use of mise-en-scene. Mental illness is brought into light also through mise-en-scene showing the twisting relationship between characters.

Stephen King employs restricting visual imagery, destructive kinetic imagery, and aggressive auditory imagery in “The Shining” to identify how after talking to Tony, Danny loses his childlike innocence and is thrust into a world of maturity.

Few filmmakers have left an impact on the cinematic landscape as much as Alfred Hitchcock has; a meticulous craftsman, his stylistic approach and technical aptitude ushered in terminology specific with his directorial style known as “Hitchcockian” filmmaking. In Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”, a former police detective suffering from acrophobia, is hired by an old college friend to keep an eye on wife who has been behaving strangely, but falls in love in the process. Vertigo could be considered at the pinnacle of all Hitchcockian films; the blonde, the man falsely accused of a crime, and duplicitous characters are all staples of this particular style and are on full display. However, the greatest unifying factor of almost every Hitchcock film would be the filmmaker’s assertion that we are all inherently voyeuristic in nature, and he uses every ounce of his technical know-how in order to fully realize and

Hitchcock’s technical devices used in his films were very well known, for the fact that the devices he used like, his Hitchcockian opening, was able to draw the viewer in to the world of what was Hitchcock’s movies. Going more in depth of what was a “Hitchcockian” opening is very simple. In Hitchcock’s movies the opening either had one or more of these 4 criteria: tone and setting, it had either a skyline and/or headline, camera shots through public and private spaces, and landscape of crowd caricatures. For Rebecca there are 3 criteria that is meet and that is tone and setting, camera shots through public and private spaces, and the use of a skyline/headline. Starting with tone and setting, Hitchcock would always have the opposite vs the opposite, meaning if his movie was suspenseful (most of the time it was) then the opening would