The Birds Analysis

Sound is extremely important in films, and the types of sound used differ between genre. Sound is important in all films. Without sound, films do not possess as much power compared to if they did have sound. In ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, multiple soundtracks are used throughout the film. Two fantastic soundtracks in the film are ‘This is Halloween’ and ‘The Oogie Boogie Song’. Both use orchestral instruments and the lyrics are sung with deep voices. Diegetic sounds used in these soundtracks and throughout the film include bats squeaking, bugs crawling, and pumpkin heads being chopped off using a large metal blade. The effect of sounds, including soundtracks, is to enhance the feeling experienced from the visuals. Deep voices and multiple orchestral instruments create suspense and fear. As the music crescendos, the suspense increases as well. Loud, sudden sounds like a scream or crash create sudden fright. Using different sounds, films are more exciting and can be used to determine a genre.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980), the “Master of Suspense”, was a English film director, who was well known for his use of suspense and psychological elements to shock and surprise his audience. Hitchcock was known for his use of recurring themes, motifs and plot devices, such as the use of birds, hand motifs, the audience as a voyeur, mothers, blonde women, and sexuality. He was also very technical in his editing, using filming techniques such as deep focus, point of view, close up and wide, tracking shots. Montage was also a technique he used frequently in his films. He believed that by using visuals, he could convey thoughts and emotions just as well as dialogue could.

Sound is something quite special, impactful, and adds layers of elements and complexity to a film. As with the progression of the movie making medium, sound has grown and changed drastically over the decades. However, sound cues in the form of effects, dialogue, and everything in between, shapes our perceptions of a scene and movie.

In the movie, The Babadook, sound is used to heighten the suspense and horror. The director often uses suspenseful music when something bad is about to happen. This can first be seen when Samuel is at the park climbing the pole on the swing set. The suspenseful music foreshadows that he is most likely going to fall and hurt himself. To add on, Sound is used to strengthen the creepiness of the book that the movie revolves around. An example of this can be seen whenever Amelia is reading the book, The Babadook. There is a constant buzz while she reads the story, and immediately after she closes the book, it stops. This shows that once she closes it signifies that she is back to reality. While Amelia shows her frustration towards the book there

Psychologists have suggested the idea that correlation does not imply causation. In The Birds, viewers find themselves unable to identify the purpose or the cause for the birds’ attacks. Hitchcock does not want us to know the answers either, since Hitchcock marvels at his ability to make viewers question his films and struggle at truly enjoying without fully understanding them. Although this essay cannot find a cause for the attacks in the town or to the characters that seem to be innocent like the children and the old man in the farm, it should shed some light on the correlation between the timing of the attacks near the Brenner family and Melanie and their internal struggle. The symbolism of the caged birds versus the free birds, the Jocasta complex Lydia struggles with, and the imagery of the light versus darkness when the birds attack represent the journey Mitch and Melanie face in trying to be together.

The Birds, the movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was based on the short story "The Birds" written by Daphne du Murrier. If you would have read the book and then watched the movie, you would see that very few things are the same. In both the short story and the movie flocks of gulls, robins, crows, and sparrows join each other. This is really weird because different species of birds never work together. The story and the film both have the same climate. It is cold and chilly; "the ground is frozen and it will be a black winter." The climate gives the versions of the story a creepy and suspenseful feeling.

Game tries to create an emotional bond between the player and the character; the sound track can help e.g. tell the player about the characters back story with right music in background. In the Last of Us it does very well in making the player having a bound with the character. In the game it uses sound to express the character feelings. The sound give the player a sense that the player is lonely and is still mourning his daughter’s death

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a true masterpiece of a horror film. It is perfect in everything from unpredictable plot to music. However, Hitchcock’s Psycho is a notable film of horror and thriller genres due to excellent actors’ performances, interesting use of sound effects, well-crafted mise-en-scenes and realistic and complex characters.

When looking at the collection of works by Alfred Hitchcock, it is common to notice similar threads throughout his life work. The films viewed in class alone, share many things, as both Psycho and The Birds consist of more than what meets the eye. Though one may be about a killer man and the other about killer animals, both Hitchcock films develop a deep, dark string of events leading up to inevitable death. Being in touch with a great love of drama, thrill and suspense, Alfred Hitchcock leaves you on the edge of your seat, with many famous scenes and never before seen ideas, making you incapable of averting your eyes.

Alfred Hitchcock also used cinematography in a uniquely stylizing way. Hitchcock not only uses the camera to create dramatic irony, but he also uses the camera to lie to the audience and create anxious suspense. For example, in his film Psycho, when Marion is in the shower Hitchcock frames the scenes very tightly. Marion is in a confined and very personal space. This makes her incredibly vulnerable. Then Hitchcock heightens the suspense by creating dramatic irony with the reveal of a shadowy figure closing in on Marion, unbeknownst to her. This creates a lot of anxiety for the audience, knowing the protagonist is vulnerable and in danger with no way of altering the inevitable. Hitchcock then manipulates the audience by “revealing” a brief silhouette of an old lady as our shower killer. Hitchcock uses this “reveal” to lie to the audience, he makes the audience think they have more inside knowledge confirming their already growing suspicions, when in reality the audience is misled entirely and the murderer was Norman all along. The way Hitchcock uses the camera to reveal both inside information and misleading information truly keeps the viewer engaged and not knowing what to believe until the truth is finally revealed. By using this unique technique of controlling the audience by only showing what he wants you to see, Hitchcock masterfully defies expectations and creates suspense.

‘Sound doesn’t have to be in-your-face, traditional, big sound effects. You can especially say a lot about the film with ambiences – the sounds for things you don’t see.’ (Bordwell, 2008) The music throughout this film adds to the ambience of the story, and follows the conventions of a family fantasy

Another example of sound is Hitchcock's use of voice over. For instance, as Marion drives away with the money she ha stolen, she imagines conversations between the people she has left behind and their reactions to her faults. Hitchcock also uses sound, which doesn’t complement the image that we see. Whilst the on screen

Along with background music, sound effects play more of a role on the way we feel than many moviegoers think, and "although the function of sound effects is primarily atmospheric, they can also be precise sources of meaning in film" (Giannetti, 225). When the

Sound was an important technique in the making of this film. Sound techniques are used to convey the mood of a scene and manipulate the audience’s emotional reaction (Horton, 2013). One of the directors, Andrew Stanton, stated that to capture the sound of water sloshing inside a whale, the film crew journeyed around the

Another aspect of sound in this film was how it affected the story. By using sound dramatically in certain parts and not using it at all in other parts, sound gave this story an entity of its own. For example, during long stretches of film with mostly dialogue, there was no music played in the background, only a phone ringing in the distance, or the men's voices during their deliberation. These long silences also took place during editing shots of the town and images that surrounded this German city. This dramatic difference in sound was a revelation of how mood can be made by images and sound put together to make an incredible component.