Hitchcock!

Alfred Hitchcock is the ‘master of suspense’ and directed films through the silent, black and white and colour era. Hitchcock uses reoccurring themes, motifs and devices in all of his films, these are:

- The Mother
- Sexuality
- Innocence
- MacGuffin
- Likeable criminals
- Stairways
- Blondes

Hitchcock uses all of these in his film Psycho (1960). The leading lady, Marion Crane, is a blonde; Hitchcock uses blonde women as he thought they look better when pictured in black and white. The main Character, Norman Bates, dresses as his mother and is the likable criminal because the audience feels sorry for him even though he is killing people whilst dressed as his mother. Marion Crane is also a likable criminal because she steals $40,000 however the audience are still made to feel connected to her. Hitchcock uses the stolen money as the MacGuffin; the audience are concentrating on what is happening to the money whereas the film is actually about Norman Bates. Hitchcock involves stairways in the film, because the private investigator Milton Arbogast dies by falling down the stairs.

Hitchcock uses a range of camera angles including low angle, high angle and over the shoulder shots which we will try and use in our production.

We also liked the use of dark shadows and silhouettes to create concealment, so may try and work that in somewhere.