Shaun - Alfred Hitchcock and Special Effects
- Schufftan Process - where a mirror is placed by camera to allow the scene to appear bigger than it really is
- fires superimposed
- Children ran on treadmills for The Birds
- Use of yellow screen over blue screen
- The Vertigo Show, where the camera is on the dolly
- Falling effect done on blue screen
- Mother in Psycho was actually different people
This was an awesome presentation. There was so much I had no idea about. The mirror process for the films, the superimposed fires, I had no idea. This really goes to show you how amazing hitchcock was and how progressive his methods were. Even though the use of yellow screen was noticeable, as you knew the character was not in the real scene, it looked a hell of a lot more clean than that of the blue screen.
Jessica - Suspense in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
- chords were reused
- music has relationship with story
- uses chords against audience to build up the suspense in a scene
- Subverts audience's perspective with Norma Bate's character
- private locations can not always be secure
- controlling audience reactions
- POV camera style
Another great presentation, Jessica did an awesome job. The one aspect i found to be the most interesting was the ability Hitch had to make private locations insecure. Using the shower scene, a very private place to most people, he uses it to show that people are not always as safe as they think they are, even in the most private of places.
Margret - Innocence and Guilt
- connection of guilt/innocent man - is there really a difference?
- transference of guilt - as an innocent third party
Hithch seemed able to do things to the audience that few other in the history of cinema have been able to replicate. He used the audience against itself. Margret did a good job of demonstrating this concept of transference of guilt. In many cases the audience, not involved in a crime or issue at all, was made to feel bad for even watching what was going down. Another truly impressive ability of Alfred Hitchcock.
Erin - Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- the concept of the show was appealing to Hitchcock because his narcissism
- Each episode had Hitchcock do an opening monologue and a closing monologue
he did different monologues for the American version and the British version.
- The show featured many soon to be actors and characters
I am fairly unfamiliar with the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series, so I found this presentations fascinating. Whoever it was the decided to pitch Hitchcock on the idea based on the fact that he could do monologues and appeal to that narcissistic man was a smart one himself. After hearing this presentation I wanted to go home and hit the netflix to stream the series. I have not had a chance to yet, but I hope to soon.
Max - Voyeurism and Alfred Hitchcock
- Rear Window being the epitome of this concept had windows as the screen and jeff himself was a photographer, which is in a way a voyeur in its own right
- Psycho - the focusing on her eye after her murder, we leave her perspective and move onto someone else's
- In Vertigo we have madeline who was an object, and Scottie who tries to recreate that object
- In many cases the voyeur has a handicap, which cause the behavior to start.
I think that the concept of the voyeur was interesting to Hitchcock because I imagine he loved to "people watch" himself. With so many themes, and so many stories based on the way people act and react to different situations, it would be hard to imagine that Hitchcock did not do these things himself. Maybe it is not quite as obvious as siting back staring at people through a giant rear window, but in one way or another, Hitchcock had to do this in his life. He simply was use the concept of how interesting it was in his films.
Tremain - The Making of Rope
- First full color film for Hitchcock
- First film to appear to have been shot in a single take
- dark objects on screen for reel changes
- elaborately simple set that was moveable so the camera position could be changed
I am a huge fan of Jimmy Stewart, as it might be apparent from my presentation, but I have never had the chance to see this film. I was excited to hear about it, and considering I knew very little about its story before this presentation, it was awesome. Considering the reels they used back in this time period only lasted for about 10 minutes, i could only imagine how technically sound everything had to be revolving around the story and putting it all together. I cant wait to get my hands on the film so I can watch it.
Hmong - Blonde Hair, White Skin, and Blood
- concept of the cold face and the warm heart for the women
- Weak, helpless women (except in Rear Window)
- White skin - symbol of purity, and men desire this
- blood, used in thrillers for visual effects
One of the things I have noticed over the course of the semester, and watching so many Hitchcock films, is how much he would use blood later on in comparison to how little he used it early on . In Black Mail the girl kills a would be rapist with a butter knife, but when we are shown the knife afterwards, there is no blood on it. In comparison, in Psycho, the use of blood in the shower scene is an extremely important effect that is necessary to set to mood and the scene.
Laura - Psycho: The Original Thrasher Film
- The hook, gaining suspense until the end
- Modern day, starts of suspenseful to grab attention.
Considering the fact that the topic of Psycho had been used several times over the course of these presentations, I was impressed at the new information that was brought up by Laura in hers. The different in Hitchcock's use of suspense varies greatly from that of the films we see today. He started off more slow than we are used to now, building to a point where the main actress is killed, flipping the audience's world on its back. Showing how different auiences are today with the fact that we need to be grabbed early or we will lose interest. This is the case in the classics film Scream. Drew Berrymore, a big named actress, is killed in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film. This immediately grabs our attentions, and leaves us in suspense to find out what is going on. Both use the same concept, they just do it at different times.
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