Birds

The opening scene of the film birds, just had a load of birds flying

around, and no music just the sound of screeching birds. The transition to change the text on screen looked like birds where pecking at it and then the words were changing.

There is a link to other Alfred Hitchcock films right from the beginning where the woman is suspicious and could be a psychologically disturbed character because she is trying to find this man to give him two birds, but she had only just met the man in a bird shop. There is a lot of interesting links between all of the Hitchcock films. During this film birds there is not as many cuts as what we have seen in past films by Hitchcock. We have seen mostly shot reverse shot and eye-line matches to see when things may start getting strange.

Hitchcocks use of the setting wilderness, he uses the fear in the film to decide on the setting. From Psycho he sets the man in a scary house on the hill, and in vertigo he sets the fear of heights in a city with tall buildings.

Unlike the other films during birds Hitchcock used no music during the film and the effects only come from the birds and the only other sound is the talking, but during the film vertigo and psycho there was music constantly throughout the film, Hitchcock probably did this on purpose because the sound of no music lets the audience properly concentrate on what’s happening in the shot.

Hitchcock uses the same type of shots during the attack on the woman at the end of birds. This was the same as the film psycho. The shots were very fast, the edits were quick and the sound was of the birds flapping their wings.

The car point of view shot is used again at the end like in all the other Hitchcock films we have watched.

Editing

Fast paced edit when the bird swoops down and hits her in the face. So far during the film the edits have been all very slow really, nothing interesting has happened it seems like a really long love film, but you can tell something is going to happen because of the chickens not eating and the birds on the power lines. The first time that fast cuts had been used was when the first attack of the birds happened. They cuts got faster and faster when the attack started to happen. The second attack features another lot of fast cuts and the sound that gets too loud. There is cuts when miss Daniels is sitting on the bench and it keeps cutting to the playground and the birds are coming and starting to get more and more. This is parallel editing. When the man gets blown up, the editing gets very fast paced, there is people rushing around there is everyone trying to put out the fires and there is a lot of eye-line matching. There was fast paced editing when the birds attacked again towards the end of the film. They started to block up the rooms and windows and they tried to escape from the birds. The family were all in panic and the cuts go fast. Fast cuts again during the scene of the final attack on the woman.

Shot types

Shot reverse shot when he is helping her put antiseptic on her head, and then there is a shot reverse shot between two people and miss Daniels. Eye line match with the two women looking up in the sky at the birds. Extremely long shot with no cuts in, when the old lady is on the phone with no cuts. There is another use of shot reverse shot duing the time that they are on the hill. There is very fast shots during the attacks, and there is close ups and there is extremely fast edits. There is lots of eye-line matches when she is looking through the room and again there was no non-diegetic sound, and Hitchcock wanted this to seem more natural. Tracking shot to see the two people out the door, as they get closer. There was point of view shots used when the birds were trying to attack the children. Tracking shot used to get closer to the womans face so you could see her facial expression. There was a match on action shot when she decided to open the door. The camera tracks back as the woman opens her eyes, she then reaches out into the camera and starts flapping her arms as if the birds are still there around her.

Mise en scene

The blood on her face sets the scene and it gives effect on the swooping down of the bird. The two people the mother and miss Daniels look so a like. The dead bird on the door step gives an effect that is some what strange. It makes the two characters look at each other in the eye. The way Hitchcock uses the setting of each place, the setting during birds is in a wilderness and the fear in this film is the birds, and the setting is a wilderness. The setting of the attacks have always been when the families are enjoying themselves. For example sitting down of an evening and the party. The effects of the dead body with the eye having been pecked out the effect of this on the audience is to make them scared of what is happening. There s very graphic scenes when there is a fire, and there is people dying and there is people being blown up and there is people worried and scared and running around this gives a panic effect on the audience. When the bird flies into the window it makes the audience jump. The bird goes to bite the mans hand when he is outside, it is really dark giving the effect of a gloomy end or something frightening is going to happen.

Music

So far there has been no music during the film, there has only been sound effects like the birds. These give the effect of
Towards the end of the dinner when miss Daniels has gone to the house, she is playing the piano. This is the first bit of music and it is calm and not very loud and only the piano is involved. The sound was just diegetic sound, no non-diegetic sound. This shows that Hitchcock just wanted to focus on what was happened and the sound of the birds, there was no string instruments like during the other films like in psycho with the really high-pitched instruments. Again minutes after the first attack there is another attack, during this there is a diegetic sound, and the sound of the birds just gets high pitched and makes the audience say this is too loud and too much. There still has been no music throughout the film and the only sound is birds. The final attack was no music again and only the high pitched scream of the birds making the audience wanting it to stop. The sound was slightly different during the final attack it was mainly the sound of the birds wings flapping instead of the loud pitched screeching like they do. The sound of all the birds goes immediately when the man closes the door.

Vertigo

Opening scene
Names are appearing over the facial features, moving up from the mouth to the eyes and the eyes go side to side, this is suspicious, getting closer into the eyes, it goes red and and she gasps and you see her eyes move, and they get really big. The music is cleverly used because there is a big loud bang when the credits come up and the eyes move. The blue thing spinning at the start, could show confusing and 'vertigo' reference to the title.


Near the start of the film, there is a chase and there is like where the man is hanging and looks down. We are instantly positioned with the man that is hanging above the buildings and this makes the audience feel scared because he feels scared. The shot where he looks down and the buildings stretch out show vertigo and refer to the title.


With the two people sat in the room, they are talking about how the man we were following has agoraphobia, and the fear of heights. There is a shot reverse shot used because they are talking. The shot reverse shot was first used on a strange angle. They start to talk about something intimate and the close up shots on the woman's face, to show her reaction and her expression. The man looks out the window when he is stepping up, and the music comes in, and the music links in with the narrative. This shows that hitchcock is using links from his other films.


The man is trying to defend himself from everyone, telling people that he is feeling good, and he is should be back at work. The camera followed the man when he setup and followed him walking deeper into the office, and he asks scotty to do a job for him, and then the camera is close on him to show his expression. Scotty refuses to do the job.
Another psychologically confused character, like in psycho.
The shot has one long drawn back track, and cuts to the restaurant, this then has scotty sitting in watching, as the two have dinner.


When the lady is walking in, they kind of notice each other, and there is a shot reverse shot with no talking that shows that she kind of sense that someone is watching her.
Point of view shot with the man in the car following the woman, changing to show the car he is following. Scotty is following the woman, and there is calm smooth music when this is happening. The woman is looking at a painting of the woman that she went to see the grave of earlier, and again an in the car shot.


Something doesn't add up in the hotel, Scotty sees the woman opening a blind, and parking outside. He then is really confused, because he saw her and her car, and when he goes up to the room both are gone. Then he is getting a drink and confused with a far shot reverse shot between him and the woman that he was originally with in the room.


The music is slow and calm when he is following her, every-time. He gets out the car, and the music gets quieter, and more 'suspicious'. Point of view shots are always used, when he looks at her in-front of the bridge.


The pace of the editing is fast, when the woman jumps in the river, and Scotty goes after her to save her, the editing is fast and the music gets extremely loud.


As they arrive at the town, the music is telling the story again, with high pitched strings. The camera is tracking very slowly into her face, this was also clearly shown in the film psycho.


The music gets loud and tense when they are chasing each other up the stairs.. there was another classic hitchcock perspective, with zooming out and moving the camera back at the same time.
Birds eye view of the stairwell, you can compare the shower scene in psycho to this scene because the edits get really fast, and the music gets loud.
Use of different colours to show his dream state, montage editing for the dream state, flash backs and colour being used, the use of special effect.. and when he woke up he looked straight at the camera.


We have another psychologically disturbed character because scotty has become afraid, he has a guilt complex. Scotty is in a mental asylum.


Scotty soon realizes that the original woman that he had been following was still alive, and the man had used scotty to follow this woman to help cover up the cover up the murder of his wife. Scotty finds a woman that looks exactly like her and soon finds out that it is the same woman that he had been following and the woman that he had fallen in love with, when he finds her out he takes her back to the murder scene, where is gets scared and walks back and she dies too.

Psycho

Stylistic Conventions
Editing
Pace, match on action, 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot, point of view
Opening, the lines represent coming together, murder mystery. The names are breaking apart.
The name of the film is short of psychopath therefore showing. There was only one edit within about 45 seconds of the opening, and then another 50 seconds until the next shot.
The 180 degree rule clearly being followed.
Close up  to then a shot reverse shot, and fast cuts to show there expressions towards each other. 
Edit to a new scene of a shop, panning across to see the lady walking in and then upto the desk.
Cut away shot used. The camera is with her all the time, its like we're in the room, and its like we are there and we are hearing what she's hearing and glancing up to the house. Close up of the money on the bed. Side shot from the man, looking up at his face, with the bird swooping down at him. The birds eyes are black, and look scary. 
Close up shot of the man looking though a hole in the wall to see the woman getting changed. The shot is so close to his eye.
There is a shot where the camera turns almost on a 180 degree pivot around the mans face.
Such fast edits between the killing, and as the audience you can see that someone's behind the person and the person can't see it as if the audience are going to shout turn around!
Disorientating camera angle when the man is rubbing the floor.
Most of the story telling is done through the music and movement of the actors, there is very little talking.
The man leaning over on the screen is very dominant, it looks like we are on the table looking up. He looks like a bird, with his neck stretching out.
Man falling down the stairs to create a sense of us falling with him, and then the shot that is close up on the knife that is stabbing the man, the camera moves a follows it into him. The camera is slowly moving up the stairs, like a pan and a track together.. it then around into dark and then there is an edit, and the camera moves up to the top of the door looking down, and then he comes out of the room.


Shot types
Pan, Close Up, Long Shot, Extreme close up, tracking
Panning shot, major establishment shot of the city which then zooms into the one room, and pans across the bedroom. Shot reverse shot being used. Tracking shot onto the money, a shot panning up and time has passed because the bag is more full than when it panned down. Point of view shot. Fading between different scenes.
Shot reverse shot used where she is talking to the owner of the hotel. The shot reverse shot with the man holding the tray, the eye-line of the woman is more looking at 'us' and the shot on the man makes him look venerable. 
'Eye-line match' - were positioned with her, the camera changes to see what she was looking at. There is two eye-line matches in the same scene.
Low angle shot on the man, to show the room, he looks like he is associated with the birds, and the one swooping behind him. Different shot types of in the murder scene, after she's been killed. The slow shot that goes to show the plug whole, and the continuos shot that goes from her face, then through the door and over to the money. and then again panning to house out the window. 
During the film, there is a lot of eyeline-matching shots. Like when the woman is searching through the house, and she is looking at lots of things in the room.
Parallel editing is used when she is looking through the room, and the man is talking to bates. There is the woman finding something in the house, and then her face looking frightening, and there is a parallel edit to show the two men talking.
The conversation between the two men, Hitchcock could do a shot reverse shot but because it's so tense its basically a confrontational shot.
Pace of the editing for faster when the man found out the lady was in his house.

Slow tracking used to get closer to bates, and we are sort of backing away and the camera kept getting closer.

Mise en scene and iconography
Setting, costume, lighting, make-up, expression, props, shot type. Basically how shot is laid out, it could be  a dark, scary forest, or it could be a bright, happy iconography.
The opening shows defragmentation, 'The psycho is breaking apart, and there mind is constantly coming together and breaking apart'
Cloudy sky, this could show that its 'getting darker' and something is going to happen, keeps the audience in suspense. Dark scary house up on the hill. Use of mise en scene in the office, the owl is kind of threatening, looking down, like its going to swoop down on them. 
The scene in the bathroom with the man cleaning it, it seems to be bright, but then when he moves the body it becomes dark again, and spooky. Like he has something to hide.
As soon as the investigator comes into the film, everything seems brighter and everything seems in daylight.
It gets darker when the investigator starts to realize that he is hiding something.
The woman hits the light as she turns around and see's the dead body, and this makes the light swing, this is so that when the shot shows the dead body, it gives the body some life because it shows its light sockets.


Music
Very dramatic opening, loud and then calms down to the opening of the cityscape.
Calm music constant, when the shot changed from the bedroom to the shop.
Very calm music but dramatic because she keeps looking at the money as if to say she's thinking about running off with it all. Gets louder as she puts the money in her bag. Someone has recognized her, and she drives off fast, looking behind her and the music gets louder and louder. The music is coming in when she's on her own, and when she's looking around or looks suspicious, all the music is just string instruments, because these instruments are portrayed as 'scary'.
The music always comes in when there is an important scene, like where he is talking about putting his mother in a "mad house". 
The music is very calm, but shows that something is going to happen because it starts getting louder as the woman is writing, and there is no talking but you can see things going through her mind. 
The first sound that you can hear is the really loud high pitched violins, which sound like screams themselves. The music is then really low after the murder when the woman is down in the bath.
When the man is moving the body, the music is calm and then starts to get louder as the man cleans up the body and the blood. The string instruments are trilling, which makes it sound a lot more tense, and the music is getting aggravating.
Most of the story-telling is done through the music. The music is all in the background when she is driving and then the voices are over the top speaking fast, and the music is fast. There is no sound when the inspector is walking up the stairs, and then he gets murdered, the sound is so loud, and the high pitched string instruments come back because they again sound like screaming.
The music gets faster when the shots get faster, when the man is chasing the woman because he found her in the house.


Narrative and thematic conventions - The story-line, theme. The idea that runs throughout the whole film.
Guilt
Buying off happiness, and making the others feel poor. Stealing money, she could then feel guilty later.
The woman might feel guilty for the man having to look after his mother all the time and having no friends.


Suspense
Everything seems fine at the start and then people will be wondering why it was called psycho, and this gives suspense because people are wondering why its called psycho.


Murder
The murder scene takes place in the shower, and the woman is taking a shower and you can see from behind the shower curtain someone come in the door.
Fast edits between the murder scene with the woman being stabbed, the shots get faster and faster, the blood running down the bath, and her hand rolling down the wall. and the woman reaching out for someone but then just dies.


Investigation
The opening shows that its coming together and breaking apart. The lines could represent the investigation coming together.
The man that is obsessed with birds.
'We all go a little mad sometimes' - this line is where he is talking to her, but it seems like he is actually talking about himself.
The private investigator finds out, and he walks in on the sister and Sam having a conversation shot reverse shot is also used during this conversation. The private investigator said he will find her.


Psychologically disturbed or confused characters.
The woman stealing money?
The man that stuff birds, telling the woman that she eats like a bird. He's a bit obsessed with stuffing birds, and using his time to stuff them. Telling this lady he's just met about his whole life, and how he's got no friends, and his parents have died etc, its all a bit leading on to a psychotic character!?
Close up shot of his face, with dramatic music.. and he's staring her.. talking about a 'mad house' the place where they put psychologically disturbed people, he's scared about her being observed. The man is clearly talking about himself, with the 'we all go a little mad sometimes don't we' line. This shows that maybe his mother is the one looking after him, and not the other way around.
The murder is clearly a psychologically disturbed
Voices in your head sometimes show that you might or could have something wrong psychologically.


Psycho Murder Scene

How many cuts are there?

During the video 'Psycho'. I counted around 56 - 58 different cuts. There was small long shots at the beginning and at the end but then in the middle there was around 20 fast split second cuts during the murder.

How long is each edit? What happens to the pace of the editing?

Each edit is around 3 - 5 seconds during the start of the piece, as it gets towards the middle the shower scene the cuts start to get faster, while she is washing her hair in the shower, then when the person walks into the shower and pulls the curtain and the loud screaming music kicks in, the edits get extremely fast shot reverse shot, this could represent the amount she gets stabbed, she gets stabbed for each shot meaning the killer is a 'frenzy', within around split seconds shots. Then again to the end of the video it gets slower, and a long shot with her eye after she is dead. 

How does the length of each edit link to the narrative?

The length of the shots at the start long and then when it gets to the middle the editing are jumpy and fast this is because someone is being murdered fast and the faster she gets stabbed the faster the cuts happen.How does Hitchcock control the audience's reactions through his editing?

He wants the person watching the video to be shocked and scared. Then after the attack the editing slows down because the audience will be in shock.

Conclusion

Stylistic conventions were used well to create fast pace, tension and fright within the film 'Psycho'. There was a range of editing that was used, from fast cuts to create pace within the scene, along with slow movements and edits to keep that movement going, for example when the camera is panning up the stairs, goes into dark, there is an edit, and the camera comes out again to continue the shot. There was a wide range of shot types that were used by Hitchcock, for example he used tracking to get closer to bates at the end, shot reverse shot, eye-line matching, cut away shots, and close ups. The mise en scene of the shots were all very well created, for example at the end the dead body being shown almost 'alive' because of the moving light which glows across the body.

The music during the film varied, some slow music to create a calm atmosphere and then fast and loud string instruments during the murder scenes to create tension between the audience, as the music starts to get faster the audience know that something is going to happen.

The narrative and thematic conventions include guilt, suspense, murder, investigations and psychologically disturbed characters. The suspense was created well, because it took thorough out the whole film to be able to see who the killer was, even though the audience get a good idea towards the end. Investigation was shown through all the characters, because as soon as the first killing happened everyone got in on what was happening, and they hired a private investigator, and then when they heard nothing back from him, they went to investigate themselves, from doing this themselves they figured out what happened and who did the crime.  The psychologically disturbed character was clearly bates, from the start something didn't seem right with him and he seemed a bit different, and then after the murder, the everyone (the audience) would start to get suspicious. Guilt is shown right from the start where the woman steals the money, and she can't deal with it because the voices in her head show that she can't stop thinking about it. Guilt is also shown again at the end beacuse the man who pretends to be his mother feels guilty beacuse he felt lust towards the woman, and his mother took over in his head, and killed her.

Parallel editing is used to speed up the narrative, this is used to build tension with the audience, and excite the audience.

Hitchcock uses music as a narrative, the music directly represents what is going on, you could potentially watch the film blind and know what's going on, this is a reason why Hitchcock is an auteur.

The eye-line match allows us to see the point of view of the character, and then this links in to give an un-easy feeling with the mise on scene, the fact that she's looking and then the camera switches to what she's seeing this positions the audience with the character.

Beacuse we've been following her and the interior monologue in the car, when she is killed we feel that pain that she's been stabbed.

Hitchcock uses no digetic sound in her interior monologue to represent her guilt, which is supported by the point of view shots in the car.

Director or Auteur?

Director - Someone who makes the decisions. A person who is in charge of an activity, department, or organization.


Auteur - Someone who is a director, but they have a large influence on the film as a whole, and are responsible for some of the plot, story-line. You can recognize there work, by there artistic style because there work is one of a kind. They have established themselves over many years, and they become 'well-known'.


The difference is that the film they have created reflects them as a person, and reflects them personally, so they are given the name Auteur.
'The king of directors'

Interview

We asked some people a few questions to get an understanding on what films they see and why they see them.


What is your favorite genre?
Comedy - 3
Romance - 1
Rom-Com - 1
Chick Flick - 1
Thriller - 1
Horror - 1


Favorite directors
Spielberg
Tim burton


Favorite Actors or Actresses
Mila Lunis
Daniel Craig
Channing Tatum
Emma Thompson
Hayden Panettiere
Kate Winslet
Jim Carey
Simon Bird
Joe Thomas
James Buckley


What do you get out of watching a film?
Relaxation
Entertainment
An Experience
Escapism
Laughter
Humor
Entertainment