LECTURE THREE

PSYCHO

1960


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PRE PRODUCION
PRODUCTION
POST PRODUCTION
These are three phases in film making. Pre-production includes everything up to the beginning the shooting of the film, postproduction is everything that happens after the film is shot.

In per production the entire shooting is often “storyboarded” – a kind of comic book set of panels showing each shot and where the camera is to be placed and how it moves and how the performers move and so on.. Alfred Hitchcock used to say that when he finished the story boards he lost interest. Everything after that was totally mechanical. This is not strictly speaking true.

Editing, which is done only after the film is shot, is an art form in itself. Although not divorced from the actual photography the way the film is edited can have an enormous impact on how the film looks. In a famous experiment and Russian film maker had an actor sit looking out of a window. The film maker shot several scenes of different events going on out in the street, and then cut back to the man in the window looking out.. People raved about the incredible talent of the actor and how he was able to covey such different emotion when looking at children playing or an old couple and so in. Interestingly enough, the shot of the actor in the window was the same shot edited into the film. People were reading emotion on the actors face based on what they had seen, but attributing it to the actor.

There are many things an editor can do. A good part of editing may have to do with the rhythm of the film. Films are often shot out of order as we have mentioned. In these cases the editor puts them into the order the director wants. Just how long each scene is on the screen gives the film a rhythm. Some films move in a slow stately manner, others zip along at a rapid pace. Then tendency now (since MTV perhaps)is to have shots which are very short. Directors in the past often had shots that lasted much longer. You may feel uncomfortable with long shots now because many people are used to the faster cuts and can not adapt to a different style.

One of the problems with “pan and scan” is that it adds another level of editing to the film. By panning and scanning, the film’s original rhythms are lost. It is true that other things are lost as well, but today we are talking strictly about editing. Some of the pan and scan problem like what you may or may not see in the film are in a sense less important. There is always something missing from the frame. The camera could have been further back allowing you to see even more. It is not clear whether it is always important that you know how many crew members are on a ship. (Forbidden Planet). During the filming of Bus Stop, the director stopped because the top of Don Murray’s head was not in the frame. Marilyn Monroe responded saying that she thought they had already established that Mr. Murray’s head had a top.

Editors also make “cuts” that is how scenes are joined together. In most instances these have to be planned in advance. If the camera is not in the right place in two sequential shots, there may be a mismatch problem. Form cuts, where the editor matched a form in one shot with one in another, are obviously meticulously planned. There is a famous “form cut” in Psycho See if you can spot it.

Psycho was, in many ways, a unique film when it came out. First of all, Hitchcock allowed no one into the theater once the film had started. There were other innovations as well which we will discuss later,.

Second. Hitchcock had a TV show which used a crew who were very used to each other and working quickly. When Hitchcock made Psycho he used that crew and the film was shot quickly. Hitchcock didn’t like the film and decided not to release it. He left the country and Bernard Hermann set about writing the score for the film. When Hitchcock came back, he looked at the film with the music and released it immediately. The score is one of the most famous in all films – as are many of the film’s visual sequences (as was the case with Sunrise). In fact Psycho may be the most analyzed film in the history of movies.

Photography
Lighting
How is lighting used in the film? Does the fact that it is B&W have an impact on the way it is lit?

Editing
How is the film cut in terms of rhythm, form cuts etc,

Composition
How are people and things organized in the frame?

Titles
How do the titles add to the film?

Music
What can be said about the music?

Symbols What symbols occur commonly in the film.

Acting
What can you say about the acting in the film

AFTER THE FILM Many firsts in film:
Janet Leigh killed off early
Bare midriffs,
Toilet
Word “Transvestite“
Photography
Black and white:
Shots and angles: Overhead shots (bird’s eye view
“peeping Tom” shots: film looks through window at beginning, Norman loks through hole in wall, stares by Perkins and “mother” Lots of looking (as in many Hitchcock films).

Lighting
Black and white uses light for separation, color need not. Hence the view of the scene is rather different
Back lightening for “mother” in shower sequence.
Faces often half lit. Part of personality is hidden
Norman often in dark clothes is almost invisible in darkness and seems to step out of it. Image of a person who is not really there.

Editing
Very complex – not just the shower scene with more than 70 shots.
Timing complex. Scenes at start of film rather long. Progressively shorter until shower scene – very fast. Picking up speed builds tension
Form cuts drain to eye.
Superimposition of “mother’s” skull on Perkins

Composition
Eyes, “birds eye view”
Placement of Marion is scene with birds. What kinds are there? Norman is often shown with “birds of prey” in the background., Marian is not.
Perkins often seen “off center” in composition of the frame.

Visual Images
Titles: Fragmented like Norman’s personality
Bars in titles, also in Venetian blinds, lines on road, tiles in bathroom, banisters and railings. Low angle shots for entrapment
Associations of food and sex (uneaten lunch, eating with Norman)
Wrong turn on highway
Mirrors showing duplicity

Music
Bernard Hermann set music while Hitchcock was away. Possibly most famous music in all film,
All strings, very stark in some ways – goes with black and white photography problem when film goes to color Sharp notes for shower = fear and stabbing.

Symbols
Birds, birds of prey
Bird’s eye view
Eyes and viewing (reflexivity)

Acting
Perkins: role of a lifetime. Quirky added lots of bits with eating when nervous, stuttering

Gavin: Often stiff – may be taken to imply he is not that involved with Marian as she is with him or would like his to be. Makes her theft and journey far more pitiful since she steals the money and rushes to someone who may not really be interested in a commitment

Text
Discussion of weddings (Marian wants to, Gavin was, secretary is, discussion of her wedding night, she holds the man didn’t make a pass at her because of her wedding ring etc. House is being bought as a wedding present. A good deal of subliminal sexual message being sent including questions about incest between Norman and his mother.
Similarly talk about mothers –“Turn mother’s picture to the wall” “Ted’s mother called” etc.

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