Psycho Scene - We all think crazily!

Audience Importance in Psycho

Audience engagement is created and maintained through the consistent use of suspense and according horror. Beginning quite intimately, association between audiences and characters are created. Relying on the corruption from theft, the plot allows characters to begin development, resulting in brasher actions in response to complications.Through this form of narrative, actions are justified, allowing plot to escalate quickly. Therefore, as conflicts become evident throughout the plot, the stress of traumatic experiences are perceived well by the audience. An interesting form of narration is used during Marion’s escape in her new car. Via voiceover, dialogue between Marion’s coworker and boss is heard, growing more alarmed as time progresses. This particular narration occurs with little shown events, yet generates a strong response with the audience. Guilt is obvious to audiences, yet it is unsure wether this is originates from Marion’s thoughts, or if it is a filmic version of an aside. 

Marion’s reactions, seen as coincidental, match the emotion that would be associated to the ironies of the dialogue. (Here yet another allusion occurs for those who have already seen the movie or audience members who have predicted the outcome; “I'll get it back and if any of it's missin' I'll replace it with her fine soft flesh!” Such psychopathic thoughts, while presently comprehensible, lead to the theme that revengeful brash actions arise from other brash actions.) Therefore, this scene not only suffices to include the character’s reactions to the theft, it also reveals underlying themes that orient the film as well as our society.

Culture Reflects Psycho and vice versa

Culture Reflections of Psycho

Hitchcock’s Psycho reflects many of the cultural “expectancies” of the timeframe, and displays the bold experiments sought by its producer. American filmmaking had not revolved around the horror genre, yet Psycho generated an onslaught of similar films, suggesting the perspectives on film experiences had been altered. Hitchcock’s own style of filmmaking varied as well, as the usual suspense was applied to further horrific scenes. “[Hitchcock’s films] unquestionably establishes [him] as an indispensable historian, critic, and analyst of American middle- class culture from the 1940s through the 1970s, and ratifies the importance in general of a socio-historical approach to the films of Hitchcock's major period.” (Hitchcock’s America, Jonathan Freedman, 58). When released, the film was revolutionary in the sense that it introduced many novice experiences of filmmaking, and began the “slasher” film genre. Therefore, the film not only displays many experiences linked to culture, it shows the evolution of publicly accepted film topics. 

Psycho provides focus on society, and analyzes each; supplying large amounts of emphasis on corruption. Using such corruption as a major plot generator creates attention regarding the human ability to underestimate consequences; and more importantly to suggest that the human mind can produce justification for corruption. Using examples both from Marion’s theft of the forty grand, as well as Norman Bates’ excuses for the murder of Marion and many more, it is established that Hitchcock wishes Psycho to serve as a reminder of our ability to deem malicious deeds insignificant. Assuming this film’s themes reveal American cultural flaws, one may associate the lessons of corruption as applicable towards the audience; targeting the potential shame felt by offenders. Additionally the film offers the possible punishment of stealing $40,000!

Historical and Institutional Influences

Psycho and Hitchcock

The production and success of Hitchcock’s Psycho was heavily affected by the factors of the production’s time of creation. Independently produced by Hitchcock, the film is able to acquire a certain freedom of expression and implement a new genre of filmmaking altogether. Psycho derived from the horror novel by Bloch, yet once interpreted to film was considered at the time to be so poignantly gory that it deserved the association of a slasher film. In an analysis, Michael Lewis adds that “Psycho helped create the modern horror film… [Hitchcock was] So fruitful… that a single film could spawn an entire genre” (1). With a film adaptation of a novel, it allowed Hitchcock to exploit his audience’s emotions of terror.

  The movie Psycho in itself provides some forms of historical documentation, including the aspect of developing the slasher film genre. Lewis comments that “Psycho [has become] a capsule history of cinema” (26). During the late 1950s, costs of living were relatively low by current standards. The plot of Psycho involves a hefty sum, which might have caused further liaison between the audience and the character’s actions. Majority of audience members were below average income, recovering from a recession. During this time, the reasoning for actions by the characters could be justified, not scorned upon; generating a feel of reasoned helplessness towards Marion Crane, not necessarily anger. Hitchcock’s films often “took place in a moral universe” (26). While the plot is not moralizing, brash action remain justified. Audiences’ awkward emotions towards Marion where generated by Hitchcock, who enjoyed finding “situation that were [interesting], about which he could base a script” (2). The suspense offered little distraction from the plot; fueled by the character’s actions, and the potential for morale justification from these actions.

Sources:

http://web.tiscali.it/andrebalza
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film

http://movies.toptenreviews.com/reviews/mr250898.htm

Analysis by Michael Lewis

Psycho

Analysis - Psycho 

Psycho follows and sets guidelines to common horror films, notably the sequences of events focused on generating suspense in the audience, rather than the focus be set mainly towards the plot. Alfred Hitchcock found inspiration for the movie Psycho from the novel by Robert Bloch, as well as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques (The Diabolical(s)). Interestingly, when Hitchcock decided to generate his movie, he quickly bought the rights to the novel and nearly every copy of the novel made in order to maintain the ending anonymous. In this sense, those who had heard news of the novel were ignorant as to plot, and would be “unprepared” for climatic moments. Additionally, Hitchcock wanted to separate himself from the common large-budget films and wished to conduct and experiment with Psycho. Hitchcock wanted to determine if a low budget, black and white film could be filmed in seemingly more efficient television filmmaking. No largely known actors were used in Psycho, not matching other films produced by Hitchcock, which included well-known actors.

            Aimed towards audiences that had probably not read the entirety of the novel, Hitchcock oriented Psycho in order to demonstrate that A-class movies could be achieved without necessarily the use of color or flamboyant amounts of investment. In order to attain such rating, Hitchcock manipulated the script in order to largely build suspense, introducing characters in a similar style technique of parallel action. Psycho primarily introduces the ill-fated Marion, lead actress, then the merciless villain, named Norman.

           Similar to many films produced by Hitchcock, themes within Psycho are not explicitly shown, often relying on underlying metaphors. Examples of such symbolism are the recurring imagery of stuffed birds and reflecting mirrors, which from a perspective reflecting the death and the eternal, as well as the awkward use of hands and eyes. Audiences could equally be interested in this imagery that includes the prerequisite elements for dark comedy. The film also identifies the themes of degeneracy and fraud, as well as individual’s vulnerability towards being corrupt.

            All these aspects where incorporated in the movie Psycho, which cost a measly $800,000 for the full production. The critics posted mixed reviews about the film, which introduced new elements into American filmmaking, such as unconventional voyeuristic scenes, as well as the first flushing toilet to ever be filmed for an American production.

            In these perspectives, Psycho was nearly an experiment directed by Hitchcock to identify what extent audiences would allow a film to remove aspects of glamour, and still be considered A-rated. This experiment proved to succeed, demonstrating that by removing excess flamboyancy, the plot is emphasized, the underlying messages can be evaluated, and the gore of the movie “appreciated.”

“Video Killed the Radio Star” - Not only a song.

Part 1

“Motion pictures will do for the eye what the phonograph has done for the ear.”
– Thomas Edison

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When separate, these two do benefit the anatomy described in Edison’s perspective, but the proper combination of both creates the cinema we enjoy today. 

Edison understood the potential of sound and film, and in the spring of 1895, began offering forms of Nickelodeons he called “Kinetophones.” The viewer had rubber ear tubes connected to a phonograph that was activated in sync with the motion picture. This was soon followed by another variation of the Kinetophone, operating on the same principle, with the image projected on a screen. One of the earliest experiments with sound, Edison’s Kinetophone had not developed to the full potential in its association with film; spoken dialogue until 1913. Nonetheless, once spoken text was introduced, the concept was quickly omitted, as syncs of audio to visual were not always achieved by the unexperienced workers manning the Kinetophones. Other than being annoyed at lack of synchronization, many viewers were shocked at hearing the actual voice of some of their actors, who did not match their expectations. Additionally, actors could no longer receive coaching during shots, and thousands of dollars were to be spent on the sound stages. Studios therefore remain confident that consistency and silence was the best solution, as they still were attaining reasonable profit with the production of silent films.

Yet during the early 1920s, developments continued, and commercialization began during the late 1920s, in many short films. The first major, feature-length film to be produced as a “talkie” was The Jazz Singer, in October 1927. Being a major hit, other large studios began to understand the potential of dialogue in film. Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, Universal, First National, and PDC (Producers Distributing Corporation) signed and agreement in 1927 to use the same sound converter for continuity. Warner Brothers, not in the agreement, began undertaking talkies after the Jazz Singer, all very marketable. The other two movies were Lion and the Mouse, as well as the Lights of New York. Both profited more than 5,000%, costing $23,000 and receiving $1.25 million. Following Warner Brother’s example, many other studios began integrating sound into their films, and Paramount released Beggars of Life, with a few lines of spoken dialogue. In May 1929, Warner Brothers took once again the initiative and released an all color, all-talking movie On with the Show!

Even with the progressions occurring, many smaller movie theaters fell behind, intimidated by the prices of upgrading their equipment. Nonetheless, the urban movie centers were soon overcome by demand, and this began the movie industry as we know it. 

Some studios had doubted the “talking” industry, as they worried that many stylistic preferences could be lost. Silent films allow for a deeper perspective on characters without worrying about character’s dialogue.

Part 2

Spiked with potential profit, many studios set out to mass produce film. From a certain angle, such technique helped the movie studios improve their techniques at quickly producing films; yet causing these films to depreciate in production value. This studio system was set up to facilitate movement from the production to the movie theater. Effectively monopolizing movie theaters, major studios were able to ensure viewership for their movies. Positive aspects of such a system was that prices were kept constant for viewers, yet block booking occurred, as the studios wished solely for maximum profit.

Links:

http://cybercollege.com/frtv/frtv003.htm

http://www.filmsound.org/ulano/talkies3.htm

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmrrg.html

Blog- Writing About Film

In response to the blog post assignment "Writing about Film"

The five main forms of film writing highlighted in this piece are formal analysis, film history, ideological references, cultural cinema, and discussion of auteur. Formal analysis entails the decomposition of the film to emphasize the necessity of individual aspects to the main composition. Understanding the “story” behind a film is analyzed through film history. These analyzations can be based upon the history behind a film, if a historical fiction, or be about the production history of the film. Ideology papers can be created as well in order to highlight an opinion. These manipulative films provide interesting insight on the facility of influence through cinema. Next is cultural studies, who reflect the nations in which they are produced. Hollywood films match certain genres of the filmmaking. Interesting points are to be made when identifying and evaluating the differences in filmmaking, and how easily they make us reflect of cultural distinction. Finally, auteur discussion focuses on the vision and opinions of one person; the director. This allows for distinctions to be made at levels deeper that culture, being individual differences and mindsets about filmmaking.

Annotating a shot sequence relates to the possibility of assembling the equivalent of notes when writing a film analysis. These notes are the annotations of a shot sequence. By focusing solely on the composition of shots, it is possible to identify a director’s editing scheme and efficiently evaluate it. Patterns may emerge, allowing these shots to be used as a method of support to the opinions suggested in one’s paper. Camera manipulation may also be “singled out” for evaluation and critique, to match the director’s decisions for certain shot lengths, and to identify profound context behind a film.

Writing about film must not solely encompass the five strategies listed above. Details about the director’s preference for certain genres and themes may provide interesting insight on the film or the director him/herself. Often by simply focusing on the creators of the film and their intent at genre will be sufficient to create an interesting point of interest or insight on the film being critiqued.

The original document can be found here:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/humanities/film.shtml