Movement & Editing

 

 

The movie Psycho definitely relies on careful editing and special movements of the camera to portray the thrilling and suspenseful feelings to the viewer.  Even with the movie being from the 1960s Alfred Hitchcock did a tremendous job of this especially in the climax scene of the movie.  The scene where the viewer finds out the truth about the mother, Mrs. Bates.  The scene is shown below.

 

The scene starts out with Lila coming down the stairs and the camera then enters a shot as if were in the mind of Lila looking out the window and we can see Norman Bates coming up to the house to find her.  Lila then hurries down stairs as the camera follows it ends up stopping into a floor level, low angle shot on Norman Bates as he comes into the house.  At this point the moving characters along with the camera angles are making the suspense.  As Norman Bates runs upstairs the camera then follows Lila up the stairs then there is a cut scene as we look down onto the fruit cellar door from Lila’s eye level once again almost as if we, the viewer, are being put into Lila’s mind.  Now at this point it is the camera movement that is creating the suspense as Lila realizes that Mrs. Bates is down in the cellar the camera follows Lila downstairs.  Once Lila makes it to the door a low angle shot looking on to Lila a low angle shot keeps the suspense rising.  After she makes it through the door once again we have almost the same tactic of building suspense.  As Lila walks through the room  the camera spins on an axis following Lila to the next door and after that the view is again put into a low angle shot as she walks through the next door.  As she gets to the next door it is the character movement and camera angle and positioning that is creating the suspenseful mood.  The camera and Lila both have our backs turned to what we are about to see as you can see below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWHYmNrAFlI (0:46)

We then make a quick turn around and we get the first glimpse of Mrs. Bates.  We are then turned back to Lila and we are taken backwards by the camera.  We turn back around as we finally see the truth about Mrs. Bates as Lila spins her around in the chair.  She screams and we are taken into a series of reaction shots as Norman Bates in his mother’s persona runs into the room.  The reaction shots are between Lila and Norman Bates and then with Sam as he races in to save Lila.  I think another thing to point out in this particular part of the scene is that the camera focuses in on the knife creating even more terror for the viewer.  As Sam restrains Norman Bates and takes the knife away we start to get a feeling of relief but then we are taken back to a close up of Mrs. Bates putting back the terror into the climactic scene.  The scene then ends with a mass of cars and people around the court house.

Understanding Movies Thirteenth Edition Louis Giannetti

 

 

Ideology Blog

          The Searchers and High Noon both classic western films both made in the 1950s.  The two films both take place in the post Civil War era.  Both films have a lot of similarities in their stories as well.  In short The Searchers is about a man named Ethan Edwards and his nephew fighting against Indians to get his niece back who was kidnapped.  High Noon is a film about a Marshal who has to fight a an outlaw coming to his town at noon and when he goes out to ask for help he finds that the town decides they do not want to help and would rather just give up then sacrifice their lives.  It is safe to say that both films fall into the category of implicit ideology.  The protagonist and antagonists represent conflicting value systems, but are not directly dwelled on.  In both films the protagonists have other small problems they are forced to deal with but in these two it is obvious to see the main problem between the protagonist and antagonist.  The protagonist in High Noon is Will Kane played by Gary Cooper.  He is the Marshal of the town in Hadleyville and has to bring down the antagonist Frank Miller who is an outlaw and was brought to justice by Will Kane years ago and is now looking for revenge.  The protagonist Will Kane and antagonist Frank Miller and his gang are shown below giving evidence of an implicit ideology.

The protagonist in the film The Searchers is Ethan Edwards played by John Wayne. He had just come back from the Civil War and moved in with his brother’s family. He was recruited as a Texas Ranger to fight against the Indians terrorizing the surrounding area. He was out on a mission when his brother and his family were kidnapped by Scar the protagonist in the movie. Scar is an Indian chief who kills all of the family members except for Ethan Edwards’s niece Debbie who in the end they save. The protagonist and antagonist are shown in a confrontation below in the scene from the movie, once again proving an implicit ideology.

These movies both possess a thing called personality stars. In the American cinema the star system is often a clue to values when the protagonist is played by a personality star. A personality star is a well-known actor or actress that people admire and respect. Good looks and sex appeal and a good set of values are compelling traits for personality stars. The personality star in High Noon is Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper is one of the well-known actors of the 1940s and 1950s. The personality star that is in The Searchers is John Wayne both are household names maybe John Wayne a little more but none the less both are well known. There previous movies is what also gives them the category of personality stars. Both of these movies possessing personality stars give the movies a set of values. The movies both being western movies both men give the values that you have to be tough and to never give up whether that be in anything in life.
In all both movies have the ideologies of implicit because both contain a protagonist and an antagonist. The set of values comes from the characters in the movies being personality stars.

Sources:

Understanding Movies, 13th Edition, Louis Gianetti