Written Assignment Research & Plan

Resources I looked at as part of research

The classical Hollywood cinema: film style & mode of production to 1960 Film Directing Fundamentals: See Your Film Before Shooting Cinema studies: the key concepts Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: a casebook Hitchcock's motifs Hitchcock on Hitchcock: selected writings and interviews The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice Film studies: an introduction How Movies Work How to Read a Film The Oxford Guide to Film Studies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themes_and_plot_devices_in_the_films_of_Alfred_Hitchcock http://www.scribd.com/doc/22675821/The-Use-of-Objective-Subjective-Shots-in-AlfredHitchcock-Films http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dgillett/ENGL_411/pdf/DP_Chapter_2_selection_I.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinema http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_editing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory Essay Plan 1500 words (small steps in one discussion):

Introduction 150 words

This assignment will analyse critically the shower scene of Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho (1960) in terms of the relationship between story and structure. It focuses on the films

editorial and camera styling as well as the impact of the music score and cinematic techniques such as the subjective camera. Sources that will lead the investigation include Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (2000) by Susan Hayward which will aid to define key techniques of cinema and Sergei Eisensteins Film Form: Essays in Film Theory (1949) to help in deducing Hitchcocks editorial style. The assignment will begin by summarising the shower sequence of Psycho then defining and interpreting key terminology including editing and camera work before moving on to examine how certain aspects of the film such as subjective camera impact on the relationship between story and structure. To conclude, the assignment will strive to show the integral relationship between the story, and structure of the shower scene, through its technical construction.

Main Body 1200 (approx 7 paragraphs)

1. Paragraph focus: Montage Editing Kuleshovs fundamental theory that collision or conflict must be inherent to all visual signs in film. Juxtaposing shots makes them collide or conflict and it is from the collision that meaning is produced. (Hayward, 2000: 96)

2. Paragraph focus: Sergei Eisenstein, Metric Montage The fundamental criterion for this construction is the absolute lengths of the pieces. The pieces are joined together according to their lengths, in a formula-scheme corresponding to a measure of music. Realization is in the repetition of these "measures." Its clarity can bring into unison the "pulsing" of the film and the "pulsing" of the audience. Without such a unison (obtainable by many means) there can be no contact between the two. (Eisenstein: 1949)

3. Paragraph focus: Hollywoods Invisible Editing (Continuous Editing) Classical continuity editing reinforces spatial orientation. Continuity of graphic qualities can invite us to look through the plate-glass window of the screen. From shot to shot, tonality, movement, and the center of compositional interest shift enough to be distinguishable but not enough to be disturbing. (Bordwell, Steiger & Thompson, 1988: 56)

4. Paragraph focus: Subjective Camera Work Sometimes a subjective voice is desired. It is not altogether analogous to the first person voice in prose, but it shares that narrative function by allowing the audience to participate more fully in the interior life or perceptions of a character. The subjective camera allows us to see what out subject is actually experiencing not to be confused with simply using a point of view shot which is no shift in voices. (Proferes, 2008: 37)

Conclusion

In closing, Psychos shower scene is integral to the story of Psycho in that it is the point of the film where the narrative changes. Hitchcock vitally starts removing the presence of his McGuffin1 through the change of focal protagonist and voice the subjective camera work creates, the protagonist and voice of Crane acted as a prologue to the introduction of the real protagonist Bates so the $40,000 and Crane herself acted as the McGuffin. The McGuffin allowed Hitchcock to keep the audience at his fingertips until the primal moment of the shower scene where important events begin to take place and unfold such as the montage allowing an emotional understanding and insight into Bates mother while, the metric montage meant that the viewer did not question any realism of events on screen allowing Hitchcock a further hold on our perception of the storyline. There was also the invisible editing which put us in the killers shoes therefore, creating more empathy with Bates character due to the killer being of relation to him. Every technique Hitchcock uses throughout the shower scene has an important impact on its structure and so consequently a major impact on the storyline. For instance, if there was no subjective camera the change of protagonist would be harder to follow perhaps even making it that we dont view Bates in

that way and for that reason there is a tight bond between the structure of this scene and the story.

Illustration List

Bibliography