Pyscho
What is psycho
Pscho is a psychological thriller that was released in the united states in 1960 and was directed by alfred hitchcock. When a woman is discovered as missing and is last seen at the Bates Motel in the middle of no where, her sister and boyfriend visit the place only to find it run by a voyeuristic, taxidermist loner whose possessed by his dead mother and dresses himself up like her.
Film Notes
Mise-en-Scene
-A Knife is used as the main prop in the film because it is the chosen weapon choice of the killer.
-The killers clothes to make them appear as a women or girl.
Camera Angle And Camera Movement
-Close up on the protagonists face to show how she is feeling and to see her facial features, a way hitchcock gets us to reconise her beauty.
-Mid-Shot of women when holding knife up to show it is a 'Women' and she is holding a knife above her head, ready to strike.
-One High angle on the protagonist in shower to show her vulnerability to the killer.
-We see Point of view shots of the antagonist which makes us the charcter, Hitchcock uses voyeurism as a method to make the audience feel uncomftable.
-A Hand held camera used in the scene with the shower that moves with the women and shows no violence towards her. Hitchcock does this to make it so simple but effective.
-At the end of the shower scene we have a graphic match between the plug hole and the protagonists eye.
Lighting
-When we see the man we see how his face is half dark and half light to show how his personality is split between the man and his mother.
-When the antagonist is walking about at the motel, we have a low key lighting to make it dark and look like night time, hitchcock does this to match the storyline of darkness. Night time is something Hitchcock likes to use to make the
Editing
-During the shower scence we have more than 70 cuts in less than a minute. This is used to make the audience feel dizy and make them feel uncomftable for what they are seeing. 78 cameras were set up to make the scene which was a extreme amount of cameras for 1960.
-At the end of the shower scene we have a graphic match between the plug hole and the protagonists eye. This was done to show the blood going down the plug which is like the life was draining out of the protagonists eys as she was lying there.
Sound
-When we are in the scene withe the the protagonist and anagonist in the back room, there are alot of high pitched non-diegetic sounds, which puts us in the position of the protagonist and makes us start to feel uncomftable with the way the man is acting towards her.
-This also happens when other bad moments are being led up to, Hitchcock does this alot to make an effect that the audience will be discomfated with.