Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

In the 1960 film, Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock does a tremendous job of creating an everpresent feeling of suspense. Around every corner seems to be the threat of danger. The shower scene in particular does an excellent job of provoking a foreboding notion of impending danger. The scene lasts for 22 seconds and consists of 28 shots, all contributing to the dangerous atmosphere. Before the scene begins, the camera takes a subjective point of view (that of the murderer), peering through a hole in the wall at Marion Crane, his victim.The camera shots of the murderer looking through the hole switch from close-up to extreme close-up, framing his eyeball intently starring at Marion undress. Marion's normal, everday task of taking a shower is turned into a suspenseful waiting game. Hitchcock emphasized every sound that she made while preparing to shower. When she unwrapps her soap, the extreme crumpling of the paper abruptly breaks the silence. The water from the shower faucet sounds five times louder than usual. All of these heightened sounds of mundane actions causes viewer discomfort, a contribution to the suspence. The notion of Marion's vulnerability reaches its climax while she is in the shower. The camera switches angles several times before it reaches the climatic shot; Marion showering in the right side of the frame while a dark sillouette slowly appears behind the shower curtain in the left side of the frame, and the camera zooms in on the killer lurking just behind the curatin.The chaotic shots during the murder switch back and forth between extreme close-ups of Marion's horrified expression, different parts of her vulnerable body, and the killer's knife raised high. During the 22 second scene, the viewer only sees the knife touch Marion's body for a split second, but the combination of the shots imply that she has been stabbed brutally multiple times. The music plays a key role in the murder, with high pitched violins played backwards to enhance the vulgarity of the murder. The camera then follows Marion as she slowly slides to her death, a drastic contrast to the previous chaotic and fast-pased stabbings. Near the end of the scene the camera shifts from her body to the draining water that is now tinted with her blood. Last, the camera follows the bloody water to an extreme close-up of the drain, which is superimposed into an extreme close-up of Marion's eye as she lays dead over the bathtub, an extremely dramatic effect.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image provided an illuminating glimpse at the movie and television industry. Most interesting, I found, were the demonstrations exploring modern editing. Specifically, the sound editing demonstration revealed how powerful of an impact sound effects and music render for a film. As necessary as the picture itself, the sound of a film creates the appropriate mood and emotion that is to be evoked from the audience. At the demonstration, scenes from the movie The Titanic were shown while manipulating the sound effects using a computer program. One run through of the scene where the Titanic is sinking was shown with only the human dialogue and voice audible, (muting all music or other sound effects) to demonstrate how certain human screams, panting, or thuds were emphasized to evoke panic. Another run through was shown with only the music audible, which revealed that the music is really the main contributor to the emotional aspect of the scene. Further dissection of the sound effects revealed a very interesting component; animal sounds such as lion and elephant roars. The only way to actually pinpoint these animal sound effects was to use the sound-editing program and single them out amongst the chaos of all the other sounds playing simultaneously. Apparently, the editors of the film wanted the ship to appear as a character of the film itself, and therefore appear more alive. The animal sound effects were included to insinuate that the ship was “dying” as if it were actually alive, and therefore provoke emotional feelings from the audience. Each and every sound in the scene was scrutinized over, (what volume to be played at, which thud or bang to emphasize amongst the rest, which splash in the water should be loudest) all for the single purpose of evoking the appropriate emotion from the audience. This demonstration truly enlightened my knowledge of the sound-editing process, and revealed how integral a role the sound effects and music play in the film as a whole.