Technical Analysis: The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963) Trapped in a Phone Booth

(0:00 - 0:33)

 

Duration: 4secs

Technique: Long shot (LS) of people retreating from the diner as Tippi Hedren moves to the phone booth. We see the reaction of four other characters as the birds attack them.

 

Duration: 4secs

Technique: Mid-shot of Hedren as she is attacked by a bird and shuts herself in the booth. She covers her face with her arms.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: Mid-shot inside the booth, Hedren is on the left side whilst the phone is positioned on the right. Visuals of birds attacking can be seen in between them, representing the distance between people and communication.

 

Duration: 1.5secs

Technique: This static LS shows the gas station of the village on fire, as people with hoses attempt to douse the flames. The visuals are partially obstructed by the birds.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: A reaction shot as Hendren looks out of the booth, unable to help the people.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: A mid shot of the people attempting to stop the fire. The audience can see a car on fire and a lit stream of petrol running across the road.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: Back to a reaction shot of Hedren as she backs off from the window.

 

Duration: 3secs

Technique: A bird's eye view shot of Hedren as she comes to terms that the booth is surrounded by birds.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: Back to the static mid shot as Hedren turns back to look out towards the gas station.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: POV shot, as Hedren in the booth, of the road in which we see a car hurtling towards "us" as people also run in front of it as they fight off the birds.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: A close-up of Hedren as she turns in horror as she believes she is about to be crushed by the car.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: A static mid shot looks across fire as the car comes into shot, a man inside the vehicle has a seagull attacking the back of his neck.

 

Duration: Half a second

Technique: A quick close-up reaction shot of Hedren as she looks back round to see where the car has gone.

 

Duration: 3secs

Technique: Back to the mid shot of the car in which the man is still being attacked by birds, he drives off, the camera stays static.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: Hedren quickly looks round to the other side of the booth.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: LS of the bay as the car hurtles down the road and spins, knocking into another car that is on fire. Once again the shot is partly obstructed by birds flying at the booth.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: A reaction shot of Hedren as she brings her hand to her mouth in shock of the crash.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: LS again of the crashed car, the driver manages to open his door and escape the vehicle, still being attacked by the bird.

 

Duration: 1second

Technique: The final close-up of Hedren in the booth. She begins to turn around, as if to exit the booth.

Shot-by-Shot Technical Analysis: Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) Up The Stairs

(0:00 - 2:37)

 

Duration: 48secs

Technique: A tense shot in which for the whole duration James Stewart's face is framed in close-up, the camera zooms in slightly. After a crash disrupts the peaceful sound of cars driving Stewart slowly turns his head, as the whole of his face obscures the camera cuts to the nest shot.

 

Duration: 3secs

Technique: A static POV shot from Stewart's perspective of the dark room. The only light source we see is the light coming in from under the door.

 

Duration: 19secs

Technique: Back to Stewart with a mid-shot of his character, L.B. Jefferies, looking over his should. The camera stays static whilst Stewart spins his wheelchair towards the door.

 

Duration: 1 second

Technique: The same POV shot looking at the door.

 

Duration: 17secs

Technique: The shot begins with a long-shot of Stewart on his wheelchair as he attempts to find somewhere to hide. As he moves forward the camera pans left as well as pedding up smoothly, this gives the audience a clear view of the crammed apartment.

 

Duration: 8secs

Technique: Mid-shot head on with Stewart as he moves his wheelchair back, the camera follows his movements extremely subtly with a tiny pan left, as he begins to climb out of his wheelchair the camera tracks his movement.

 

Duration: 7secs

Technique: Mid-shot of Stewart as he stands, his face is obscured by a shadow, allowing the audience to only view his torso. As he sits back down in his chair the camera tracks

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: POV looking at the bottom of the door. The bright light suddenly cuts out.

 

Duration: 22secs

Technique: Back to the mid-shot of Stewart as he starts backing away from the door. The camera pans slowly with Stewart.

 

Duration: 3secs

Technique: A close-up of the camera flash Stewart found laying on his lap as he grabs a pack of light bulbs.

 

Duration: 11secs

Technique: Back to the mid-shot as Stewart backs his wheelchair further away, camera still tracking, into the dark area of his apartment by the window.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: Another POV looking towards the door, however we cannot see the door as the light source has now been turned off.

 

Duration: 2secs

Technique: Mid-shot of Stewart looking concerned and helpless.

 

Duration: 11secs

Technique: The whole screen is black until the door starts opening, Thorwald walks through the door in mid-shot, he is in silhouette until he walks into the light, which only illuminates his eyes.

Semiotics and Motifs in Psycho: "Media Semiotics - An Introduction" (Bignell, 2002)

In Jonathan Bignell's "Media Semiotics - An Introduction" Bignell gives small, yet useful pieces of information about how motifs and semiotics work within film, such as "a shot from behind the shoulder of one person, followed by a similar shot from behind the shoulder of another person, is the conventional means for representing a conversation and is called 'shot-reverse-shot,'" which is something that I had been taught about from the early years of my media studies classes, however I did not see the shot-reverse-shot as something that represents a convention in everyday life, I had just simply understood it as the norm for a conversation within a media text.

It is the little things that Bignell has written, including the shot-reverse-shot, that has opened my eyes to how every shot literally will include something that connotes to another meaning which after watching "Arbogast Meets Mother" again has made me see so much more than before.

Take Arbogast climbing the stairs, previously I would have seen it as someone simply walking up them, however when thinking about semiotics this could be seen as walking into uncertainty, especially in the way that the camera is focussed on Arbogast as he walks towards the camera, and so the audience is forced also unto this uncertainty as we cannot see what is behind us. Therefore we, the viewers, are denied the opportunity of dramatic irony except for the creepy shot of the door slowly opening, but still we have no idea what is to come from this doorway, maybe Norman who will confront Arbogast on why he is intruding on the house even when told not to, or will it be knife-wielding Norma, which is what makes this scene so intense, especially in comparison to the shower scene, as even though we are unclear as to who killed Marion, we are still shown the attacker through the shower curtain pre-stabbing.



It is the shot of the door opening that also connotes that horrid feeling of uncertainty for the character, but Hitchcock plays with this through the use of lighting, as the light coming from the room is a golden, almost comforting and inviting, and so as freaky as it may be there is still that hint of hope that Hitchcock will twist the story and it is good news. And yet as soon as the music rises to the famous Psycho screeches and we see the old woman exit her room to claim a new victim, yet again utilising camera angles to disguise who is really dressed in the old woman's gown.

So what I can gain from Bignell's work on film signs and codes is that everything that is seen and heard within a shot all adds up to one great meaning, it is not just the action of a knife repeatedly coming down that represents a brutal killing, but the screeches of violins and the angle that does not show the body that adds to the feeling of unease of the senseless act.

Project Update: 19/11/13

After reviewing much of the footage I have begun shaping a template/rough cut to be used for the rest of the project, so that I can get on with color grading and then completing the editing on PowerDirector. However I have found that there will be need for a reshoot not only for exterior shots but also for various shots inside, such as the hand reaching for the door. I will have to schedule this, with the only problem in the way being the production of my music video in media studies, which also needs a lot of time put in for the deadline in the lesson.

There have also been problems with the color grading software, which I have had trouble with as even though it is a free, small file, it still makes the computer very slow whilst in use, making it extremely difficult to get anything done.

At the moment the project has begun to slow down at a massive rate, however with extra time management precautions I will be giving myself I hope that the project will get back on track as soon as possible and I will be proud of my piece of work.

Filming Update 12/11/13

On Friday 8th of November my actors and I set out to get as much of the filming done as possible, and it is safe to say that it went fairly successfully. After reviewing the footage I feel confident that the end product will look good, with enough of the original "Psycho" included and some fresh ideas also in place.

The actors (Charlie Taylor and Max Lamb) were optimistic about filming which created good morale over the project and so after reviewing the storyboard and the original scene from the 1960 film we were happy to get under way, fortunately both were fairly sound in knowledge of the scene beforehand and so not a lot of actor preparation was needed.

We ran into a couple of problems immediately, such as we did not have a wig for Max's character (Norma Bates) to conceal that he is a man, however we overcame this by covering Max's head with a scarf instead which in turn gave the look of an older woman.
Another problem was that as we began filming it began to rain, which meant that we could not film external shots, such as Arbogast approaching the house, as it became extremely dark outside and the visibility was low meaning that the shots that we would have filmed would not have looked very good at all. This means that we will need to conduct a reshoot to get these shots.

The interior shots with actors went well, with the actors getting very much into character. From previous media and filming projects I have found that some people get impatient with having to reshoot sections over and over until correct, however Charlie and Max were happy to do so, and in many cases this was necessary, for example when Arbogast opens the door to enter the house we did not take into account the fact that a key must be used to open the door, so we had to be careful to keep the key out of the shot each time as it had to potential to ruin the scene. The weather also caused some problems with this shot as the weather conditions lead to the wind coming fast down the alleyway to the door which would either make it difficult to close or , in the most extreme case, would cause the door to slam.

The shots in which Norma Bates attacks Arbogast turned out to be more trickier than first thought, as the birds eye view shot as Norma exits her room needs a high ceiling in order to show both characters, and the distance between the two, prior to the murder. This proved a problem as the ceiling in the house used would not allow such a high shot, whereas Hitchcock had a specially built set that allowed a camera to be pulled up higher, and so I already feel that the shot (though good) is not as effective as less distance is shown between Arbogast and Norma in my work before the stabbing occurs.

My main criticism of Friday's shoot is something that I should be able to change as I feel that the colour of the shot is quite orange, as for lighting we simply used the house lights. I should be able to correct this using the free DaVinci Resolve Lite software that will allow me to manipulate the reds, greens and blues (RGB) of the shot in order to get a darker shot, or even completely change the composition to a fully black and white piece.

In conclusion I am very happy with the shots I have filmed so far, even though I am highly critical of them, and believe that the shots will lead to a great looking piece. From now on it is a matter of arranging a reshoot day, thankfully the shots featuring Norma were fine and so only one actor is needed, and getting editing under way, beginning with Color Grading.

Work Experience: Technicolor Post-Production Services, Soho

During the October half term (28th Oct- 1st Nov) I managed to get myself a work experience week in the Technicolor Post-Production House in Soho, London. During the week most of my time was spent as a runner, in which I had to cater for business clients every needs, however on one of the days I was given the chance to shadow one of the senior colorists to see what they did and what color grading involves.

The work of a colorist involves the manipulation of the reds, greens and blues (RGB) in order to change the colours within the shot. The reason for a client using a colorist could be that after reviewing the footage they have realised that there one shot is too bright in comparison to all of the others and so either the one shot can be darkened or the rest of the shots can be made as bright as the single shot. Another reason for a colorists use could be that a whole scene needs to have its tone changed completely, for example if a comedy duo are filming a sketch about two awful cops that is filmed in a cross between the styles of a late night Turkish drama and Starsky and Hutch they might film it at night, but this still may not look right, and so a colorist would use various tools, such as lowering the gamma, gain or lift, in order to bring the colours down to the blacker part of the RGB spectrum, which would give the scene a much darker and grittier feel. I was able to see all of these processes occur on various future television projects, as well as sit in on client meetings with directors who are more famous in the broadcasting world.

It's fair to say that this experience completely changed the way I see film and television production because when you sit there watching a show many will think that all of the colours in the shot, including lighting, are natural to when the project was being filmed. However my time proved this to be wrong, as during the day I was shown how to turn a shot that was filmed on a bright summers day into a convincing frosty winter morning. This made me realise just how important post-production is when creating moving image as various processes can be used in order to give the shot a darker feel, or to completely change the tone of the work.

The week at Technicolor has made me want to make the post-production side of my project just as important as the filming in order to get a more solid feeling that the scene is part of a noir thriller instead of a more basic thriller. This means that in my project I will use DaVinci Resolve Lite in order to color grade my work to give it the classic noir look.

Filming Update 06/11/13

After getting the interior shots done I have become more motivated to get the project done, and so have planned to film the shots with the use of actors on Friday 8th November, which will allow me to have all of the footage ready to be edited.

I have downloaded a colour grading software, DaVinci Resolve Lite, which will allow me to alter the colours if I feel that something is not quite right or a certain part of a shot needs to be either darker or lighter, or to give a whole different tone to the film. I will then use PowerDirector to edit the rest of the sequence.

Interior Scene Shots

During the half term period I have managed to get a majority of the interior shots completed, which I have edited into a short that includes notes for how the final piece will look.