Psycho (1960)

Psycho

The film Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles.

The story line is based on Marion who needs money to be able to get married, so when she is told to put money in the bank for her boss instead she goes home packs her bags and leaves with the money. She then pulls up at an old motel and meets the man who owns it. From the outset he seemed rather strange and untrustworthy.

In Psycho you initially think that the film is based upon the theft of the money not at the fact that at the house opposite the motel their is a murderer who awaits. Which is why when Marion is murdered it is a shock to the audience as you were more concentrated on the money. Which then makes you think that  now any thing can happen.

The audience are now aware at the fact that there is a murderer in the house opposite, which makes you anxious as you know he or she can strike again at anytime.

There are many examples of fast pacing action in Psycho. One of these would be after Marion has stole the money and she is on the run. another would be the shower scene when Marion is murdered which is shown below.

The shower scene is a very well known scene and those who haven't seen the film would have most definitely had seen the shower scene. The full horror of the murder on screen is only hinted at, it takes the viewers imagination to fill in the gaps and make it as gory or imaginative as they want. With the shower scene all we end up actually seeing is the knife, blood, water and a women's body and only the brief penetration of the blade in to the flesh. 

Hitchcock said "Thrillers allow the audience to dip their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like". In my opinion Hitchcock has definitely succeeded in doing so in this film. 

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was born on the August 13 1899 and sadly passed away on April 29th 1980. Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. Hitchcock had a very successful career in Britich cinema in silent films as well as talkies and was said to be England's best director. However he then moved to Hollywood in 1939 and then became and U.S citizen in 1955. 

Hitchcock was raised as a catholic child and was then educated in the same way. He was said to have quite a lonely childhood and was usually isolated due to being obese. Hitchcock had a very strict father who always punished Alfred for his bad behaviour. One way in which he did this was by making him sit in a prison cell for the night. However his father unfortunately died when Hitchcock was only 15.

Hitchcock started off by submitting short articles to a newspaper. It was then when he became interested in photography and film production, which he then started working for a company which later became Paramount Pictures. In 1920 he then got a full time job in islington studios creating titles for silent movies.

Alfred Hitchcock had ended up directing more than fifty feature films during his career which was over six decades. Hitchcock had come first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph. What they said was "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands...". Many people would agree and many people have said that Hitchcock was the most influetial filmmaker of all time and is widel regarded as one of cinema's most significant artists.

Psycho is one of Hitchcock's most well known films, which was a low budget black and white thriller. The film was well loved by the public and managed to brake box office records in several countries. Psycho ended up being the most profitable film throughout his career and will always be remembered for the well known shower scene. 

Editing the sound of our thriller!

Today we decided to add in some sounds in to our thriller using freeSFX. We ended up using a bar ambiance sound to make it sound more natural and less staged. We had a few problems as at first we weren't able to hear the talking of the actors over the added sound so we turned parts down and now we're a lot happier with the result. We still have a bit more to film and edit and then hopefully we are finished.

The Source Code

The Source Code (2011)

The source code is an action thriller based on a soldier who wakes up in the body of someone else, when he then discovers that he's part of a missions to find out who the bomber of the Chicago train was. 

Source code was directed by Duncan Jones and written by Ben Ripley. The film stars, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga. 

The estimated budget of the film was $32,000,000 and in the opening weekend the film made $14,812,094 in USA. 

Review:

"The story line keeps you on the edge of your seat and adds in enough humour to make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience"

I would definitely agree with this review as when I was watching it I didn't want to blink just in case I'd end up missing something. It also contains all of the key conventions which a thriller needs. 

Shown below is the trailer of the film:

What the trailer shows us is many different scenes of the film to show the rough story line of the film. this is done with loads of fast shots to make sure its all crammed in to the trailer. The director chose enough shots to entice the audience to go and see the film but not enough to give away what happens in the film. 

In the first five minutes of the film what you are shown is the main character waking up on the train all confused not knowing where he is, who he is or what he is doing. We then see him look around the train in a panic not knowing what is happening. The shots shown are rather long to match his feeling of disorientation. We then see the main character look in to the mirror in utter confusion as he looks in to the mirror and see's himself as someone else, which he then realises his not who he thought. 

Each of the train scenes are very important as they start of unaware and Captain Coulter Stevens seems very unsure about where he is and what has gone on. However as you continue watching you see how he starts to get used to who he is and the mission which he has to fulfil. You also see how the camera shots become quicker as he gets closer to revealing and finding out who planted the bomb on the train. In the train scenes you also see how Captain Coulter Stevens feelings and emotions change towards people on the train especially towards Christina. Who at first he was rather harsh against not knowing who she was, but later in he began to care about her and stated to worry about her safety knowing what was going to happen. 

In the Source Code there is a scene where a very emotional phone call takes place between Captain Coulter Stevens and his father, which i believe was added to show another side of the thriller and to interpret different  aspects of other films. It shows that thrillers haven't got to be all about fast-pacing action and that it can include a bit of down to earth emotional footage. 

The final scene of Source Code was very anxious and had everyone on the edge of their seats as nobody knew if Captain Coulter Stevens and Christina where going to be able to get out alive and live their lives together. As you then find out they did and they are safe there is then a sense of relief.

Our Ident

So today we've been creating our ident, using numerous different adobe programs like, Fireworks, Photoshop and Premier Pro. We've struggled with some of the programs as we were unsure on how to use some of them so now we're having to look on the internet to find out how to do some of the stuff which we want to include in our ident.