Hitchcock’s Creation of Suspense Through Extreme Close-Up Shots
Great points. There’s so much on the technical aspects of the scene, but much less on the why. The really important part!
Alfred Hitchcock uses a combination of film techniques to build suspense in his film, Psycho. Most notably, the dramatic score permeates the entirety of the film. The score is dark, haunting, and ominous. The audience is conditioned to recognize that something horrible is going to happen when that music is played. Without the use of the score, the film would be less dramatic and suspenseful.
Hitchcock also incorporated a variety of shots to create suspense. There were three extreme close-up shots used before, during, and after Marion’s murder, that I found particularly interesting. The first was the close up of Norman’s eye as he looked through the peep hole as Marion was undressing. The second was the shower drain shot as the mixture of water and Marion’s blood fell into it. This shot then dissolved into an extreme close-up of Marion’s dead, non-blinking eye. I thought these shots did…
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Elvis: American Messiah
With the unexpected death of Lisa Marie Presley my mind turned to her star-crossed legacy.
“Before Elvis there was nothing.”
-John Lennon
His image is as familiar as a Coke bottle, or McDonald’s arches. His life has been dissected, recounted, blogged, and now made into Baz Luhrmann’s, ‘Elvis’. Somehow, through it all, there still lingers a mystery behind those TCB Neostyle sunglasses.
My first memory of Elvis was watching his K-tel tv commercials after school. They were low-budget, cheap-looking, cheesy affairs. Made quick to cash in on his death, and played on constant rotation between reruns of Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island. They were like nothing else on TV.
Images of, “The King,” would spin across the screen. Elvis on in Hawaii, with a colorful lei draped around his neck. Elvis in concert. His handsome profile looking out into a darkened arena, gripping a mic with a fistful of sparkling rings, striking with his dark tan, jet-black hair, and white, high collared jumpsuit. “Let Elvis touch…
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Never Forget…When Gwen Stephani Came Dressed as a Christmas Tree
Elvis: American Messiah
“Before Elvis there was nothing.”
-John Lennon
His image is as familiar as a Coke bottle, or McDonald’s arches. His life has been dissected, recounted, blogged, and now made into Baz Luhrmann’s, ‘Elvis’. Somehow, through it all, there still lingers a mystery behind those TCB Neostyle sunglasses.
My first memory of Elvis was watching his K-tel tv commercials after school. They were low-budget, cheap-looking, cheesy affairs. Made quick to cash in on his death, and played on constant rotation between reruns of Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island. They were like nothing else on TV.
Images of, “The King,” would spin across the screen. Elvis on in Hawaii, with a colorful lei draped around his neck. Elvis in concert. His handsome profile looking out into a darkened arena, gripping a mic with a fistful of sparkling rings, striking with his dark tan, jet-black hair, and white, high collared jumpsuit. “Let Elvis touch your heart one more time,” the announcer would say in a soft hush, as camera bulbs twinkled like stars in a night sky. “Amazing Grace, Love me Tender, Don’t be Cruel,” he cooed. “20 songs of inspiration sung by the King.”
Who is this king? I wondered.
His origins story is familiar. Eerily familiar. Born in a small town on the wrong side of the tracks to a Jewish mother. A miraculous birth (miraculous in the sense he survived when his twin did not). Surrounded by a tight-knit, seemingly devoted group of disciples. Governed by the enigmatic (trickster archetype) Colonel Tom Parker who transformed a Mississippi sharecropper’s son into a rock god, and ultimately became a Judas of a manager.
The final chapter of his life an unexpected, and humiliating death known ’round the world for it’s shocking unglamourous end.
Coincidently the King was found dead while reading a book about the shroud of Turin, ‘A Scientific Search for the face of Jesus.’ A shadow messiah reading a book about a messiah’s shadow.
Is this the Superman Curse under a different name? The Hidden Messiah in plain view?
Thanksgiving Decorations
Marilyn Sells NYC…Again
A Portrait of Jared Kushner
I can’t help but notice a resemblence.
Toe Tags & Warning Labels
Zombie Boy Remembered
I love Halloween. It’s this time of year I think of Zombie Boy. He was such a perfect model of Halloween, spookiness, goth fashion, street carny, whatever you like. For all his fame from being a living corpse, it’s hard to believe he’s been gone four long years.
thekitschwitch 