Psycho

Essentials Director: Alfred Hitchcock Screenplay: Joseph Stefano Music: Bernard Hermann Released September 8, 1960 Appears on the National Film Registry as well as #14 on the 2007 AFI List

Characters in this scene Anthony Perkins… Norman Bates Martin Balsam… Detective Arbogast

Summary FILM: Psycho begins when a secretary pockets the money that her employer has entrusted her to deposit in the bank. After skipping town, she pulls into the Bates Motel along a lonely stretch of highway. There she meets the seemingly quiet and shy proprietor, Norman. She is brutally murdered in her room’s shower later that night, and the viewer wonders if Norman is her killer. Or could it have been his mother??? SCENE: Following the woman’s disappearance, an investigator visits the Bates Motel to try to find more information on her whereabouts.

Thesis With attention to long shots, angles, eye-line match, and mise en scene, director Alfred Hitchcock portrays not only the ominous setting of the Bates Motel, but also the danger that awaits anyone who dares enter. Go to clip (note-I relied on YouTube, so there is a part where the detective goes into the office (where the bird is), but that isn’t in this clip. Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bieIiX5KLQ

ESTABLISHING SHOT: seems to be dusk/ nighttime Light diminishingdanger

ESTABLISHING SHOT/MISE EN SCENE: DETECTIVE ALONE IN SURROUNDINGS COLUMNS/TREES ALMOST LIKE CAGEHE’S TRAPPED

ESTABLISHING SHOT AND MISE en SCENE E.S. MAKES DETECTIVE LOOK SMALL IN COMPARISON TO THE BATES HOUSEHIS VULNERABILITY BUILDING COLUMNS/TREES: ENTRAPMENT, DOOM NOTE LIGHT: COMPELLING, DANGEROUS

DETECTIVE TO BIRD TO DETECTIVE EYELINE MATCH: DETECTIVE TO BIRD TO DETECTIVE SUBJECTIVE POV: VIEWER EXPERIENCES/ ASSESSES SITUATION ALONG WITH DETECTIVE MISE EN SCENE with BIRD: OFTEN OMINOUS SIGN, PLUS IT’S STUFFEDCONQUEST MEDIUM SHOT: WHAT DON’T WE SEE?

HARSH ANGLES: LIKE GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM TO REFLECT DISORDER; LABYRINTH—IS THERE ANY ESCAPE?

LOW ANGLE/ESTABLISHING SHOT/MISE EN SCENE: DETECTIVE HAS ACHIEVED HIS DESTINATION, BUT DANGER LOOMS (LIGHT IN UPPER LEFT CORNERALMOST SUPERNATURAL AND HE STILL LOOKS TRAPPED

MEDIUM SHOT: AUDIENCE WONDERS ABOUT SURROUNDING, UNSEEN DANGER MISE EN SCENE: STAIRS, DOORS, HALL WITH ARCHED DOORWAY: LIKE A LABYRINTHE NEAT, ORDERLY: DECEIVING? STERILE? EYELINE MATCH: VIEWER BECOMES LIKE A DETECTIVE AS WELL

If this were a real project… The clip we viewed would be too short; yours needs to be about 4 ½ to 5 minutes If this were a complete presentation, the rest of the clip would be analyzed. NEXT SLIDE: You try an analysis of a screencapped sequence.

ANALYZE: HIGH ANGLE YOU CHOOSE 1 OTHER ELEMENT