ext1 (0304) - Hitchcock's signature style 2

a lot more notes added to the page, check it out.

few things of note, however..

people dont go to out to see their lives, they go out to see cinema.

here's a bit of context, hitchcock was raised catholic and as a child, feared the priests since they were so strict. as a result, all his works feature human traits that were the opposite of what he was raised to be. "the 11th commandment: thou shalt not get found out" - alfred hitchcock.

he wanted the audience to embrace the darkness, and his villains were often more interesting than his protagonists.

hitchcock in the video used an analogy of a burglar entering a woman's apartment to steal her jewellery after she leaves the place. if she were to suddenly come back, what would the audience think? they would think "get out of there burglar!"

there is a lot of sexual innuendo and sexual connotations in hitchcock's films, since he is mischievious by nature. (mischievious even to the level of having a cameo role in most of his films). he enjoyed putting "cool blondes" into his films, and the "hitchcock blonde" was usually depicted as cool with heat underneath. he personally picked costuming himself (for the women at least) because he knew waht worked well.

from a background of black and white films, he knew how to use colour and sound (things that he had lacked in the past). he would know what colours would be more or less sensitive to see.

silence is a key thing to anticipating shock. and characters should not say the same thing that is already shown on her face eg. a smiling woman wouldn't just say "i'm feelnig happy" since her words would say the same thing that her face does.

key objects and key sound effects are of importance too. a "macguffin" is an object, which the audience may or may not care about, but the characters certainly do, it drives the story. he knows how to put a lot of emphasis and attention on these objects, with ideas such as putting a light bulb in a glass of milk so that it is completely visible even in the dark.

being of catholic background is evident in his films since there is usually a Christ-like character in the films, a sacrifice who is "crucified". and as a result of the strict nature of the priests in his youth, it's as if hitchcock's films encourage some sort of madness amongst society, as his films focused much on the expectations of society.