Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a pioneering British film director known for his psychological thrillers. His 1960 film Psycho, based on the novel by Robert Bloch, tells the story of Marion Crane who hides at the Bates Motel after stealing money and encounters the disturbed owner Norman Bates. The film is renowned for its innovative techniques such as its jarring musical score during the opening credits and use of camera angles to create tension and invoke voyeurism in the audience. It was one of Hitchcock's most successful and acclaimed films.

1. Psycho essay
Information about psycho and Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on the 13th August 1899 and past on the 29 April 198o, who
was a British film direct and producer. He learned and pioneered lots of techniques in the
psychological and suspense in thriller/horror genres. After his very successful career in his native
United Kingdom in both early talkies and silent films, he moved to Hollywood.
Over his successful career spanning for half a century, Hitchcock showed he had a very distinctive
and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of camera, made to mimics a person’s gaze
in nearly every film. He used this technique to force viewers to engage in a form called voyeurism,
meaning you’re watching and invading someone’s personal space. He then successfully received a
knighthood during the last years of his magical life.
His most successful, best film was psycho which is a 1960 American thriller film and is highly
praised as a work of cinematic at by international critics. The film is based on the screenplay by
Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch in 1959. The film
depicts the encounter between Marion Crane, a secretary, hiding a secluded motel after stealing
money from her employer, and the disturbed owner and manager of the motel, Norman Bates,
leading to the aftermath of their encounter.
Opening (Part One)
The opening music and credits of psycho starts no diegetic, harsh and high pitched this makes it very
tense as it comes in straight away, which helps Alfred Hitchcock make the audience tense and weary
of what may happen, Alfred Hitchcock used the music to also help mirror the sound that
accompanies the stabbing motion of Marion deaths. I also found it very panicky which makes
whoever will be in the middle of it seemed very vulnerable and would have lost all power and
control, the dark frame around the credits also helps tell the audience the film genre they are
watching is thriller/horror. Whilst the music is playing the edit of bars come a across in the
formation of comb horizontal, they come in very suddenly and make it seem like they are cages or a
prison cell, this gives off an representation of the secretary Marion Crane being trapped in her own
home and the motel when she cant escape of the crime she did, which unfortunately leads to her
tragic death. The bars could also resemble Marion Crane’s death by coming across in the same sharp
pattern of the knife digging in to her body.
After the opening credits the music calms down whilst the camera movement pans across an aerial
shot of a wide open town/cityscape, they are long pauses between shots which is very comfortable
and intimate for the viewers watching. Whilst this is happening we get a background information of
where it is set (Phoenix, Arizona), time, date and the use of anchorage.