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1. Miss Bell William Owen
Discuss how thriller codes and conventions are used in VERTIGO, SHUTTER ISLAND or
MEMENTO to represent characters as morally ambiguous and socially or emotionally
unstable.
Alfred Hitchcock is known for using a variety of thriller codes and conventions to convey
different ideologies, themes and subliminal messages. In his iconic film ‘Vertigo’, he
effectively uses different thriller codes and conventions to represent characters in various
ways. A common way he portrays his characters in Vertigo is making them mysterious,
motives and morals unknown, ambiguous. Another way Hitchcock displays his characters
in Vertigo is very socially and/or emotionally unstable. Hitchcock represents characters
through things like music score, lighting or camera movements and angles, using these
and more to maximum effect to highlight the characters personality aspects and to give the
viewer the most intense and memorable experience.
One way Hitchcock displays his characters in Vertigo as socially and emotionally unstable
is through the progress of the score throughout various scenes and the whole movie. The
score gets more intense and faster paced overall through the movie, resulting in a more
intense and agitated tone. The score in some places is unpleasant to listen to, especially
in high intensity social interactions. For example, the awkwardness of Scotty asking
Madeline questions. The scores unpleasantness plus the awkwardness of the situation mix
together to make the viewer very uncomfortable. This makes the viewer subliminally
associate the character/s as being socially and/or emotionally unstable. This is one thriller
convention Hitchcock follows to represent characters as socially and/or emotionally
unstable.
A way Hitchcock represents his characters in Vertigo as morally ambiguous is through
lighting. Lighting plays a key part in determining the mood and tone of a movie, a nice
warm bright light implies that the tone of the movie or particular scene is happy, relaxed,
positive. The opposite effect occurs when there is dull lighting, dark and gloomy. This sets
the tone as sad and dreary. Lighting can be used on characters as well as whole scenes.
Hitchcock shows his characters as morally ambiguous through a technique known as
chiaroscuro lighting. This technique displays the characters face half in light, half in
darkness or similar. This gives the effect that the viewer doesn't know the character, they
are mysterious. In Vertigo, this can be seen through Scotty, the lighting often hides part of
his face, and through Madeline, who also has her face hidden in the shadows throughout.
Through this type of lighting Hitchcock represents as being mysterious, being and being
morally ambiguous. economics first come first serve with the booty
A second way Hitchcock represents social and emotional instability is through different
camera angles and shots. Different angles and shots can imply things like social statures,
dominance and submissiveness, along with many other social or emotional standpoints.
Hitchcock uses angles and shots very effectively in Vertigo, to help show where or how a
character stands in a situation. This can be seen in scenes where Scotty is control over

2. Miss Bell William Owen
Madeline, he has a low angle on him to show his dominance, while she has a high angle to
make her look smaller and submissive. This changes throughout the film, with the angles
changing to who ever is dominant. Through this Hitchcock shows who is more emotionally
and socially unstable. Another shot type Hitchcock uses to represent characters as socially
or emotionally unstable is the extreme closeup on eyes. When Madeline is nervous and
extreme closeup on her eyes is used to show her anxiety, and that she is emotionally
unstable. This is is just one other way Hitchcock uses thriller codes and conventions to
represent characters as emotionally and/or socially unstable.
A final way Hitchcock represent people as being morally ambiguous and socially or
emotionally unstable is through the use of his mise en scene, and the colours that go
along with it. Colours can subliminally send messages to us, like red being danger, green
safe, blue cold etc. The choice in colours throughout Vertigo subliminally reveal things
about the characters, while also keeping them morally ambiguous. Madeline often wears
green to contrast with the constant colour of red, Hitchcock does this to keep red in the
audiences thoughts, as red means blood, pain and death, foreshadowing the deaths to
come. Scotty often wears grey, showing his state of mind, being confused and out of
balance, slowly getting crazier as whats real and whats not blend together. These colours
help Hitchcock represent characters as morally ambiguous as well as socially or
emotionally unstable.
Hitchcock uses a variety of thriller codes and conventions to emphasise and represent his
characters in different ways. In Vertigo he uses these codes and conventions to show
different characters having moral ambiguity and also being socially or emotionally
unstable. Hitchcock does this using different techniques, from camera angles and shots to
miss en scene and colours, to lighting and score. All of these combine to set different
tones and represent characters in different ways, resulting in Hitchcock’s message getting
across, that this character is nervous or worried, etc. Vertigo is a master piece and a very
well crafted thriller, with much help from the thriller codes and conventions that display
characters in different ways.