Alfred Hitchcock and Film Language

After watching a range of Hitchcocks Trailers I have decided to watch the entire movie of both Psycho and Family Plot. In doing so I was able to establish Hitchcocks use of Film Language in specific scenes.

Elements Of Film Language:

• Lighting and Colour
• Sound
• Use Of Camera (Camera Framing/Movement)
• Mise-en-Scene (Setting and Props, Costume, Hair and Make up, Facial Expressions and Body Language, Lighting and Colour and Positioning of Characters and objects within the frame).
• Editing

Lighting and Colour
Lighting is used to give a particular scene a very realistic approach/look or to bring out the dramatic nature of it. In addition lighting is used in order to achieve a variety of effects. We tend to associate these different lighting styles with different genres.
For example in Family Plot, his use of white on black made the light stand out and allowed the audience to remember this as an significant part of the film. In addition to this scene, near the end of the movie, the fire coming from the burning car, once it went over the cliff, was highlighted by the use of colour in the film. Without colour, the fire would not be as brilliant as it appeared and only would look like varying shades of grey. In Family Plot, Hitchcock uses colour to highlight certain aspects of the movie and to set the mood throughout the movie.

Sound
Sound is a broad element within Film Language as it involves diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, parallel and contrapuntal sounds and sound bridges.
In Hitchcocks Psycho a range of similar sounds are being played throughout the film. In the opening sequence of the film the non-diegetic sounds being played are decribed as being rapid and quick; creating as sense of rushing or running, possible hurrying up as time is running out. As the film continues the sounds played are still non-diegetic however, it is only played to move the narrative along or to show the audience that something has happened or is going to happen.

Use Of Camera
The use of the camera is a combination of camera framing and camera movements.
Camera Movements consider the ways in which the visual image or action on the screen is being followed in order to gain the audiences attention. Furthermore, the camera movement simply directs our attention to a particular viewpoint.
For example; The opening scene of Psycho shows the camera moving slowly from a distant view of the cityscape of Phoenix into a close-up of the hotel room window.
On the other hand, camera framing relates to the visual images we see on the screen and the frame that they are within on the screen. It tends to concentrate more on how far the camera is from the subject and from the angle the shot is taken in.

Mise-en-Scene
Mise-en-Scene is an element of film language that is used establish a genre of a film. The french term meaning 'What Is In The Frame' is a combination of the following:

• Setting and Props
• Costume, Hair and Make Up
• Facial Expressions and Body Language
• Lighting and Colour
• Positioning of Characters and Objects within A Frame

After watching 'The Hotel Scene' in 'Psycho', I noticed that Hitchcock created an atmosphere whereby the small room holds, two chairs, the lamp table, coffee table, and chest. On the lamp table is a lamp, the only source of light in the room and which creates the key light within the scene. The characters' positions within the room and how they are lit by this single source create different assumptions for the audience.