Welcome to my blog where you will find a record of background research and planning behind the slasher opening production - Our working title is 'Doctor' Our opening is influenced by Mad House Also you will find my colleagues blog pages where there will be additional information. Please feel free to leave any helpful comments.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Psycho film Opening

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Budget 800k
Gross 50m

Psycho Cover


Production Companies

Distributors

Length of the opening: 2.53m

Opening:
The first shot of the film there is non diegetic music and an audio bridge connecting the credits to the opening sequence. They provide exposition of the date time and place on the screen separately over the opening shots. The first shot is an extreme long shot which is also an establishing shot, it is of a city setting and is a birds eye view. This shot slowely pans across the city. There is then a dissolve transition used to move into the next shot. The panning continues and this pan and cross dissolve sequence happens 3 times. 
The next shot to be shown is a zoom on on a random window in the city. This represents the hand of fate and the fact that this horror that is about to take place could have happened to anybody in the city and they were randomly chosen, making the audience more scared becasue it could possibly happen to them. The zoom then continues through the window like the audience are spying on the people in there. This is a very similar idea to Peeping tom, also released in 1960. 
There is a panning shot across the room and then a long shot, slightly high angled of a girl very much centred in the frame. It is clear that this is who the audience should be concentrating on. The Guy is only in the edge of the shot which signifies he is less relevant. The girl shown here is the scream queen (marianne) and she is a real archetype of a scream queen that a lot of scream films from other films are based or related too. 



An establishing shot from the opening


Useful Resources:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/psycho/

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