Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho :: Film Movies

An Analysis of the Opening Sequence from Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho near like a building, a film needs a unattackable foundation in order to be successful, a foundation which is do up of the starting moments of the film. In Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock successfully uses the opening credit eon to establish a foundation on which to build an interesting plot, including techniques to waken involvement by the spectator, and the suggestion of a Psycho theme. A medicineal theater composition consisting of quick strokes on tightly wound violins, later utilize in the famous shower scene, starts to play at the beginning of the sequence. label begin to slip on and off the screen in a series of horizontal and vertical lines. The top and bottom portions of the names slide onto the screen, followed by the put portion. The last name to pop out is that of Alfred Hitchcock, which settles in the middle of the screen and begins to twitch and flutter in an unusual manner. The credits past dissolve into a long shot of an auspicious section of an strange city where a building is being constructed (paralleling the idea of Hitchcock shaping a foundation). As this dissolve takes place, a more subtle and mellow music (again composed of string instruments) fills the air, suggesting a stable environment. The sun burns brilliantly in the sky and a desert landscape is seen in the mise en scene through a haze. The shot immediately begins to pan slowly to the right, uncover more city rooftops and streets. As a dissolve zooms us roughly closer to the city and the camera continues to pan, small block letters appear on both sides of the screen and converge in the middle to memorialise PHOENIX, ARIZONA. Hitchcock immediately brings the reoccurring theme of birds into the film by setting the scenery in Phoenix. The camera continues to pan to the right, now moving on to a more dreary side of the city. The next set of titles converges in the center of the screen, tuition FRIDAY, DECEMBE R ELEVENTH. As the panning continues, a slow zoom begins to bring us closer to one of the buildings. The last title appears in the same bearing as the preceding, TWO FORTY-THREE P.M. Yet another dissolve clams the camera on a rather unattractive wall, slowly zooming in on a window with Venetian blinds drawn down. A vacillation to a closer view of the window reveals an opening a fewer inches below the blind in which the camera continues to zoom in on, legal transfer us into a dark apartment room.