Continuity Editing In Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest

In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock released yet another adrenaline filled action blockbuster, North by Northwest. The renowned auteur displayed his minimalist style, captivating his audience with creative visuals and suspense ridden scenes. Hitchcock’s unique visual style earned the rightful title of Hitchcockian (Palmer, 2009). Since the eminent director passed in 1980 (Biography.com, 2016), fellow aspiring film students have mimicked the Hitchcockian style but were unsuccessful in doing so. Alfred’s classic movies have become a platform for other works throughout the years. Many of his other films including Vertigo, Psycho and Rope showcase his critically acclaimed genre. Hitchcock’s North by Northwest follows his unique genre, delivering the suspense,

Continuity editing is the editing of a film that goes unnoticed by the viewers – it allows for clean cuts and creates a consistency of space and time (Rosenberg, J. (2010)). Hitchcock uses this convention of film in North by Northwest. Match on action is used throughout the film. This is where in the first shot, a character looks in a direction off screen. The shot that follows shows the audience what the character is looking at (Movies and Film: Cutting for Content. (2016)). An example of this type of editing is when Roger Thornhill and Eve Kendall meet for the first time on train. Roger is running from security when he stumbles upon the elegant woman. He hides in a cupboard as the security men approach. Kendall covers Roger’s tracks by sending the men away. As she looks to the right of the screen and points in the direction where Roger ‘went’, her sight locks in place. The second shot shows the direction where Kendall was just looking, letting the audience observe the security officers walk away (North By Northwest, 1959). Another convention of continuity editing is known as shot-counter shot. This convention is used during dialogue between characters. The camera focuses on the character talking in an over the shoulder shot. Then as the other character replies, the camera cuts to an over the shoulder view of the previous person. This is demonstrated in nearly every scene that involves dialogue in North by Northwest. In the first act of the film, Roger goes to the hotel where George Kaplan is supposedly staying. As he questions the maid who mistakes him as being Kaplan the shot-counter shot convention is shown as the camera switches between the two characters to show their replies and facial expressions. Alfred Hitchcock was also talented in using shot angles to add emphasis in dialogue. The line “This matter is best disposed of from great height, over water” refers to the attempted murder of Eve