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Film Techniques In Alfred Hitchcock's Film The Birds

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Murders, lies, suspense are all of the things you will see in an Alfred Hitchcock film. Films today are still using the same concept that Hitchcock used when he made films. Throughout the years Hitchcock made many groundbreaking films, and in 1963 he released an American horror film title The Birds. The film stars Tippi Hedren, who plays Mealanie Daniels, and Rod Taylor, who plays Mitch Brenner in the film. The Birds focus on a series of sudden, and unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California over the course of a few days. Throughout the film The Birds the viewers witnessed a great deal of Mise en scene which was great to interpret.
On August 18, 1961, people in the town of Capitola, California, woke up to find Shearwaters slamming into their rooftops, and their streets …show more content…

The Museum of Modern Art hosted a screening as part of a 50-film collection of Hitchcock's film work. Alfred Hitchcock exceeded my expectations with his film The Birds in regards to Mise en scene. One big element that I noticed while watching the film was when Daniels went to go visit Ms. Hayworth at her home I noticed that she had on a red sweater. As the two ladies talked another big style of Mise en scene was that Ms. Hayworth was standing next to a red mailbox. This was very significant to me because I see red as a dangerous color in the film making industry. I found this to be very intriguing to me because Hitchcock threw it in the viewers face that Ms. Hayworth is going to die. The next big tell all that Ms. Hayworth was going to die was something I have never seen in a film before, which was when the scene started to fade out, and the next scene began to appear it shows an ink pen in the shape similar to a bird beak pointing directly at Ms. Hayworth. This was absolutely amazing to me because Hitchcock carefully thought out that scene, and it is something that is in plain sight, but is often

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Ashley McCormack A Woman’s worth “Rear Window” and “The Birds” are two films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Many aspects of these two films correlate and display the occurring themes and motifs presented in films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. However there is one theme that sets the rest apart; blonde women. The blonde women in both of these films are essential in executing the story line.

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222 Words | 1 Pages

Hitchcock utilizes sound, camera work, MacGuffins, and plot twists to tell the storylines of the movies. Hitchcock understood the importance of camera work and sound because he began his career making silent films.12 It is why he uses many close up shots so the audience can pay attention to specific details and the emotions on the character’s face. He does not rely on dialogue to tell the story. He uses sound to help convey the message of a scene.

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The death is then contrasted with a young redhead as he runs through the brush, this is a very innocent image (Binary opposites). It is shot from the side and you have to look closely to make him out, this tells us something is hiding or we do not see everything. He then picks up the dead bird and we go back to signs of death and danger. We then here ambient noise including crickets which is quite a peaceful sound and so the audience are lulled into a false sense of security.

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292 Words | 2 Pages

In “The Birds”, written by Daphne DuMaurier, the author creates suspense to reveal a theme in the story by only giving the reader snippets of information at a time and not explaining all that is happening. At the beginning of the story when the birds first start to attack, they try to explain what is happening, saying that “there are birds in there . . . it’s as though a madness seized them, with the east wind.” . . . it’s the weather”

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706 Words | 3 Pages

The conflict in both the story and the film is a bird apocalypse-thing

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828 Words | 4 Pages

Hitchcock clearly shows many scenes in the film to portray the fear and suspicion that many Americans had after the war. In the film, Hitchcock also uses dramatic events such as the yelling of Mrs. Thorwald or the arguments he had with the NYP policeman, Tom Doyle. These scenes all add to the fear of communism and paranoia that was based on someone’s perspective of the world. In the film, it was illustrated that if you were not friendly towards your neighbors it meant that you were of suspicion. The film also illustrated that the way in which you acted towards other people contributed to the overall suspicion of somebody.

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1842 Words | 8 Pages

In fact, this was Hitchcock’s first major American film, and he was able to explore the true American family of the time. Thornton Wilder was chosen to expand the treatment into a screenplay, and he was the one who proposed the opening of Shadow of a Doubt, which was a nod to Hemingway’s well-known story “The Killers.” Together, Wilder and Hitchcock meticulously crafted the plot and how each piece of information in the story would be revealed to the audience. Later, Hitchcock believed that the structure of the intense story was solid but that the characters and dialogue needed to be improved. Sally Benson was recruited for this task to add humor, modern touches, and freshness to the family

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1149 Words | 5 Pages

The Character Evolution Of Jeff and the Realizations he Faces Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a film full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcock’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye initially sees when viewing this film, there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing.

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1169 Words | 5 Pages

The film 'Rear Window' (1954), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is an examination of voyeurism as a moral dilemma faced by both individuals in an ordinary neighbourhood, and by the Government during a time when suspicion and paranoia were rampant in America. Hitchcock's own view on the topic is not immediately clear; he presents the idea of spying on others in both a positive and negative light. In doing so, he may be commenting on the ambiguity of what is right or wrong in such circumstances. Rear Window is unique in its setting, and by allowing viewers a small glimpse into the lives of the neighbours by looking out Jeffries' apartment window, the director effectively creates a very tense situation. In this way, Hitchcock uses the ability to

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282 Words | 2 Pages

Hitchcock then creates suspense by using dramatic irony. He uses an eyelevel medium long shot in which there is a dark shadow on the left, or dominant, side of the screen. is in a completely private place, but in this shot we know that there is someone behind her, while does not. The camera is in front of her, placed inside the wall, and Hitchcock makes us feel uncomfortable and tight as if we are trapped in the shower with . As she is showering, through the translucent shower curtain, we see the door open.

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724 Words | 3 Pages

What if they began to attack; even kill humans? Well, that's exactly what happened in “The Birds.” Even though Alfred Hitchcock based The Birds movie off of Daphne Du Maurier’s short story also titled “The Birds”, they contain many differences. The first difference between the two is the setting, The Birds movie took place on the coast of California at Bodega Bay in the 1960s.

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813 Words | 4 Pages

1. In the film, Birdman directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu is about a man named Riggan, whose well known as the “Birdman.” In the film we witness Riggan struggling who is making his mark in the world using broadway. When he achieved his fame as “Birdman”, he isolated himself from the screen as he battled with his inner voices which later caused him to commit suicide. His inner voices in the beginning of the film weren’t as powerful as it was towards the end.

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653 Words | 3 Pages

Hollywood has always done a terrible job of depicting real women in film, and although his work has a somewhat misogynistic reputation, Alfred Hitchcock has done so much involving the progression of female roles in Hollywood cinema. Although many of his female victims wind up dead, the survivors have lots of power – and without reliance on their male counterparts. Women remain the central focus in many of Hitchcock’s films, not just because of their beauty, but because the narrative is dependent on them. When you look at his work in the context of this specific Hollywood era, Hitchcock’s female characters are very much out of the ordinary. Looking past the obvious presence of gender roles (male and female) that just so happened to be a part of the social norm during that time, Hitchcock sought to represent women with having more depth, realism, and independence than ever before in women in Hollywood.

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838 Words | 4 Pages

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PAUL CELAN’S POETRY AND ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MOVIE, ‘THE BIRDS’, CASTING A SPOTLIGHT ON THE PORTRAYAL OF TRAUMA A writer uses words and phrases to describe a scene, whereas, a film - maker uses pictures to depict a scene. Interior monologues and expression of thoughts characterize a literary work. On the other hand, settings, props, costume, looks, gesture and movement of a character formulate the essence of a movie. Inevitable storyline compression in a movie, confines its scope of expression, in contrast to a literary piece, where an author has liberty of thought and expression. Despite all these divergences, a parallel can be drawn

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774 Words | 4 Pages

These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale

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