Hitchcock

Video

Audio

Opening credits – Classical Hitchcock North by Northwest style Starts with a montage of Actual film directors (Steven Spielberg, Quentin tarantino, Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Michel Gondry, Tommy Wiseau, Sam Raimi). Still photos of him at work panning around (backstage) happen simultaneously (in-between directors) Photos of Hitchcock appear one by one and when changing photo they fade into one another. (use panning very slowly from down to up) Talking head of Quentin Tarantino Some famous clips of A.H films from “the man who knew too much”, “Young and innocent” “The lodger”, “Psycho” and “North by Northwest” The film references have an indigo tint. (every film reference resembling Hitch cock’s auteurship will have a blue tint) Photos and videos on the era of the “French New Wave” (to emphasis this glow and halo effects added to the videos and photos used, sepia to create an “old” effect). Michel Gondry is shown for about 2 second later on clips of important movies which were made at the time of the French New Wave. Show some clips when this effects used and in between show the narrator. Show movie in which Hit chook appears put a small arrow pointing at him and stop of about 0,5 a seconds in order for the audience to be able to see him. Show narrator while talking for about 1 second and then show photos of hitchoock and other important director then change to photos of only the other directors. Show the narrator zoom out to show slightly more of the studio and then pan. Fades in the shower scene of Psycho Photos of distinguished scenes and zoom in to the most significant object in the scene. Change when close to the object. Show some dark scene (when the villain is in the scene) Show the narrator talk and the audience from a high camera angle. Show clips the actors which Hitchcock liked to work with. Show the interview. Show scenes with Mcguffins zoom in to them. Show a mix of photos Hitchcock and clips of him mayor films. End with the photo of him on the director chair.

Dvorak – Symphony no.9 – Allegro con fuoco starts – Editing is meticulously synchronized with the music Talking heads of film directors briefly describing Hitchcock as a director. Dvorak – Symphony no.9 – Allegro con fuoco ends. Léo Delibes – Pizzicato starts Narration starts by Ted Williams “An auteur is known as the film director that is recognised as the title artist of the film rather than technician who worked on it. Auteur critics study the style and themes of a director’s films and assign them status of auteur if they show consistency of style and theme” Léo Delibes – Pizzicato ends Psycho movie theme starts Quentin Tarantino puts things more deeply into Hitchcock’s context, like his appearances, wrong identity, etc. Psycho movie theme ends France’s national anthem - Start Narrator: The term “Film auteur” started around 1950’s with the French new Wave. The French new wave was a revolution in film making that originated in France, and film director’s start implementing untraditional ways of making films. It was then when film critics of a magazine called “cashiers du cinema” named this genuine directors film auteurship, since their films where completely an original concept. Talking head of Michel Gondry – interview explaining the French new wave and its importance for the film industry. France’s national anthem - End Brahms Hungarian Dance  - Start Narrator: What made Hitchcock so remarkable at his time was that he kept tradition while making innovations at the same time. He had technical virtuosity, he came up with imaginative techniques to complex shots to create suspense and intrigue (e.g.: crane shot, shower shot). Narrator: A running joke by Hitchcock was that he would appear as a cameo in his films; he did that for the first time in the lodger to replace a missing actor, and did during his entire career, he did it just for the first 10 minutes so that people would look for him throughout the entire movie… Talking head of Quentin Tarantino: Opinion on Hitchcock’s cameos and why he decided to do something similar in films he took part in (Planet Terror, Little Nicky, Death Prooth, Pulp Fiction, Desperado, Sukiyaki Western Django) Narrator: In those days, directors were looked at as being very highly paid technicians. Hitchcock considered himself to be to his films as a switchback operator is to a rollercoaster. Hitchcock wanted complete control over every aspect of his film production. For example, he thought actors should be treated as new Zealand cattle. Films that are the work of auteurs have the same aspects since that is the style of the auteur, in hitchcock’s case, most of his films orbited around mistaken identities, sex, man on the run, crime, love and money, But most of all. Suspense. Brahms Hungarian Dance slowly fades out. Just movie soundtrack (shower scene music continues in the background, fading out slowly) Rossini - The barber of Seville overture single string part starts Hitchcock also has a stylistic unity for the mise en shot and mise en scene that he uses specifically to increase tention. Hitchcock has a rich use of shadows in his films to create mystery. He also decides to black and white on films even when colour is available for the same purpose. The mise en scene is in most cases non non-extravagant, with very few significative elements. However, there are expetions for scenes that he wants to create impact, like the plane scene in north by northwest. Hitchcock also decided to use both long takes and short takes for different occations, long for conversation scenes, which gave exposition, to short for dramatic scenes which gave action. The protagonist in Hitchcock’s films was always a typical hero: A suave, well-dressed man is usually a protagonist. And the actresses that Hitchcock used where all blondes. Interview with Tommy Wiseau about blonde chicks Narrator: Hitchcock also came up with the term Mcguffin as a narrative technique. It was an object that wasn’t so important in its own, but under the narrative context it got the plot moving, like the money in psycho.  The storyline was always linear, the narrative followed the fabula, and the story plays with the expectations of the audience, the characters never do what the audience wants them to do. Rossini - The barber of Seville overture ends Audio fades out – comes in Dvorak symphony no.9 Offenbach’s Infernal Galop - Can Can Hitchcock was indeed an auteur because he kept consistency, theme and style over all his films, if you analyse each of his individual films, they will all have be very similar to each other and have many recurrencies.

Descriptive approach to film

	Film Noir	Gangster	Horror	Western	War	Sci Fiction	Monster	Auteur
Themes	Mystery and crime (detective: investigation) Flawed hero	Organised crime, family value escalation ambition	Supernatural, terror, evil, badness, redemption, meaning of murder, torture, suffering, chaos, revenge	Crime, injustice, loner, power, the under dog, money and corruption, hero, tyranny, honour, revenge, frustration	War, death, fights, world with out rules, obedience, honour, greed, nationalism, suffering, love vs. duty	Technology turning its back on humans, vision of the future, the unknown	Monsters invading the earth, exploration of unknown places, violence	Depend on the auteur
Mood	Worried, stress, dark feeling, raining, shadows, bleak, melancholic	Happy, which goes down (contrast) dark	Suspense, tension, edge of the seat, horror	Action, adventure, suspense, music	Dark, melancholic	Action, fighting, vengeance, sad, dystopian	Action, fighting, humans vs. monsters, fear, suspense	Depend on the auteur
Setting	Urban, naturalistic, isolation in the city	Houses, rich houses, urban, social events	House (haunted), isolated house graveyard	Rural, desert	Battlefields, outside, trenches, destroyed cities	Deserted places, outer space, future, spaceships	Outdoors, city, places where there are breakable things	Depend on the auteur
Other	Normally black and white Driving to change location mostly	Normally not much diversity of shots	Normally lots of special effects and loud noises	Normally they are set in the US, lots of music	Normally also refer to historical facts, lots of music	Normally high budget, lots of special effects	Normally small duration of shots, formalist, lots of music	Depend on the auteur
Example	The Big Sleep (Dir. Howard Hawkes 1946)	The Godfather (Dir. Francis Coppola 1972)	The Shining (Dir. Stanley Kubrick 1980)	The Magnificent Seven (Dir.John Stueges 1960)	Path of Glory (Dir. Stanley Kubrick 1957)	Metropolis (Dir. Fritz Lang 1927)	King Kong (Dir.Merian Cooper and Earnest Schoedsack 1933)	Rebecca (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 1940)

GENRE BY DESCRIPTION

In an interview: David Lynch (director of Lost Highway) says, “I don’t like pictures that are one genre only, so [Lost Highway] is a combination of things. It’s a kind of horror film, a kind of thriller, but basically it’s a mystery. That’s what it is. A mystery” (David Lynch, 1997, p. xiii)

What are the problems you have found when you start to group films by using this descriptive approach – what are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? Does this list take account of the auteur interpretation of film or film-makers such as Hitchcock? Write some notes here to explain your position.

Strength	Weaknesses
ü      Helps classify the films easier ü      Helps find a particular characteristic in a film easier ü      Helps parents control what the children see.	c        Films can be interpreted in different ways c        Films can fit in more than one genre c        By saying a film is one genre it might make some expectancies which do not meet the audiences expectancies.

No, this list does not take in to account the auteur interpretations due to putting together all the films under a genre and saying it’s similar to a lot of other films. When a film is classified as a genre you are eliminating the cast, director, editor, etc. only thinking about the main plot or only pieces of the main plot.

A brief outline of how you would film scenes from Red Riding Hood as if directed by an auteur we have looked at such as Hitchcock or Tarantino or Spielberg

Scene 1: Little red riding hood in her house with her mother. Dark scene in a cottage. Mostly the natural light, that comes through the windows (afternoon about six pm therefore not much light). Avoid showing many shots focused in LRRH face but show mothers face.

Scene 2: LRRH goes through the forest. Forest dark, permit to see mostly shadows, emphasis the movement of the trees and how LRRH disappears inside the forest.

Scene 3: LRRH meets the wolf. Show LRRH looking back because she hears a sound of branches braking, but we can’t see the wolf only a shadow but not very clear. Show facial expressions of LRRH.

Scene 4: Wolf meets grandmother. See the door open, but do not see the wolf. Cut to the grandmothers face when wolf about to appear. Grandmother screams, and then cut to when the wolf is wearing the grandmothers clothes don’t show the faces just show from the side just seeing the closed.

Scene 5: LRRH enters and sees the wolf dressed as the grandmother. Show constantly but with some other shots the LRRH face. Avoid showing the face or anything which would make the wolf identifiable

Scene 6: The hunter opens the door use low angle shots make him seem bigger. Emphasis in the shadows.

Notes on Documetaries

large amount of information Quickely
Can portray the past life of individual characters in film, covering everything in a matter of seconds.
Talking heads: Common on features of documents. Either interviews of people on camera or people talking directly to the audience on camera or both. Talking head usually experts.
Color symbolism: Language of color, harnessed in a film is a powerful one. Choise of hues for certain items or its use in out-of the ordinary contexts and even type of lighting to give subliminal msgs. Dont over use it.
Textures: Giving old footage a "grainy" terxture.
Lines: Lines and frames add another dimention.
Sound elements: five channels of information in film: (a) visual image (b) print and other graphics (c) speech (d) music (e) noise
Six types of sound: (1)Narative commentary/ Voice over (2) Talking heads (3) Music (4) Ambiance Sound (signiture of a location) (5) Sound effects (6) Silence

Formalist and Realist Style

	Formalist-style film (expressionism/auteurism)	Realist-style film (cinema verité)
Mise-en-scene/mise-en-shot techniques associated with this style of film-making	Heavily Edited – ‘jump-cuts’ Montage Fast and/or slow motion Low/high camera angles, Transformation of 3D world onto a 2D surface Stylised/symbolic images Artificial setting Artificial lighting No attempt atverisimilitude Stylised dialogue/diagetic Lots of non-diagetic sound Sub-titles or other captions	Long takes, deep focus No special effects/montage Subjective viewpoint – uses camera  lens to reproduce way we look at world ‘Documentary’-style Natural/non-intrusive Realistic/ authentic setting Naturalistic lighting Naturalistic dialogue Lots of diagetic sound Minimal non-diagetic No reliance on external narrators or devices
Definition/aims of this style of film-making	Stylized of auteur Enphasize on the director’s own style Exaggerates the action Formalist film theory is a theory that is focused on the formal, or technical, elements of a film A formalist might study how standard Hollywood "continuity editing" creates a more comforting effect, while the formalist-style of non-continuity or jump-cut editing might be more disconcerting or volatile.	Life as it is in reality Real events in the impression of real time Cinematic realismrefers to theverisimilitude of a film to the believability of its characters and events. Cinematic realism takes as its starting point the camera's mechanical reproduction of reality
Directors associated with style	Sergei Eisenstein Jean-Luc Godard	Roberto Rossellini (Italian neorealist) Jean Renoir Rodrigo Garcia
Films associated with style	October (1927) dir. Eisenstein	Nine Lives (2005)

Narrative techniques in The Life Before Her Eyes

Technique	Description	Effect (in term of driving forward the narrative of the film)	Example from a film
1. Exposition	Fills in the back story of the characters and their situations	Lets us know the motivation of the characters.	When she says “hi” t Amanda there’s a flashback so that we know she’s a friend from school.
2. Dangling cause	Information or action that leads to no effect or resolution until much later in the film	So that your going to watch the film until the end so that you know what happened. Allows for the film to in lots of different levels.	What happened to Maureen and her family.
3. Obstacle	Stands in the way of the characters reaching their goal	Makes it more interesting & dramatic. It demands things to happen.	It is the anniversary of the shooting at her school which makes her very emotional.
4. Deadline	A time limit placed on a protagonist to accomplish a goal	Increases tension. It makes the film more “goal” orientated.	Michael Patrick pressures them to decide who will die.
5. Dialogue hook	Creates a link between two consecutive scenes	Allows to scenes to have continuity and make sense.	Diane says she’s going to take Emma to school and in the next shot we see her at the school

Todorov Theory

The Lion King: 1994 (Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff)
State of Equilibrium -Simba is happy with Mufasa. He's going to become King.
Disruption of Equilibrium - Scar kills Mufasa. Simba runs aways because he feels guilty.
New State of Equilibrium -Simba becomes king and marries Nala.


Shrek: 2001 (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson)
State of Equilibrium -Shrek lives alone in his swamp.
Dispruption of Equilibrium -Lord Farquaad sends the fairytale creatures to his swamp.
New State of Equilibrium -Comes back home to the swamp with Fiona married.


The Color Purple: 1985 (Steven Spielberg)
State of Equilibrium -Celie lives with he parents and her sister Netty.
Dispruption of Equilibrium - Celie marries Albert.
New State of Equilibrium - Celie goes home with Netty.


The Duchess: 2008 (Saul Dibb)
State of Equilibrium -Georgiana is unmarried and lives with her parents.
Dispruption of Equilibrium -Georgiana gets married and the husband trates her apolingly.
New State of Equilibrium - Georgiana and The duke get to an agrement.

Tribeca Film Festival

Foundation:

Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert de Niro and Craig Hatkoff. It was founded in response to the 11th September of 2001 attacks of the Twin Towers.

Purpose of the festival:

- "Enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience". 

- It is mainly for general public which enjoy movies, not too much restrictions

Line-up of the festival:

Independent films such as:

- Documentaries

- Narrrative features

- Shorts

- Family-friendly films

What are the prizes for each category?

For each categories:

- Best Editing

- Best Cinematography

- Best New Narrative

- Best Screenplay

What films won or are in contention at the Festival in 2010/2011?

- Like water

- Artificial Paradises

- Semper Fi: Always Faithful

- Turn on goddammit

World Narrative Competition

2011 World Narrative Competition Jurors:

Souleymane Cissé, Scott Glenn, David Gordon Green, Rula Jebreal, Art Linson, Jason Sudeikis and Dianne Wiest

The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature

She Monkeys

Directed by Lisa Aschan (Sweden)

Winner receives $25,000, sponsored by AKA Hotel Residences; and the art award "Anna Christie Entering the Bar, 1965-1967," by Robert De Niro Sr. . 

Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film

Carice Van Houten in Black Butterflies

Directed by Paula Van Der Oest (Germany, Netherlands, South Africa) 

Winner receives $2,500. 

Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film

Ramadhan "Shami" Bizimana in Grey Matter

Directed by Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda, Australia)

Winner receives $2,500. 

Best Cinematography

Luisa Tillinger for Artificial Paradises

Directed by Yulene Olaizola (Mexico)

Winner receives $5,000, and $50,000 in post-production services, provided by Company 3. 

Best Screenplay

Jannicke Systad Jacobsen for Turn me on, goddammit 

Directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen  (Norway)

Winner receives $5,000.

What is the role of a film festival?

The main role of a film festival is to present and give awards to new films. 

What makes a succesful festival?

- Publicity

- Celebrities

- Good films

- Advertising