How does hitchcock manipulate the audience in psycho

Initially existing as a simple piano score that was used to assist in the realisation of certain on-screen emotions, the use of sound has been greatly developed and is now considered as "one. He was born in Leytonstone, London on13 August He directed the first British sound film - Blackmail.

Alfred Hitchcock once said, " Audience reaction is more important than the content of the film". Throughout and before the playing of Psycho, Hitchcock manipulates the audience in many ways. The words that Alfred Hitchcock said that illustrates manipulation in Psycho the …show more content… Normans mother is dead, but is alive in the mind of Norman. She is therefore dominating Normans mind. We like Walter White from Breaking Bad because he takes his fate into his own hands, but — he's a meth cook!

Do we always root for murderers and drug lords in films? Most of us are morally opposed to these things. The reasons for our affinity for anti-heroes are many and complicated, but the way they're presented cinematically definitely plays a role in making them likable.

For instance, the power struggle between The Joker and Batman in The Dark Knight, represented in both the narrative and the cinematography, not only blurs the lines between "good" and "evil" , but manages to make The Joker a sympathetic character.

These same cinematic techniques that Christopher Nolan used to turn The Joker from a homicidal maniac into a misunderstood vigilante are the same ones that Alfred Hitchcock used to turn Norman Bates from a gentile mama's boy into a deranged psychopath.

Those are just a couple of examples of how our opinion of characters can change with cinematic conventions, but if you reduce Hitchcock's claim down to its base, you can see just how powerful these tools are when it comes to inspiring individual emotional and psychological responses in an audience.

The way a shot is composed, lit, and edited could change everything about how an audience feels toward a character, scene, or entire film.

Like this: Like Loading January 12, Uncategorized Previous post Next post. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. You can use them to display text, links, images, HTML, or a combination of these. Edit them in the Widget section of the Customizer. The fate of all tragedies is to instill their audiences with fear and pity.

Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Hitchcock's Manipulation of the Audience's Point of View in the Shower Scene in Psycho Hitchcock has a unique style when it comes to films and manipulation of the audience. He likes to give the audience several types of view that in turn give us an incite into the characters feelings and emotions. He likes to change the lighting, camera angle and mise-en-scene to manipulate he viewer's point of view.

He is a talented director with unique ability to twist the audience 's opinions and play on emotions with the greatest of ease. In the shower scene in Psycho , The first shot he chooses to give us is of a voyeuristic one. He show us Norman Bates moving a picture aside so that he can peep into the room of Marion a guest at the Bates motel. The picture he moves out of the way to see into her room is one that depicts the rape of Lucretia a well-known piece of art and fitting with the act of Norman!

We then see him peeping through a hole in the wall of the young lady getting undressed then the shot swings to the audience being the one looking through the hole. Hitchcock manages to pull this off by placing a black ring around the shot so that it looks as though we are looking through the hole.

This shows us the point of view of Norman Bates and makes the female seem very vulnerable. The idea of her getting undressed and Norman spying on her makes us feel sympathy for Marion and yet there is great excitement when we ourselves get to look at the black undergarments worn by Marion. Then we have a shot of Norman deciding that he has had enough and what he is doing is morally wrong. He leaves the parlour and heads up to the main house. The ca We don't actually get a shot of her falling it is just presumed by the audience that she falls.

We then see the draped over the bath followed by a shot of Marion's feet in the bath as the blood swirls down the drain into the plug's vortex. The idea of the blood swirling down the drain could be interpreted as Marion's life being washed away with the blood. When we see this we subconsciously know that Marion is dead. WE then get a final shot of the camera zooming in on Marion's eye.