shadow of a doubt beginning scene film techniques

The murder happens and there’s lots of cuts (pun intended), but no deliberate camera movement for the sake of extending shots. Hitchcock lulls us into a false calm for a few seconds, and quickly changes to an angle where the door opens. Audiences in those days weren’t expecting a shocker of a scene and the leading lady to die at this moment. Marion enters the shower, and we know Norman has been watching her. The same thing happens in the shower scene. The dolly in and out of the kill zone is one of the strange formulas that dominate all of Hitchcock’s most suspenseful scenes. He falls, and the mother completes the job.

The quick scene ends when Arbogast falls down the stairs, and we dolly down back with him, leaving the kill zone. When mother attacks there is no movement of the camera. It’s like an arrow being drawn back in the bow.Īs Arbogast reaches the top we cut to a higher vantage point, which is just genius. This is the beginning of the most suspenseful part of this scene. The only question is, from where is mother going to come? Arbogast decides to go up the stairs, and the camera starts to dolly back. We already know mother is in the house, and this detective’s life is in grave danger. It’s a deliberate camera move.Īrbogast enters the house. The scene always, and I mean, always, starts with a dolly, pan or tracking move into the kill zone. So what’s the formula? 1 The first and last camera move I’m pretty sure he could direct a great movie in his sleep. He’d made tons of films before his masterpieces. It’s very surprising there’s a formula here, and I’m not sure Hitchcock was even aware consciously. It’s just a made up word, but the idea is, during the most suspenseful moments, the characters move to a special area, and after the crime has been committed, they, or someone else, leave it. The murder happens in what I’m going to call the “kill zone”.

Hitchcock is the master of suspense, and he paved the way for generations of filmmakers to copy him… or screw it up! The Hitchcock suspense formula These films are some of the finest suspense thrillers ever made. In this article and video, I’m referencing Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds and Shadow of a Doubt. There isn’t any suspense or action, just flirtation and dialogue, but the camera moves nonetheless. In the opening scene of Vertigo, the two protagonists meet for the first time in a pet shop, and the camera moves a lot. A complete visual representation of the filmmaking process from beginning to end.

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Shadow of a doubt beginning scene film techniques