Alfred As The Master Of Suspense In The Climbing Frame Scene In The Film The Birds
'The Birds' is a film made in the 1960's based on the short story 'The
Birds' by Daphne Du Maurier. The film was directed by Alfred
Hitchcock, a British born director who is known for other tense,
suspense filled films such as 'Psycho' and 'Vertigo'. Due to the
extensive special effects of the film, it took three years to make.
During the film Hitchcock created several suspense filled, tense
scenes. Including the 'Climbing Frame' scene. Alfred Hitchcock tries
to live up to his title 'The Master Of Suspense' whilst creating
scenes like this and the following essay looks at if he achieved this.
The film is set in Bodega Bay - a small town by the sea. All the
residents of the town a fairly close together and know each other
well.
The 'Climbing Frame; scene takes place during the middle of the film.
So far, the main characters have been introduced including Melanie
Daniels - the most central character in the film. Also, other
characters like Annie Hayworth - the school teacher Cathy Brenner - a
girl who attends the Bodega Bay School and also Mitch Brenner, Cathy's
older brother.
Previously in the film there have been several attacks on the
residents of Bodega Bay by birds. The people of the town repudiate the
fact that these birds are attacking everybody. Lydia Brenner (Mitch's
younger sister) discovers that her neighbour has been slaughtered by
these birds and is unwell after an encounter with the body of the
murdered farmer. Lydia asks Melanie to go a pick up Melanie from the
Bodega Bay School. Melanie kindly agrees, and without hesitation
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mind. He uses the characters feelings and emotions to make the
audience feel worried and tense.
Hitchcock has used the point of creating birds as creatures which
could create so much terror in an effective way. It has a
psychological feeling in that birds are common everyday animals and
that they could turn against anyone, anywhere. When someone looks up
into the sky and sees a bird, they will reminisce about the film and
remember the birds as a symbol of terror.
Although Hitchcock has created suspense and tension in an effective
way. I think modern audiences might react differently to the film. I
think this because he uses the sound and camera work to send emotions
into the minds of the audiences. But modern day films are created in a
different style in which everything is there for the audience to see.
In Rumble Fish, the setting takes place in California in a flashback told by the main character Rusty James.
In the movie, the old west town of Hadyville, New Mexico and the tropical Ship-Trap island in the short story are very similar. "Metric goes down to the desk...other
The Birds, the movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was based on the short story “The Birds” written by Daphne du Murrier. If you would have read the book and then watched the movie, you would see that very few things are the same. In both the short story and the movie flocks of gulls, robins, crows, and sparrows join each other. This is really weird because different species of birds never work together. The story and the film both have the same climate. It is cold and chilly; “the ground is frozen and it will be a black winter.” The climate gives the versions of the story a creepy and suspenseful feeling.
As the credits roll we see the blinds of a three-pane window slowly being lifted up, after they finish the camera moves forward revealing to our gaze the reality on the other side of the open window. It faces the back of many other buildings, the courtyard they enclose, and a sliver view of the backstreet. More importantly, it faces many other windows just like it. Behind each one of those there are people, going about their day, doing mundane tasks, unaware of being observed. In his 1954 movie “Rear Window” Alfred Hitchcock invites us to engage in the guilt free observation of the lives of others. The main character, photographer L. B. Jefferies, is home stuck with a broken leg encased in a cast that goes all the way to his hip, providing the perfect excuse for him to amuse himself in this hot Manhattan summer by engaging in the seemly harmless act of looking into the many windows he can see from his back apartment. Casual, harmless, voyeurism has been part of the human behavior for ages but in the sixty years since the movie was released it has gained increasing traction. Reality television, Movies, TV shows, YouTube, blogging, Instagram and Facebook are examples of modern tools that allow us to engage in the observation of others while remaining protectively hidden from their returning gaze. In its essence the casual voyeuristic actions we engage in while observing others when using these new media tools follows the same pattern of behavior described in the movie, with the same positive and negative consequences. Casual voyeurism distinguishes itself from pathological voyeurism, which is characterized by a preference in obtaining sexual gratification only from spying others, by the removal of the sexual component from the equat...
Setting of a film can be shot either in a studio or on location, depending on the film’s budget, and how realistic or natural the director wishes the film to look. Setting is about the time, place and social environment in which the main backdrop and mood of the story is. In this film, we have a few settings, such as the idyllic Seahaven and the “real” world in the film.
Peters finds the bird cage, it is empty. This bird cage never actually had a bird in it. In paragraph 218, Mrs. Hale finds the canary has croaked: “‘There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk,’ faltered Mrs. Hale. ‘This isn’t her scissors,’ said Mrs. Peters, in a shrinking voice. Her hand not steady, Mrs. Hale raised the piece of silk. ‘Oh, Mrs. Peters!’ she cried. ‘It’s—’ Mrs. Peters bent closer. ‘It’s the bird,’ she whispered. ‘But, Mrs. Peters!’ cried Mrs. Hale. ´Look at it! Its neck—look at its neck! It’s all—other side to.’”(Glaspell). Sadly, the bird was strangled, and I think that Mr. Wright did it. Mrs. Wright clearly loved her feathered friend. After it was killed, she wrapped it in a square of silk. Back then, silk was very expensive even for a little piece like that. Mrs. Hale explains how Millie loved to sing, and this bird must remind her of when she was happy. Mr. John Wright was not very happy with this bird. If he could stop his wife from singing and being happy, he could surely stop a little bird. So Wright goes into the room and snaps its neck, destroying his wife’s most prized
Thirdly, the setting of the story is set in Salinas, California. Ironically, the author was born in Salinas. It is the time of the Great Depression and middle-class has been hit hard. The story begins in Weed, a California mining town.
The images related to birds are the major symbolic images in the narrative from the very beginning of the novel:
The setting for this film and the particular scene is vital to bringing the story into focus. The story is of a black man who is fighting for his own life and not going to prison for the killing of two white men who had raped his 10 year old daughter. The director Joel Schumacher and the author John Grisham revisit the small town of Canton Mississippi in order to shoot this film. This element brings a reality and a visual to the audience of where the actual events took place. This builds the drama in the story. The courtroom scenes are shot at the actual courthouse in Canton (Arrington 1996). Originally the filming location chosen was to be in Oxford. Fortunately the filming was to take place during football season and all the hotels were full. Another setback was the courthouse lawn in Oxford was too small, therefore the traffic would also have to be rerouted for up to 15 days and this posed a problem as well. The Canton location was a better choice for originality of the story (Arrington 1996).
At the very beginning of the book, there is constant reference to a caged bird. This
There are two birds in the shot with him, a turkey and an owl. The turkey is representing the innocence and kind side of his personality while the owl is representing the darker, more cynical side of his personality. Once he decides to peek into her room, he sees her undressing in front of birds that are preyed upon and when he stops looking, he is only shown with the owl, no longer the turkey. Also, when Norman is talking to Marion about his mother, he says that she is a harmless as a stuffed bird. This is symbolic because he is saying, just like the birds, she is dead. The birds in the mise-en-scene are very important and help understand the true meaning of the
To this day Rope, Alfred Hitchcock’s first color film, remains one of the most original motion picture dramas. With the exception of the opening credits, Rope was shot on one individual set located within a soundstage, similar to as if a play was being performed on stage. Despite the confined space the film occupied, the atmospheric anxiety carried on up until the very end. Furthermore, Hitchcock successfully created a deception, of the same repetitive shot. Nonetheless, during the one hundred and eight minute film, it’s hard not to notice the closeness Phillip and Brandon shared sexually together, making them homosexuals.
The movie was based in New York City. This was where we see a young couple the Woodhouse’s move into a new apartment of their dreams. Bizarre things start happening right after they move in. The Woodhouse’s meet their neighbors the Cassavetes. Guy
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Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu utilises various literary techniques in order to convey the themes of greatness, power, and reality/madness in Birdman. Iñárritu achieves this through examining the actions of his characters, whose pursuit of their goals occur in direct correlation with these themes.