Discussion Questions On The Film 'The Birds'

1.) Describe your experience watching The Birds. What about the film stood out to you? What did you find interesting, important, surprising and/or confusing?

I have seen the film, “The Birds”, many times through the years and each time it is equally as frightening and suspenseful as the first time I had watched it. I found it interesting the way Alfred Hitchcock was able to portray the large flocks of birds in the sky and during the attacks. These birds appeared to be real not a superimposed image. I also liked the way Hitchcock used rhythmic framing and short cuts during the suspenseful attack scenes. The scene where the children are running out of the school and the birds are swooping down attacking the terrified children. Hitchcock

used tracking shots to follow the children running. The tracking shots intermixed with closeup shots showing the birds pecking the children and their expressions of horror during the pandemonium of the scene, made this scene particularly disturbing and suspenseful for me.
I found it confusing as to why the birds were gathering and attacking.

Was Melanie and evil force that caused the birds to attack as some of the townspeople intimated. Were the attacks related to a love triangle between Melanie,the mother and Cathy all fighting for Mitch’s love and attention? Was it some symbolic meaning about mankind versus nature? I still have not figured this out.

2.) On page 220-221, your textbook examines four shots from The Birds as it asks “Why cut?” rather than present all the action in a single shot. First, how do the textbook authors answer that question? Then, describe the answer to that question (Why cut?) in at least two of the following scenes and compare and comment on how cuts are used to draw our attention, create suspense, manipulate time, or present us with a different array of graphic qualities.

a.) The scene where Hitchcock first introduces the birds.

b.) The scene where Melanie comes to Mitch’s house for dinner in the

evening.
c.) The first meeting between Lydia and Melanie.
d.) The scene that reveals Dan Fawcett’s grotesque and lifeless body
e.) The scene in which the birds gather on the playground.
f.) The scene where Melanie is trapped in the attic with the birds.
g.) The birthday party scene.
h.) The final shots in the film.

I believe the reason Hitchcock uses cuts to present the action as opposed to one single long shot is, by using cuts he is able to focus our attention on details that build suspense and increase the power and emotional meaning of the scene.
In scene d.) Dan Fawcett's grotesque and lifeless body, Lydia enters Dan’s house. The camera tracks her walking down the hall to his bedroom. There is a quick cut used to shorten screen duration/ action time. The camera cuts to Lydia entering Dan’s bedroom with a medium close up of Lydia emphasizing her facial expressions. A quick cut show the bloody gull smashed through the window and a cut back to lydia’s facial expression. The camera cuts a gain to a shot of the bedroom shown on disarray and then back to Lydia’s face as her expression becomes frightened and bewildered. We then see a rapid series of flash shots first of Dan’s bloodied feet, a long shot of Dan’s grotesque face and entire body to a medium closeup from the chest up to a closeup of his bloodied face with pecked out eyes. Then a cut to Lydia fleeing the home.
The use of rapid rhythmic editing in the scene, takes us through the scene as if our own eyes would do if we saw something grotesque and freezes our mind on those images. This process of editing builds suspense and climaxes the horror of the scene. It also focuses our attention on the emotional impact on the character, Lydia in the scene.

In g.) The Birthday Party Scene, we see an aerial view of the party. The birds begin to gather and attack. As the birds attack we see multiple rapid cuts to the action between the birds striking the children, to closeups of the children and adults terrified facial expressions. These rapid cuts in the action portray and maximize the chaos of the birds attacking. As a viewer our minds are manipulated to follow this terrifying view of the grotesque scene as a helpless onlooker. Hitchcock manipulates our experience to build a terrifying suspenseful scene.

4.) Your textbook closely analyzes the gas station scene in The Birds similarly to what you will be doing in your final project for the course, your Film Segmentation and Analysis Project.

The authors list each shot, it's camera angle, its point-of-view, and its framing (mobile or static). Look carefully at each still from that scene (11 still frames on page 224-225). Then re-watch the scene on your computer. Finally, read what Bordwell and Thompson say about the graphic and rhythmic editing in that scene (224-227). Sum up their analysis. What is the purpose of the graphic and rhythmic editing in this scene? Do you agree? What did you think of the ways this scene was

edited?

In the gas station scene, we see medium close up shots of Melanie alternating with shots of the flames. There is a distinct contrast between,”motion and stasis.” We see the medium closeups of Melanie’s emotional facial expressions which are all quick still shots and the shots of the flames traveling, engulfing flames are motion shots. The scene gradually builds a rhythm. The alternating shots and cuts start out slower and Hitchcock accelerates the pace as the action builds creating suspense and tension. The speed at which the shots interchange builds until the climax of the scene when the shots become longer and eventually breaks away to an aerial view extreme long shot of the scene.
I noted that Hitchcock uses this rhythmic editing technique in many of the attack scenes to build emotional suspense. I think the gas station scene is edited and executed masterfully.It is one of he scenes in the movie that stood out to me. In summary, Alfred Hitchcock’s editing techniques do confirm his name as the master of suspense!