Aspects of a Thriller: Alfred Hitchcock's North By North West

Today we looked at aspects of a thriller that Alfred Hitchcock made to become aspects of thriller films as we know it today.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13th 1899. he was a English filmmaker and producer. he was behind many techniques in suspense which appear in psychological thrillers still today. After his great success in The UK in both silent films and the early talkies, he moved to the Sates and worked in Hollywood. Over a long career spanning over 50 years, Hitchcock he fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style.

Hitchcock believed that the only way to get rid his fear was to make films about them. Here are some of his quotes:

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."

"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on."

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."

Hitchcock was a master of suspense who's films came to become the benchmark for psychological thrillers. He used different techniques to achieve this. 

Maguffin

A maguffin ( Mcguffin or Macguffin ) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story of the film, but as little significance to the actually film itself. A classic example would be in the film Psycho. When  Marion Crane was giving the money, this drove her to run away with it , leading her to stop at the hotel where she was murdered.

Enigmas

A enigma is a puzzle, mystery, inexplicable event or a difficult problem that needs solving. In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes. 

In Hitchcock's films, one of these enigmas is in the film North By North West, where Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for Mr Kaplan. This then leads us to think, who is Mr Kaplan and the theme runs throughout the film.

The moment that Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for Mr Kaplan, a classic enigma.

Red Herring

A red herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. A red herring can be used with other devices such as a enigma to create suspense. A example would be the persona of a George Kaplan in North By North West. In the film the bad guys are convinced that some one by the name of Kaplan is a spy for the government who has infiltrated there system. In reality, there is no Kaplan and it is a red herring used by the government to throw the criminals away form the rule spy, combined with the enigma of Roger Thornhill's mistaken identity is used by Hitchcock to creates suspense. 

Modern Thriller : No Country For Old Men

We looked at the open sequence to the modern thriller film No country for Old Men. The film was released in 2007 and was directed by the Coen Brothers. The film includes a cast of Tommy lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Woddy Harrelson.

When watching the opening minutes of this film i felt right from the beginning a sense of mystery and a unknown plot that would inevitably unfold. I got these feeling when a man's voice echoed out of the speakers with no image of the man just images of a hostile environment. This gave a sense of mystery into the film, as if something terrible was about to unfold. The fact that it was a hostile environment gave the impression that if something was to happen , there would be no help on the way for a substation period of time. When we hear the narrator's voice his tone is very negative which implies that there is a very negative mood about the film straight away.

The use of filming the environment when the sun is rising can be seen as the beginning of a story. The first significant thing we see is a police car. This instantly give me the impression that a crime had been or is about to be committed. When the car arrives and he picks up this unknown character , his face is out of focus. This made me feel instantly unsure about the character and that he has a sense of mystery about him.

The directors gives us a insight into the mystery character's personality and also his mentality as when he commits the murder he is very calm and he doesn't show any emotion on his face . This shows to me that he is very heartless character. This is also shown after the killing as he walks right over the victims body very slowly and calmly. When he commits his second murder he is very calm in his tone when he asks the man to get out of the car, also showing how heartless he is and his lack of emotion. This also shows that murdering people doesn't phrase the man. When he is committing the murder the director uses a high angle shot on the victim to show that he is very vulnerable and he powerless to what is going on.

Lesson 1 - what is a thriller movie?

In our first coursework lesson we got into pairs and we discussed and brain stormed what we believed made a film a good thriller film and words or people that can be associated with a thriller film.

This is what we came up with :-
• murder
• crime
• Mr Hitchcock
• suspense
• excitement
• corruption
• dramatic sounds
• anticipation
• happy endings
• cliff hangers
• mystery
• darkness
• uncertainty
• tension
• twists i'n the plot
• psychological in packs
• victims, ( femme fatale )

Brief

For my media coursework i will be producing the opening sequence of a thriller film within a group of up to four members of my classmates. The film will be around 2 minutes long. I am able to use people outside my class in the film and i may or may not star in the film too. This coursework will be assessed on the technical competence of the film and the use of my blog. My first task is to research the criteria's of thriller films.

Welcome to my blog

Hello everyone welcome to my blog. Throughout this blog i will be showing the journey i will be undergoing from this media studies course. I shall chart my progress constantly with images, videos and text.