Alfred Hitchcock

Born to a Catholic family in London in 1899, Alfred Hitchcock endured many harrowing experiences throughout his lifetime that may have helped to fuel his fascination with the macabre. His father died when Hitchcock was only fourteen years old. He had to quit school, but continued to study and read on his own. He took evening classes, attended theater and cinema performances regularly, and he got his feet wet in the talent pool of art and writing. In 1920, Hitchcock became aware of an American film company called Famous Players-Lasky that was opening a studio in London. He was offered a position as a title designer, which he accepted, and developed a love for the art of filmmaking from there.




Hitchcock was determined to learn the ins and outs of the film industry, which led him to become an Assistant Director just three years after his introduction to the business. By 1925, he was a full-fledged director. Then, in 1921, Hitchcock met and became engaged to his first true love, Alma Reville, and they married five years later. They had one child, a daughter, born in 1928, and remained married until Hitchcock's death in 1980.



Hitchcock's first film, produced in 1927 garnered mixed reactions. The Lodger, which centered on a boarder who was suspected of murdering several women, harvested both critical and public acclaim. Yet some moviegoers were shocked by its aberrant content. The Lodger focused on such dismal topics such as murder, suspicion, and even touched upon sexual attraction. This film was prepared in the painstaking style for which Hitchcock became famous. He was dedicated to his art from the very beginning of his career. He even created storyboards with mock-ups of every shot in a film before shooting.



Hitchcock had directed a total of nine silent films and was one of Britain's leading directors when he made his first partially sound film, Blackmail, in 1929. Thirteen Hitchcock sound films followed, including Murder! (1930), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). By this point he had become known as Britain's top film director. Hitchcock journeyed to America in 1939, believing he would have more creative freedom. His first American film, Rebecca (1940) won an Academy Award for best film. Ironically, Hitchcock never did receive a best director award for this film, or for any of the other four films which were nominated over the years.





In America, Hitchcock was cranking out more than one movie a year, but this prolific nature abated after his direction of Psycho in 1960. Just a few of his classic pictures of this period were Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Notorious (1946), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), and North by Northwest (1959), all of which were concerned murder and/or espionage and their effect on personal and social relationships.



After the 1940’s, Hitchcock made good on his promise to himself to begin producing films as well as directing them. However, as a result of his unending public appeal, Hitchcock did not attract the serious critical attention he deserved.



Like many writers, artists and celebrities, Hitchcock created an aura of mystery around himself, rarely revealing anything to interviewers that was more in depth than list of “technical tales” about the challenge of shooting various scenes. Yet he obviously enjoyed the appreciation of other filmmakers and considered self-promotion to be one of the keys to his professional success.



The only film aside from The Birds and Psycho that was financially successful in Hitchcock’s later years was Frenzy (1972), a tale of a psychopathic murderer who could only combat his impotence by strangling women to death. Some critics accused that Hitchcock's later films lacked the dynamic power that his earlier works emanated. Some even began to downplay Hitchcock's role in his earlier successes, claiming that the screenwriters Hitchcock employed were responsible for giving his films' characters realistic personalities and motivations. Most of the western world, however, regards Alfred Hitchcock as The Master of Suspense.



Throughout his long career, Hitchcock made 53 feature-length films, he worked with scores of actors, including Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly, not to mention technicians, composers, publicists and studio administrators, and he created some of America's most popular and cherished films to date. Yet he frequently complained about his loneliness and his fear of death, even as he was still hailed, even in the last moments of his life, as one of the film industry’s greatest directors of all time. Perhaps the darkness of his nature not only led Alfred Hitchcock to attain worldwide acclaim, but also prevented him from enjoying it.

How to make a movie like Alfred Hitchcock

How to turn your boring movie into a Hitchcock thriller...

This page is mostly for filmmakers who are sad and depressed because their movie is so average that nobody will watch it. Stop crying and pay attention. What is written here will save your career (at least until tomorrow morning!)

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STEP 1: It's the Mind of the Audience

Change everything in your screenplay so that it is done for the audience. Nothing is more important than how each scene is going to affect the viewer. Make sure the content engages them and reels them in. Use the characters to tease the viewer and pull them along desperately wanting more.



Hitchcock knew why people are drawn to a darkened theater to absorb themselves for hours with images on a screen. They do it to have fun. In the same way people go to a roller coaster to get thrown around at high speeds, theater audiences know they are safe. As a film director you can throw things at them, hurl them off a cliff, or pull them into a dangerous love story, and they know that nothing will happen to them. They're confident that they'll be able to walk out the exit when its done and resume their normal lives. And, the more fun they have, the quicker they will come back begging for more. (Gottlieb)



STEP 2: Frame for Emotion

Emotion (in the form of fear, laughter, surprise, sadness, anger, boredom, etc.) is the ultimate goal of each scene. The first consideration of where to place the camera should involve knowing what emotion you want the audience to experience at that particular time. Emotion comes directly from the actor's eyes. You can control the intensity of that emotion by placing the camera close or far away from those eyes. A close-up will fill the screen with emotion, and pulling away to a wide angle shot will dissipate that emotion. A sudden cut from wide to close-up will give the audience a sudden surprise. Sometimes a strange angle above an actor will heighten the dramatic meaning. (Truffaut)



Hitchcock used this theory of proximity to plan out each scene. These varations are a way of controlling when the audience feels intensity, or relaxation. Hitchcock compared this to a composer writing a music score - except instead of playing instruments, he's playing the audience!



STEP 3: Camera is Not a Camera

The camera should take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room. This allows the audience to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story. Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements.



This goes back to Hitchcock's beginnings in silent film. Without sound, filmmakers had to create ways to tell the story visually in a succession of images and ideas. Hitchcock said this trend changed drastically when sound finally came to film in the 1930's. Suddenly everything went toward dialogue oriented material based on scripts from the stage. Movies began to rely on actors talking, and visual storytelling was almost forgotten. (Truffaut) Always use the camera as more than just a camera.



STEP 4: Dialogue Means Nothing



One of your characters must be pre-occupied with something during a dialogue scene. Their eyes can then be distracted while the other person doesn't notice. This is a good way to pull the audience into a character's secretive world.



“People don’t always express their inner thoughts to one another," said Hitchcock, "a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person thinks or needs.” The focus of the scene should never be on what the characters are actually saying. Have something else going on. Resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise.



"In other words we don’t have pages to fill, or pages from a typewriter to fill, we have a rectangular screen in a movie house,” said Hitchcock. (Schickel)



STEP 5: Point of View Editing



Jimmy Stewart looks at dog and then we see him smiling. Jimmy Stewart looks at a woman undressing and then we see him smiling. Those two smiles have completely different meanings, even if they are the exact same smile.

Putting an idea into the mind of the character without explaining it in dialogue is done by using a point-of-view shot sequence. This is subjective cinema. You take the eyes of the characters and add something for them to look at.



- Start with a close-up of the actor

- Cut to a shot of what they're seeing

- Cut back to the actor to see his reaction

- Repeat as desired



You can edit back and forth between the character and the subject as many times as you want to build tension. The audience won't get bored. This is the most powerful form of cinema, even more important than acting. To take it even further have the actor walk toward the subject. Switch to a tracking shot to show his changing perspective as he walks. The audience will believe they are sharing something personal with the character. This is what Hitchcock calls "pure cinema." (Truffaut)



Note: If another person looks at the character in point-of-view they must look directly at the camera.



STEP 6: Montage Gives You Control



Divide action into a series of close-ups shown in succession. Don't avoid this basic technique. This is not the same as throwing together random shots into a fight sequence to create confusion. Instead, carfully chose a close-up of a hand, an arm, a face, a gun falling to the floor - tie them all together to tell a story. In this way you can portray an event by showing various pieces of it and having control over the timing. You can also hide parts of the event so that the mind of the audience is engaged. (Truffaut)



Hitchcock said this was "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience." (Schickel) The famous shower scene in Psycho uses montage to hide the violence. You never see the knife hitting Janet Leigh. The impression of violence is done with quick editing, and the killing takes place inside the viewer's head rather than the screen. Also important is knowing when not to cut. (Truffaut)



Basic rule: anytime something important happens, show it in a close-up. Make sure the audience can see it.



STEP 7: Keep the Story Simple!

If your story is confusing or requires a lot of memorization, you're never going to get suspense out of it. The key to creating that raw Hitchcock energy is by using simplistic, linear stories that the audience can easily follow. Everything in your screenplay must be streamlined to offer maximum dramatic impact. Remove all extraneous material and keep it crisp. Each scene should include only those essential ingredients that make things gripping for the audience. As Hitchcock says, “what is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out…” (Truffaut)



An abstract story will bore the audience. This is why Hitchcock tended to use crime stories with spies, assassinations, and people running from the police. These sort of plots make it easy to play on fear, but are not mandatory for all movies.



STEP 8: Characters Must Break Cliché



Make all of your characters the exact opposite of what the audience expects in a movie. Turn dumb blondes into smart blondes, give the Cuban guy a French accent, and the criminals must be rich and successful. They should have unexpected personalities, making decisions on a whim rather than what previous buildup would suggest. These sort of ironic characters make them more realistic to the audience, and much more ripe for something to happen to them.



Hitchcock criminals tend to be wealthy upper class citizens whom you’d never suspect, the policeman and politicians are usually the bumbling fools, the innocent are accused, and the villains get away with everything because nobody suspects them. They surprise you at every step of the plot.



STEP 9: Use Humor to Add Tension

Humor is essential to Hitchcock storytelling. Pretend you are playing a practical joke on the main character of your movie. Give him the most ironic situations to deal with. It's the unexpected gag, the coincidence, the worst possible thing that can go wrong - all can be used to build tension.



In Marnie, Tippi Hedren is stealing money from an office safe and is just about to leave when she notices the maid happens to be cleaning in the next room. The maid is completely innocent and unaware. Hedren will get caught if the maid sees her, but the audience is already hoping that she gets away with it. The more happily the maid mops the floor and the closer she gets to seeing Hedren, the higher the tension.



You'll also find that Hitchcock tended to use comical old women to add a flavor of innocent humor in his films. They will usually be opinionated, chatty, and have a highly optimistic view about crime. If someone were committing a crime they might even help with it!



[MORE about use of humor]



STEP 10: Two Things Happening at Once



Build tension into a scene by using contrasting situations. Use two unrelated things happening at once. The audience should be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other. Usually the second item should be a humorous distraction that means nothing (this can often be dialogue.) It was put there by you only to get in the way.



When unexpected guests arrive at the hotel room in the Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day are in the midst of a tense phone-call. The arrival of the guests laughing and joking serve a dramatic counterpoint to the real momentum of the scene. In Spellbound (1945) Ingrid Bergman sees a note which has been slipped under her door. Just when she grabs for it, her colleagues walk in and speak with her about the dissapearance of Gregory Peck, completely unaware they are standing on top of the note from him! The end result is - the audience pays more attention to what's happening.



STEP 11: Suspense is Information

"Information" is essential to Hitchcock suspense; showing the audience what the characters don’t see. If something is about to harm the characters, show it at beginning of the scene and let the scene play out as normal. Constant reminders of this looming danger will build suspense. But remember - the suspense is not in the mind of the character. They must be completely unaware of it. (Schickel, Truffaut)



In Family Plot (1976) Hitchcock shows the audience that brake fluid is leaking out of a car well before the characters find out about it. In Psycho (1960) we know about the crazy mother before the detective (Martin Balsam) does, making the scene in which Balsam enters the house one of the most suspenseful scenes in Hitchcock's career.



“The essential fact is to get real suspense you must let the audience have information." --Alfred Hitchcock



STEP 12: Surprise and Twist



Once you've built your audience into gripping suspense it must never end the way they expect. The bomb must never go off! Lead them in one direction and then pull the rug out from under them in a surprise twist.



In the climax scene of Saboteur (1942) Norman Lloyd is cornered on the top of the Statue of Liberty as Robert Cummings holds him at gunpoint. Just when you think it's over, Cummings begins to speak, startling Lloyd to fall backwards over the edge!



STEP 13: Warning: May Cause MacGuffin

The MacGuffin is the side effect of creating pure suspense. When scenes are built around dramatic tension, it doesn’t really matter what the story is about. If you've done your job and followed all the previous steps, the audience is still glued no matter what. You can use random plot devices known as the MacGuffin.



The MacGuffin is nothing. The only reason for the MacGuffin is to serve a pivotal reason for the suspense to occur. (Schickel) It could be something as vague as the "government secrets perhaps" in North by Northwest, or the long detailed weapons plans of Mr. Memory in the 39 Steps. Or, it could be something simple like the dog blocking the stairway in Strangers on a Train. Nobody cares about the dog. It's only there for one reason - suspense. It could have just as easily been a person, an alarm, a talking parrot, or a macguffin!

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Date of Birth
27 March 1963, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA


Birth Name
Quentin Jerome Tarantino


Nickname
QT


Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)


Mini Biography
In January of 1992, Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, by first-time writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened on December 25th in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Kale Whorton


Trade Mark
Lead characters usually drive General Motors vehicles, particularly Chevrolet and Cadillac, such as Jules' 1974 Nova and Vincent's 1960s Malibu.

Briefcases and suitcases play an important role in Pulp Fiction (1994), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Jackie Brown (1997), True Romance (1993), and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004).

Makes references to cult movies and television.

Frequently works with Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Uma Thurman, Michael Bowen, and Samuel L. Jackson.

His films usually have a shot from inside a car trunk.

He always has a Dutch element in his films: The opening tune, Little Green Bag, in Reservoir Dogs (1992) was performed by George Baker and written by Jan Gerbrand Visser and Benjamino Bouwens who are all Dutch. The character Freddy Newandyke, played by Tim Roth is a direct translation to a typical Dutch last name, Nieuwendijk. The code name of Tim Roth is Mr. Orange, the royal color of Holland, and the last name of the royal family. The Amsterdam conversation in PulpFiction, Vincent Vega smokes from a Dutch tobacco shag (Drum), the mentioning of Rutger Hauer in Jackie Brown (1997), the bride's name is Beatrix, the name of the Royal Dutch Queen.

[The Mexican Standoff] All his movies (including True Romance (1993), which he only wrote and did not direct) feature a scene in which three or more characters are pointing guns at each other at the same time.

Often uses an unconventional storytelling device in his films, such as retrospect (Reservoir Dogs (1992)), non-linear (Pulp Fiction (1994)), or "chapter" format (_Kill Bill: Vol.1 (2003)_).

His films will often include one long, unbroken take where a character is followed around somewhere.

Often casts comedians in small roles: 'Stephen Wright' as the DJ in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kathy Griffin as an accident witness and Julia Sweeney as the junkyard guy's daughter in Pulp Fiction (1994), 'Chris Tucker' as Beaumont in Jackie Brown (1997).

Widely imitated quick cuts of character's hands performing actions in extreme closeup, a technique reminiscent of Brian De Palma.

Long closeup of a person's face while someone else speaks off-screen (closeup of The Bride while Bill talks, of Butch while Marsellus talks).

[Aliases] He uses aliases in nearly all of his movies: Honey Bunny and Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction (1994), Mr White, Blonde, Orange etc. from Reservoir Dogs (1992). Bill's team in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) (Black Mamba, Copperhead, Cottonmouth, and California Mountain Snake), The Basterds and other major characters in Inglourious Basterds (2009)

[Director's Cameo] Often plays a small role in his films (Jimmie Dimmick in Pulp Fiction (1994), Mr. Brown in Reservoir Dogs (1992), the answering machine voice in Jackie Brown (1997), The Rapist in Grindhouse (2007) and Warren in Death Proof (2007)).

Frequently uses Mêlée weapons, such as the samuri sword that Butch uses in Pulp Fiction (1994) and the bride uses in the Kill Bill movies, also the stake attached to a jackhammer used by George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).

Extreme violence, much of which is suggested off-screen.

Frequently has a female character who wears a black and white pant suit (Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (1994), Pam Grier in Jackie Brown (1997), Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)).

Often creates fictional brands of objects due to his dislike of product placement. The Red Apple cigarettes and Big Kahuna burger established in Pulp Fiction (1994) are often referenced in his other films.

Frequently sets his films in Los Angeles.

Often frames characters with doorways and shows them opening and closing doors.

Minor character dialogue is off-screen in his films.

A character cooly talks through an intense situation, either delaying the occurrence of violence or avoiding it through resolution.

Interjects scenes with introduction of a character's background (Hugo Stieglitz is introduced in the middle of the Nazi torture scene in _Inglorious Basterds (2009)_, O-Ren is introduced with a interuption in the main story in _Kill Bill: Vol.1 (2003)_).

Frequently uses Spanish classical guitar for the soundtracks

Known for giving comebacks to "forgotten" actors and/or cult actors by giving them important roles in his movies: John Travolta (Pulp Fiction (1994)), David Carradine (Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)), Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs (1992)), Pam Grier (Jackie Brown (1997)), Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)), Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003))... even in smaller/cameo roles: Sid Haig (Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)), Edward Bunker (Reservoir Dogs (1992)) and Michael Parks (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), which QT wrote and co-starred in).

Frequently references his home state of Tennessee in his films: In Pulp Fiction, Butch plans to meet his connection in Knoxville, which is also where his grandfather bought the gold watch; the song "Tennessee Stud" by Johnny Cash appears in Jackie Brown; Death Proof is set in Lebanon, Tennessee; Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds hails from Maynardville, Tennessee