I would like to start of with the establishing shot at the beginning of the scene where he arrives at a field that never ends. For miles and miles there is nothing but barren sand and crops. It puts the viewer in a place where people have the fear of being in open spaces, or also known as Agoraphobia. As he leaves the bus, he looks towards his left and right and sees only a car or two. This shows that he is in a different world compared to his normal lifestyle of a busy metropolis-like city. Other shots that I liked, were the low angle shots used in this film, as he was being hunted down by the airplane, he constantly fell towards the floor and the low-angle shot was taken. It puts the viewer into a place that they themselves fell towards the ground and avoided the plane. It also gives the impression that there is only that much space between Thornhill and the plane. I felt with a bird's eye view of from the plane would have made a great addition to the sequence, but that is only my opinion.
Secondly, I liked the way Hitchcock used the sound to express the incoming airplane. As the sound of the airplane became clearer and louder, we have the sense that the plane is approaching, and we have the sense that the airplane is flying away when the sound fades. This shows that we do not need our sense of sight to predict the cause of something. Instead, we can also rely on our other senses the assume and interpret occurrences. Our sense of hearing can also draw images and plots in our head. The background music that is played later on builds up the suspense in our minds. We know as the music becomes faster, the nearer we are to the climax of the scene.
The Mise-en-scené of Carey Grant's costume portrayed a rich man in an barren land, lost from his quick hustle and bustle like lifestyle. His suit finally gets messed up and covered in dirt and dust at the end of the scene. Dirt, was added to Carey Grant's costume to make the scene more believable. This enforces Poetic Faith ( quote Chairman Rey) which is the suspension of disbelief during a film. Another part that I want to discuss about in this film, is the choice of using color. Hitchcock could have easily made the entire movie black and white and it would have been as entertaining. But, the colors did something that black and white could not do well ( not impossible ), which is elaborating on distance and temperature of climate.
Personal Blog:
I wrote this ET today because I felt out of touch with my film class. It may be short, but It's just something to put me back on track. Soon I'll have to do my comparison essay. I'm thinking Scarface VS Godfather (Unsure of which part tho).
Before you comment on this Mr.Rey, I'm still standing my ground that the film MUST HAVE BEEN GREEN MATTED :) I'll talk to you about it another time :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for not marking it yet Mr.Rey, But I feel that it has to be green screened, I will discuss it with you another time, but for now, here is my ET without the fact that Color matting was used. :)
ReplyDeleteUnless you can prove to me that it was green matted, I have to go with what I know, which is that it was shot entirely on location.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, this is a disappointing essay. You jump from here to there, making some valid points, but not organizing your ideas into a coherent essay. Sometimes, you are on to something, like the sound of the distant plane; sometimes, you make a really thoughtless point, like that Hitchcock used color instead of black and white. WHICH COLORS? Mis en scene involves choice of colors, choice of shot angles, choice of EVERYTHING you see on the screen. You also don't touch at all on EDITING which is very important! The main thing is, you didn't pay attention to the question as I specifically wrote it. I can't give this a good grade.
4.5/8
Time for a re-write :)
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