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Alfred Hitchcock is one of film history’s most acclaimed directors. He was popular and commercially successful. He was known as the “Master of Suspense”. He stated that, “Films should offer the highs and lows of a roller coaster. They should shriek with delight.” When making his films he was very much like a craftsman. He would carefully plan each of his shots.

He started in England during the silent film period. He believed that the most important means of telling a story was the joining of shots (editing).

In the 1950s French film critics started to evaluate Hitchcock’s work. These guys were auteur critics (as opposed to genre critics). They would compare his films to his other films. He was a strong personality and was able to transcend the whole assembly line thinking. His films had a lot of recurring elements, as well as a personal style. One thing he used a lot in some of his popular films was POV editing. He was able to make the audience identify or at least sympathize with the main character. Even if the character was a killed like in the movie “Psycho”

One of his movies that used POV editing a lot is a 1954 film “Rear Window“. Its about the nature of watching. Its a “reflexive” film because as an audience we tend to make assumptions, and thus we feel involved. We project our own fears and desires onto the screen. If you wish to watch the movie “Rear Window”, search for it on Google Video. You will find it in segments.

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Hollywood Studio Era (1930-1945)

This is the time when American films and Hollywood became globally known as entertainment film producers. Around this time filmmaking popped up all around the wolf as well. Its during this era that the international identity came about.

In Hollywood studio movies were made like cars…on an assembly line. It went from idea >> producer >> designer >> director >> editing department, etc. Studios were made so they can have productions in quantity. 65% of the American nation was going to the movies every week at this time. Why? It was the great depression. People didn’t have jobs, and life was tough. To get away from all that, they went to the movies. The movie industry was booming.

Around this time of Hollywood boom, a group of people came out with the Production Code of Ethics. The Production Code spelled out what was and was not considered morally acceptable in the production of motion pictures for a public audience. This was the precursor of the MPAA rating system, which came about as a means of self regulation so that others don’t regulate their films. The production code itself fell apart by the 1905s when filmmakers realized that people would see their films regardless of whether or not they followed the code.

It was also during this time that the Griffith style of filming was extended even further. Movies became to have sound, thus sound departments developed in the Hollywood studio. Sound such as effects, dialog, diegetic and background music.

What was the function of music in films? Transitions, set mood, add suspense, imitate character movements (mickey mousing). One thing to note is the difference between background and diegetic music. Background music is the sound is heard by the audience, but not by the characters, while deigetic sound is music from the character’s world.

A movie that demonstrates the type of films, the technology they were using is “His Girl Friday“. Enjoy…

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Charlie Chaplin & Buster Keaton were two film faces that became quite popular shortly after.

Charlie Chaplin was known for his close ups, and detail. Chaplin would never cut to a close up for a comic effect, rather he’d do it for an emotional effect. Also His films touched more on sentimental things. Here is one of earlier films called “The Immigrant” made in 1917.

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Buster Keaton is famous for his expressionless face, his own stunts, body language, and film technique. Such elements would take up time and space in his films. One of my favorite movies from Keaton is called “Cops” which he made in 1922. Enjoy…

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D W Griffith pushed the length of films further and had cuts and other elements within his films. He was fired for making a movie more than 1 hour long. Their thinking was that people will not sit to see a movie for that long. Griffith himself was a very racist man (considering he was a confederate). He made a film, “Birth of a Nation” which was glorifying the KKK. As a result of that film, the membership of the KKK grew. He worked with Billy Bitzer who was his cinematographer. He was able to help with the style and edit of the film. The studio that they worked with was American Biography Company.

The films that they made consisted of parallel editing, which is a form of cross cutting where the two scenes that shown via cutting have a thematic relationship, and are contrasting one another. For example a scene showing poor people standing in line for bread, which then cuts to people sitting in a lavish dining hall eating like kings would be parallel cutting.

The films also consisted of POV editing, aka Point of View editing. An example of this is where they would show the face of the character, then cut to a letter the character is looking at, then cut back to the face. A film that shows examples of these is “A Corner in Wheat”

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Edwin Porter pushed the narrative genre further. He was able to do more types of shots such as vehicle shot, pan, tilt, and his films had the first signs of color. One of the films he’s very well known for is “The Great Train Robbery” which he made in 1903. It was one of the first westerns. It featured cross cutting between scenes while the previous films did not. Watch the film below

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