Thrillers [North by Northwest]

North by Northwest

Without Music

·         Connotations of green screen-life, nature, envy

·         Parallel, diagonal lines on right-hand side of screen

·         Vertical lines cross other lines, diagonal grid created [from the top]

·         Vertical lines come from the bottom of the screen

·         Lines converging [similar to train station in Marnie] slightly uncomfortable

With Music

·         Orchestral music-dynamic, gives texture

·         Violins: quick, jittery, high pitched, rushed, frantic

·         Along the horizontal /diagonal lines: Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (MGM  Studios)

·         Main stars: male, female

·         Titles move relatively quickly

·         Name of film title is graphical descriptive/notated

 

 

 

·         Grid turns into mirrored high-rise building (reflection shows traffic)

·         Reflection/false image puts audience on edge due to false picture

·         Location-NYC (yellow taxis in traffic give it away)

·         Actors, co-starring, lesser parts, writer, cinematographer, production designer, etc.

·         VistaVison [an older form of widescreen]

·         Dissolves [translation] into street level of people/crowded street (long shot)

·         People going tin 2 different directions like the grid from the opening credits

·         Set in ‘contemporary’ dress [appropriate for time period it was filmed in]

·         The events seen are coincidental, etc.

·         Music mimics people’s movement

·         Cut to shot of people going down subway stairs to Queen’s [overhead shot]

·         Cut to people crossing the street

·         Cut to 2 middle-aged women fighting over a cab (note how animalistic they are)

·         Slight overhead shot with Alfred Hitchcock’s name audience a “superior” feeling

·         Note: there is a lot of action

·         Note: at this point there is still no story, not plot, no characters, and no narrative

·         Cut to Alfred trying to catch a bus [translation-as he walks he pushes name off the screen]

·         He didn’t make the bus

SIDE NOTE

VISUALS

Ø  Lines are very useful: common motif in films

Ø  Rotoscoping-digitally writing over an animated image [downside is that you must go frame by frame]