Thriller Opening 1 -Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 (Horror Thriller)

Camera
Throughout the opening credits there is not much movement of the camera, mainly Long Shots
are used
and the camera appears to stay in one place. Similarly the camera angle does not change also. This allows the audience to clearly see all the titles. The credits are presented to the audience straight in front of them. Additionally the titles are centralized in each shot. The director could have chosen to do this in order to add emphasis to the titles by focusing them in the centre and to draw the audience’s attention to them. The meaning that can be interpreted from the extract links to the animation and graphics.


Editing
The editing is at a slow speed at the start and gradually increases throughout. The title sequence includes mostly short takes with straight cuts, but wipes are also used. The speed of editing matches the non-diegetic sound; as the music’s pitch the speed of the editing increases with it. The use of the non-diegtic sound mixed with the pace of editing effectively creates suspense and tension. This is a common convention know to be linked with Thrillers as from this the audience are able to establish the genre of the media text. This means that they will have defined their certain ideas about what to expect from a film from the thriller genre. Accordingly the director has immediately influenced the audience’s ideas and expectations from the text.


Sound
The sound is predominantly high pitched throughout the title sequence and there is no diegetic sound present at all. The non-diegetic music used is high-pitched string instruments, mostly violins that help to establish the setting, worrying atmosphere and the time period from which the thriller is from, as it is common of older thrillers to have instrumental music as non-diegetic sound. The string instruments in the title sequence help to create a dramatic, apprehensive mood, consequently causing anticipation and tension for the audience. In conclusion the he sound successfully creates suspense and again links back to editing to create pace.


Mise-en-scene (props, costume, setting, lighting, colour)
The colours used are mainly black white and grey, which could relate back to the time period in which the film was made. The white could be a connotation of purity and the black could represent darkness. The title sequence consists of straight black and grey lines appearing on the screen from the right going across to the left with white titles. The links interlink smoothly however the titles themselves do not align with the actual lines.


Special Effects
The special effects included in this title sequence are the grey and black animated lines and the animated titles that move in and out of the lines in order to help create confusion and ambiguity. The director uses symbolic images in order to create mystery and keep the text slightly ambiguous so that the audience can interpret meanings of it themselves which helps to keep the engaged with the text, rather than use iconic images which would suggest what the text is about and give more detail about the film. The director wants to keep the audience thinking for themselves.


Titles
The colours chosen for the titles is white titles on black background and the text is in an informal font. The positioning of them appears to be centralized in the all of the shots, this is done in order to show their importance. However the text is sometimes not slanted and not straight and comes into shot from all angles. The colour white has connotations of purity and innocence and the colour black of evil, darkness and bad things. The text of the title “Psycho” in the opening title sequence is distorted and misshaped. The movement of the text and skewed placement has been done to reinforce confusion.