Hitchcock research...

Here are some of the features often used in Hitchcock films.


- Make sure your audience are absolutely drawn into your piece or no atmosphere will be able to be created.
- Frame shots to show emotions best.
- Let the camera take on the feel of a person. This allows the audience to feel like they are actually involved in uncovering the plot.
- The focus of a scene should never be solely on what a character is saying, but the things they are thinking.
- Keep the story as simple as you can! If an audience are having to battle to keep up with the plot; then suspense and tension are never going to be created.
- Hitchcock criminals tended to be wealthy, upper class citizens who you’d never suspect. The innocent would always get accused. And the criminal would often get away with it because nobody suspected them!
- Humour is always a good thing to aid building tension. Put your character in the most ironic situation to deal with and the worst possible things that can go wrong.
- Build tension into a scene by using two contrasting situations. The audience will be focused on the momentum of one, and be interrupted by the other.
- Show the audience things that the characters can't see.
- Include surprises and twists. This will un-nerve the audience.










This is an example of an emotion close up from "Psycho".

This is an example of humour being used from "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Humour is often used to break the tension. There could be one scene of high drama and tension followed by a humorous scene to make the audience feel at ease before the next high suspense moment. (This technique dates back to Shakespearian times when he would use a humorous scene between two tragic ones!)