Universität Koblenz/Landau, Campus Landau

Fachbereich Anglistik

Seminar: The Cultural Study of Film ­ British and American Hitchcock

Wintersemester 2007/08

Verfasser: Marc Faber

Abgabetermin: 22.02.2008

Camera techniques in dramatic and humorous

scenes in Hitchcock′s The Lady Vanishes

Picture from http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Profiles/20061004/244.hitchcock.alfred.100206.jpg

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

0.

Introduction 1

1.

Definitions and key concepts of the camera 2

1.1

Shots, camera movement, and perspectives 2

1.2

Cutting, matching, and blending 4

2.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes 7

2.1

Short biography of Alfred Hitchcock 7

2.2

Hitchcock′s most important elements in a movie 8

2.3

Summary of Hitchcock′s

The Lady Vanishes

11

3.

Analysis of The Lady Vanishes 12

3.1

Scenes of drama and suspense 12

3.1.1 Death of the Singer 12

3.1.2 The Spiked Drinks 13

3.1.3 Charters Is Shot 14

3.2 Scenes of comedy and relief 15

3.2.1 Charters and Caldicott Meet the Room Maid 15

3.2.2 The Newspaper Scene 15

3.2.3 The Nun Helps Gilbert 16

3.3 A sequence mixing up both genres 17

4.

Conclusion and private statement 18

Bibliography 19

II

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INTRODUCTION

Alfred Hitchcock is, without doubt, one of the most famous film directors in the

history of cinema. Many of his movies are still regarded as well-planned and

marvellously produced classics; apart from his masterpiece,

Psycho

, the films

made in the 1950s belong to the best-known ones of the 20th century.

The appeal of Hitchcock′s films lies, amongst

other features, in the narrative camera techniques

he uses to integrate the audience directly into the

plot action. Pans, cuts, and visual special effects

are essentials of his work. The camera techniques

contribute in a large degree to Hitchcock suc-

ceeding in keeping the audience on tenterhooks

*

Sir Alfred Hitchcock

and manipulating their perception. The repeated

award-winner describes this a structure of film making as follows:

In all my films, about two-thirds of the way through, I try to supply a definite contrast. I

take a dramatic situation up and up and up to its peak of excitement and then, before it

has time to start the downward curve, I introduce comedy to relieve the tension. After

that, I feel safe with the climax. (Gottlieb 1997: 81)1

The Lady Vanishes

, a Hitchcock movie of 1938, is not an exception to this:

Hitchcock mixes a dynamic and surprising plot with elements of comedy and

satire.

Inhalt der Hausarbeit

Es ergibt sich folglich die Frage, ob eine bestimmte Kameraführung in

humoristischen und dramatischen Szenen grundsätzlich verwendet wird und

aus welchem Grund diese so gut funktioniert. Die Analyse ausgewählter

Szenen aus

The Lady Vanishes

soll hierauf eine Antwort geben, nachdem die

Grundzüge der Kameraführung und Hitchcocks favorisierte Stilmittel in seinen

Filmen vorgestellt wurden.

1 Sidney Gottlieb,

Hitchcock on Hitchcock

, London: Faber and Faber, 1997.

* picture from http://www.filmsquish.com/guts/files/images/hitchcock3.jpg

1

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1. Definitions and key concepts of the camera

Whatever method is used, it is used with the realization that everything in

cinema is a visual statement and the images are its language. Film,

therefore, has its own syntax, which, as the word implies, is a lining up or

ordering of images to create the maximum effect. (Gottlieb 1997: 223)

The camera takes an important and even leading role in films: The spectators

are only able to watch the frame presented by the camera instead of taking a

look around at the theatre. For that reason every film director has to pay close

attention to camera techniques which have to be appropriate to what is presen-

ted. The actions and takes which can be varied using the camera can be sub-

divided roughly into two categories: First, the features which can be influenced

directly by managing the camera, namely shots, camera movement, and per-

spective; second, indirect camera work by changing from one shot to another,

that is, cutting, matching, and blending.

1.1 Shots, camera movement, and perspective

Shots depend on the totality and on the size of the focused subjects or objects.

A common structure includes five basic concepts of the shot. A

long shot

is pre-

sented with hardly a detail, a person in its entirety fills very little space within the

frame. A

medium long shot

stands for a shot which presents persons in full size

and and much of the environment surrounding the image. The most centralized

shot is called a

medium shot

; persons are shown from head to knees and one

can see just enough of the environment. A

medium close up

mainly includes

more detailed parts of a person from head to navel. The environment can hardly

be seen in this kind of shot. A

close up

forms the last key concept. It is by far

the most detailed kind of shot, which is the reason for it also being named

detail

2

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shot

. The subject fills the screen completely, it can even be bigger than the

image space even if it is merely a small detail. The more detail there is to see in

the shot, the more subjective it seems. If the shot is totalized the subjects are

subordinate to context (see Hayward 1999: 317-8)2.

Without any movement the camera frame is static, which means that if there is

movement it has to belong to the scene itself. In order to achieve a realistic and

dynamic image a camera concept is needed which allows the camera to move.

The

pan

belongs to the most elementary concepts of camera movement.

While panning a scene the camera remains at its position but turns horizontally

or vertically. There is a huge number of possible panning movements which can

be developed from combining horizontal panning and vertical panning pro-

cesses. If the camera is moved from its position to another, it is

tracking

. The

use of tracking shots immensely raises the level of realism within the scene. A

track can also be performed horizontally and vertically, and foreward as well as

backward--which again leaves a huge number of possibilities.

Every kind of camera movement can be either motivated or autonomous.

When motivated, the camera focuses on a particular subject or object and on its

movement. A special case is

parallel tracking

: the camera is situated opposite

to the subject or object in focus, and it is moved into the same direction at the

same speed. Autonomous camera movement is defined as being much more

independent. The camera behaves more like an actor with a will of its own. All

of the variations of movement introduced above can be combined. Normally

camera movement includes panning and tracking (see Steinmetz 2005: 26-7)3.

Shots and camera movement are completed by a third category, perspective. A

centralized

perspective (the camera points directly at the subject or object, eye-

line parallels horizontal and vertical screen axis) is considered as documentary,

while a perspective differing from the centralized has the effect of commentary.

Several differences from the axis summarize and raise the assessment factor.

2 Susan Hayward,

Key concepts in cinema studies

, London: Routledge, 1999.

3 Rüdiger Steinmetz,

Filme sehen lernen

, Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 2005.

3

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