Case study: Psycho trailer

The trailer for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho changed the codes and conventions of movie trailers and changed the way movie trailers were made and how they advertise their movies. Psycho came out around the time that the " star director" phase of Hollywood was coming about. This was a time when influential film makers such as Alfred Hitchcock started to use their fame to advertise movies by actually being in their movies trailer. Psycho, which changed many of the conventions of horror, had an equally unconventional trailer. At the beginning of the trailer, Alfred Hitchcock is seen at the set of his film that he describes as a " quiet, normal motel just off the highway" the use of diagetic sound and lack of musical score at the start of the trailer, defies the convention of movie trailers at the time and also adds to the general tension of the trailer. Hitchcock voice itself is very melodramatic and also adds to the general tension of the scene.

 Camera work 

 At the beginning of the trailer, there are multiple camera shots of someones body parts, such as hands and feet, as well as the iconic blood mixed with water scene. These close up shots display that from the start that some sort of attack has occurred. The trailer then cuts to a shot of a silhouette of a man, with a knife in his hand. This provides a chilling and disturbing feeling to the scene, as it enables the audience to piece together the close up shots and realize the man with the knife has committed the crime. Camera work in the trailer is unconventional as I explained in my introduction. An example of this is the establishing shot that displays Alfred Hitchcock standing on the set of his movie, explaining what happened in the scene we saw before. Convention of film trailers at the time was that the shots would then explain the basic narrative of what is happening in the film. Therefore, having the director actually explaining what just happened in the scene is very unconventional and was almost unheard of at the time. As I stated before, Hitchcock's melodramatic voice and dead pan expression add to the overall disturbing nature of the scene.

                                                                                                                                          Mise- en- scene 

Low key lighting is used to create an aura of terror and to tap into viewers fear of the dark, when psycho came out    most films were in color, so the fact that psycho is in black and white is supposed to connote a feeling that it is almost too horrifying to show in black and white. The contrast between the actual motel, which looks very normal and non threatening, and the house in which the villain lives in is very big.  The house looks very much like the conventional haunted Gothic manor, which has become a norm in the horror genre and shows how Hitchcock combines aspects of both horror and thriller in the trailer. This effects the audience by making them feel uneasy about the contrast between the motel and the house.  The use of the shower is supposed to connote feelings of being vulnerable as in the shower you are naked and nude is usually associated with vulnerability, therefore the killer committing the crime whilst the victim is in the shower  is designed to shock audiences and make them feel unsafe, as they can relate to the vulnerability of being naked in the shower.