Opening Scene Analysis

Alfred Hitchcock

In our media class we watched three openings to thriller films all directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899 -1980). Firstly we watched the opening scene to Shadow of a Doubt, then North By Northwest, then finally Vertigo.We watched and took notes on various parts of the scene and each individual frame from the mise-en-scene to other techniques. We did this so we could look at the props and settings, lighting and colour, facial expressions and body language, positioning of characters and objects and makeup, hair and costumes to give us ideas about what we could do for our own thriller coursework.  Also what works and what doesn't work for an opening scene of a thriller as you don't want to give too much away as it's only the first 5 minutes but in contrast you don't want to give too little information so the audience don't watch on.