PSYCHO

Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. The screenplay by Joseph Stefano is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The novel was loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein, who lived just 40 miles from Bloch.

The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), hiding at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner and manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and the aftermath of their encounter.

Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted a re-review which was overwhelmingly positive and led to four Academy Award nominations. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and is highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics. The film spawned two sequels, a prequel, a remake, and a television movie spin-off. In 1992, the film was selected to be preserved by the Library of Congress at the National Film Registry.

PSYCHO LOCATIONS

4270 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

(automobile dealership exterior scene)

Falls Lake, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

(swamp where Marion Crane's car is sunk)

Gorman, California, USA

(establishing shot of Marion's car parked by the side of road)

Jefferson Hotel, 109 S. Central, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

(establishing shot: cheap hotel room)

Phoenix, Arizona, USA

(opening panoramic shot)

Psycho House, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Route 99 of the Fresno-Bakersfield Highway, California, USA

(Marion Crane's drive to the Bates Motel)

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Stage 18, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Stage 28, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

DO YOU KNOW?

• Considered for the role of Marion were Eva Marie Saint, Lee Remick, Angie Dickinson, Piper Laurie, Martha Hyer, Hope Lange, Shirley Jones, and Lana Turner. 

• Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for only US$9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret. 

• One of the reasons Alfred Hitchcock shot the movie in black and white was he thought it would be too gory in color. But the main reason was that he wanted to make the film as inexpensively as possible (under $1 million). He also wondered if so many bad, inexpensively made, b/w "B" movies did so well at the box office, what would happen if a really good, inexpensively made, b/w movie was made. 

• This was Alfred Hitchcock's last feature film in black and white, filmed November 30 1959-March 1 1960. 

• During filming, this movie was referred to as "Production 9401" or "Wimpy". The latter name came from the second-unit cameraman on the picture Rex Wimpy who appeared on clapboards and production sheets, and some on-the-set stills for Psycho. 

• Janet Leigh has said that when he cast her, Alfred Hitchcock gave her the following charter: "I hired you because you are an actress! I will only direct you if A: you attempt to take more than your share of the pie, B: you don't take enough, or C: if you are having trouble motivating the necessary timed movement." 

• The license plate on Marion's first car is ANL-709. The license plate on Marion's second car is NFB-418. The latter could be a Québec reference. NFB stands for National Film Board of Canada, the famous office in which Norman McLaren, Claude Jutra, Michel Brault and many others worked, and 418 is the regional phone code for the region of Québec city. Although the real regional code of the NFB is 514 and not 418, this could have been mistaken by Hitchcock, as he shot I Confess in Québec years earlier in the effective 418 area. 

• The film only cost US$800,000 to make and has earned more than US$40 million. Alfred Hitchcock used the crew from his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents to save time and money. In 1962 he exchanged the rights to the film and his TV series for a huge block of MCA's stock, becoming its third-largest stockholder). 

• An early script had the following dialogue: Marion: "I'm going to spend the weekend in bed." Texas oilman: "Bed? Only playground that beats Las Vegas." (This discarded dialogue was resurrected for the Gus Van Sant remake Psycho, but was subsequently cut.) 

• Alfred Hitchcock produced this film when plans to make a film starring Audrey Hepburn, called "No Bail for the Judge," fell through. 

• Walt Disney refused to allow Alfred Hitchcock to film at Disneyland in the early 1960s because Hitchcock had made "that disgusting movie, 'Psycho'." 

• This was Alfred Hitchcock's last film for Paramount. By the time principal photography started, Hitchcock had moved his offices to Universal and the film was actually shot on Universal's back lot. Universal owns the film today as well, even though the Paramount Pictures logo is still on the film. 

• According to Stephen Rebello, author of "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho", Alfred Hitchcock was displeased with the performance of John Gavin who played Sam Loomis in the film and referred to the actor as 'the stiff'. 

• James P. Cavanagh was the first writer to adapt Robert Bloch's novel for the production. However, his script was jettisoned in favor of the Joseph Stefano adaptation. Cavanagh also wrote at least five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including two directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 

• In the opening scene, Marion Crane is wearing a white bra because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to show her as being "angelic". After she has taken the money, the following scene has her in a black bra because now she has done something wrong and evil. Similarly, before she steals the money, she has a white purse; after she's stolen the money, her purse is black. 

• For a shot right at the water stream, Alfred Hitchcock had a six-foot-diameter shower head made up so that the water sprayed past the camera lens. 

• Marion's white 1957 Ford sedan is the same car (owned by Universal) that the Cleaver family drove on Leave It to Beaver. 

• Vera Miles wore a wig for her role as she had to shave her head for a role in the film 5 Branded Women. 

• First American film ever to show a toilet flushing on screen. 

• Joseph Stefano was adamant about seeing a toilet on-screen to display realism. He also wanted to see it flush. Alfred Hitchcock told him he had to "make it so" through his writing if he wanted to see it. Stefano wrote the scene in which Marion adds up the money, then flushes the paper down the toilet specifically so the toilet flushing was integral to the scene and therefore irremovable. 

• The movie in large part was made because Alfred Hitchcock was fed up with the big-budget, star-studded movies he had recently been making and wanted to experiment with the more efficient, sparser style of television filmmaking. Indeed, he ultimately used a crew consisting mostly of TV veterans and hired actors less well known than those he usually used. 

• This was voted the seventh scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly. 

• The novel "Psycho", written by Robert Bloch, was actually part of a series of pulp novels marketed in conjunction with the popular spooky radio show "Inner Sanctum". 

• Parts of the house were built by cannibalizing several stock-unit sections including a tower from the house in Harvey. The house was the most expensive set of the picture but came to a mere US$15,000. 

• In the novel, the character of "Marion" was "Mary" Crane. The name was changed because the studio legal department found that two real people named Mary Crane lived in Phoenix, Arizona. 

• According to Janet Leigh, wardrobe worn by her character Marion Crane was not custom made for her, but rather purchased "off the rack" from ordinary clothing stores. Alfred Hitchcock wanted women viewers to identify with the character by having her wear clothes that an ordinary secretary could afford, and thus add to the mystique of realism.

• The first scene to be shot was of Marion getting pulled over by the cop. This was filmed on Golden State Freeway (number 99). 

• When the cast and crew began work on the first day they had to raise their right hands and promise not to divulge one word of the story. Alfred Hitchcock also withheld the ending part of the script from his cast until he needed to shoot it. 

• The car dealership in the movie was actually Harry Maher's used car lot near Universal Studios. Since Ford Motor company was a sponsor of Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show the car lot's usual inventory was displaced in favor of shiny Edsels, Fairlanes and Mercury models from Ford. 

• In order to implicate viewers as fellow voyeurs Alfred Hitchcock used a 50 mm lens on his 35 mm camera. This gives the closest approximation to the human vision. In the scenes where Norman is spying on Marion this effect is felt. 

• To ensure the people were in the theaters at the start of the film (rather than walking in part way through) the studio provided a record to play in the foyer of the theaters. The album featured background music, occasionally interrupted by a voice saying "Ten minutes to Psycho time," "Five minutes to Psycho time," and so on. 

• Anthony Perkins was paid US$40,000 dollars for his role, which is exactly the same amount of money that Marion Crane embezzles. 

• Ludwig van Beethoven's 3rd Symphony ("Eroica") is in Norman's record player 

• In 2006, Scottish artist Douglas Gordon created a 24-hour slow-motion version of the film titled "24-Hour Psycho" that played at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 

• The Bates house was largely modeled on an oil painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The canvas is called "House by the Railroad" and was painted in 1925 by American iconic artist Edward Hopper. The architectural details, viewpoint and austere sky is almost identical as seen in the film. 

• A false story has circulated that George Reeves was hired to play detective Milton Arbogast and filmed a few of his scenes with the rest of the cast just a week before his death. There is no truth to this rumor whatsoever. Reeves died on June 16, 1959, almost two months before Alfred Hitchcock decided to make a film of "Psycho" and exactly one year before the June 16, 1960 date when the film had its world premiere in New York. Work on the script began in October, 1959, four months after Reeves's death. Filming began in November, 1959, five months after Reeves's death. At the time of Reeves's death, Hitchcock was on a world tour promoting North by Northwest. (Source: "The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock," by Donald Spoto.) George Reeves did not live long enough to even know a film of "Psycho" was planned, much less actually appear in it. 

• Alfred Hitchcock deferred his standard $250,000 salary in lieu of 60% of the film's net profits. His personal earnings from the film exceeded $15 million. Adjusted for inflation, that amount would now top $150 million in 2006 dollars. 

• The movie's line "A boy's best friend is his mother." was voted as the #56 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100). 

• In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #14 Greatest Movie of All Time. 

Plot (Part-2)

Aristotle divided drama into three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Perhaps equally influential to writers and literary critics alike has been the analysis of dramatic structure of Gustav Freytag(1816-1895), who divides drama or screen play into five acts.

    * 1 Freytag’s analysis

          o 1.1 Exposition

          o 1.2 Rising action

          o 1.3 Climax (turning point)

          o 1.4 Falling action

          o 1.5 Dénouement or catastrophe or Resolution

Freytag’s analysis of dramatic structure is sometimes represented by means of a visual aid known as Freytag’s Pyramid.

Exposition

In the exposition, the background information that is needed to properly understand the story is provided. Such information includes the protagonist, the antagonist, the basic conflict, the setting, and so forth.

The exposition ends with the inciting moment, which is the single incident in the story’s action without which there would be no story. The inciting moment sets the remainder of the story in motion beginning with the second act, the rising action.

Rising action

During rising action, the basic conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts, including various obstacles that frustrate the protagonist’s attempt to reach their goal. Secondary conflicts can include adversaries of lesser importance than the story’s antagonist, who may work with the antagonist or separately, by and for themselves.

Climax (turning point)

The third act is that of the climax, or turning point, which marks a change, for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s affairs. If the story is a comedy, things will have gone badly for the protagonist up to this point; now, the tide, so to speak, will turn, and things will begin to go well for him or her. If the story is a tragedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from good to bad for the protagonist.

Falling action

During the falling action, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist. The falling action might contain a moment of final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt.

Resolution

The comedy ends with a dénouement (a conclusion) in which the protagonist is better off than at the story’s outset. The tragedy ends with a catastrophe in which the protagonist is worse off than at the beginning of the narrative.

Although Freytag’s analysis of dramatic structure is based on five-act plays, it can be applied (sometimes in a modified manner) to short stories and novels as well

Plot (Part -1)

Today, lets see how the script is divided into. The arrangements of incidents in a script is called a plot.

The term “plot structure” or “dramatic structure” refers to the parts into which a short story, a novel, a play, a screenplay, or a narrative poem can be divided.

Plot - Plot in literature theater movies

According to Aristotle's Poetics, a plot in literature is "the arrangement of incidents" that (ideally) each follow plausibly from the other. The plot is like the pencil outline that guides the painter's brush. Aristotle notes that a string of unconnected speeches, no matter how well-executed, will not have as much emotional impact as a series of tightly connected speeches delivered by imperfect speakers.

The concept of plot and the associated concept of construction of plot, emplotment, has of course developed considerably since Aristotle made these insightful observations. The episodic narrative tradition which Aristotle indicates has systematically been subverted over the intervening years, to the extent that the concept of beginning, middle, end are merely regarded as a conventional device when no other is at hand.

The main plot in a story is called the A-Plot. The B-Plot is another independent plot within the same story.

Here is the “traditional” Three Act Structure of any story:

1. ACT ONE - THE SET-UP

(Boy Meets Girl)

2. ACT TWO -CONFRONTATION

(Boy Loses girl - fights against impossible odds to get her back)

3. ACT THREE - RESOLUTION

(Boy Gets Girl)

                                                                                                          to be cont......................

Features of a good film (Part 2)

Then coming to the most important part, i.e. the acting part. The reaction of the actors conveys more emotions than any dialogue in a movie. According to me acting can convey more than pages and pages of dialogue.

Now comes the top features of a film to attract the audience, the screenplay. Well, as everyone knows the more interesting, a screenplay is, the better the movie becomes naturally. So only screen writers spend days together to make a screenplay that's interesting.

Off course, it's the story time now. Yeah next is the story. If the story is good, then automatically everything will be good but as long as it is in the hands of a good director. The director is the captain of the ship. He supervises all the departments of the film.

These are some of my ideas of a good movie. If you have more to add, please suggest me.

20 More Real Pictures Spread Via the Internet

20 More Real Pictures Spread Via the Internet

Features Of A Good Film (Part 1)

There are a variety of films and different genre of movies portraying very many things but what are the real features of a good film. Is it the story or the screenplay or the cinematography or the animation ......I have to go on to mention a thousand things at least, but it won't end? Let's take it in a simple way. I think even before films and drama came into existence novels used to tell stories to people. What's the big difference one finds between a watching a movie and reading a novel? It's the imagination, in a movie we have nothing to imagine because everything is before our eyes but in a novel we have no boundaries for our imagination. Each one has an own way of imagining things depicted in the novel.

Basically, Cinema is a visual medium. So the audience should be able to understand the things happening in the screen even without any dialogue. So the features of a good film should be the things that is able make the people connect with the movie even without any dialogue. So what are the things that help the filmmaker to connect with the audience?

So lets go in this order,
Firstly, the atmosphere in the frame should be pleasant, then only the audience will be able to watch the movie at ease. This may comprise of good sets may be, realistic ones so that the audience can connect with it easily. If it is a period film, sets should make the audience feel that time period which the film maker wants to convey to the audience. So the sets play a vital role and convey many things to the audience.

Then comes the cinematography. The cinematographer must be able to convey the ideas of the director through his frames and lighting. Even lighting plays a major role in connecting the audience to the movie. There is definitely a difference between a horror movie and a romantic comedy in terms of lighting.