Hitchcock

Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was an English film maker and producer and his most famous genre was thriller. Alfred Hitchcock liked to think of himself  as unique and therefore used a variety of technical devices when creating his films. The way in which he used the camera was to mimic a persons gaze and framed shots to manipulate the feelings of the audience such as, fear, anxiety and empathy. He was known to his audience as "the master of suspense", what Hitchcock had mastered was not only the art of making films, but also the task of taming his own imagination.


He was the director of works such as, Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds and Strangers on a train. Hitchcock's storylines were planned out through intelligent plots with a witty dialogue and a spoonful of mystery and murder. He helped film to make the transition from silent to sound, encouraging the eclipse from black and white to colour, and directed films which were accessible to the general public.


Bio

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
Born: August 13th 1899, Leytonstone, England
Education: School of engineering and navigation, St Ignatius, College, London; University of London

Beginning of his career: After Hitchcock had completed his education he went on to work for an engineering firm, the W.T Henley Telegraph Company. There he became the layout man in the advertisement department. In 1920 a film company Famous Players Lasky, opened up a shop in Islington, at the time Hitchcock was looking for some extra work and took a job there designing titles. Gradually overtime Hitchcock began to spend more and more of his time working for Famous Players he became third assistant on set, eventually he left the engineering firm to pursue a career in film full time.

The silent Era: Hitchcocks first nine films were created in the silent era. Although he was the first british director to embrace sound in his films, with his tenth film blackmail(1929), he never lost his fascination with the power of storytelling through the use of images.

The 1930s thrillers seem more politically aware and attuned to that period time. For Hitchcock, being a director meant being the primary source for the film working on everything from the scripts to the props.

Golden Period(1950s): Hitchcock's most inspiring time was during the 1950s to 60s this was the era Hitchcock created his most memorable films, including "I Confess, Catch a thief, The man who knew too much". 

1955- his visibility was increased by the uproar from the film psycho, which upon its initial release sparked endless debate about the violence onscreen.

Hitchcock's legacy: More than 70 years after his directorial debut, Hitchcock still combines popular appeal and critical acclaim to a degree unsurpassed by any other film makers. An important clue to his wide range of success lies in his ability to create personal statements. He was a gifted entertainment, an extroverted celebrity, a crafted businessman and a consummate wheeler-dealer in the worlds most competitive industry. At the same time he was a philosopher poet of our age, enriching our hearts and spirits through undreamed of transformations of Hollywoods trips and tropes.