FILM JOURNAL 02: PSYCHO (1960) - Angle, Depth of Field

Movie: Psycho
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures; Universal Pictures
Release date: June 16, 1960 (United States)

After Sam and Lila checking in the Bates Motel, Sam tried to engage Norman Bates in conversation in order to keep him in the room so that Lila can walks around the Bates Motel to check if can find some clues about her disappeared sister Marion. Lila found a house at the back of the motel.

PSYCHO.Lila to House

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In this scene, many photographic elements such as camera angles, depth of field, lighting, and camera placement were used. Camera angle refers to the shooting angle of the camera in relation to the subject being shot. In the shot in which Lila found the house, it uses an eye-level shot to show a neutral and clam environment. People observe the world with their eyes, using the eye-level angle to shoot the subject (Lila) can help the audience feel more natural, easier to be connected with the subject, and see things as the subject does.

An eye-level shot

After helping the audience get involved in the subject's mind and activities in a natural way, it changes to a high-angle shot to shoot Lila's action of going up to the house. The implications of using a high-angle shot are looking down on someone so that the subject looks inferior, helpless, weak, fear, and vulnerable. When Lila is searching around the motel, Marion and Arbogast's disappearance after visiting this motel made her worried about her safety. Therefore, when she decided to go up to the house alone, she was scared, helpless, and vulnerable. Using the high-angle shot helped audience feel her fear towards the mysterious house.

A high-angle shot

A high-angle shot

On the other hand, it uses a low-angle shot to show how the house looks like in Lila's eyes. When shooting from a low angle, it normally implies that the subject being shot was in a superior, powerful, and strong position. The observer (i.e. Lila and the audience) will be in an inferior and weaker position than the house at this shot. Both of the photographic elements of high angle on Lila and low angle on the house evoke a feeling that the mysterious house will harm Lila's life or Lila is too weak to fight against the dangerous ahead.

A low-angle shot

Besides using camera shooting angles, this scene also uses depth of field to put the subject on the spot by creating depth. Film is a two-dimensional art form. To show time and space and help the audience focus on the key subject, cinematographers need to create depth and decide which planes and areas should be in focus. In the shot of Lila going up to the house, Lila is the foreground in-focus objects that draws our attention. The background was gradually out of focus so that we can pay attention on Lila's facial expression without the background distraction.

Depth of field:
Focusing on Lila to draw audience attention on Lila's facial expression,
background is out of focus.

Depth of field:
Foreground is out of focus, draws audience's attention to the house at the background.

When Lila opens the house, the interior of the house was blur so that the audience still focusing on Lila's action of opening the door. After the door was widely opened, the interior was clear. This is shift focus or pull focus that guiding the audience's attention from one object (Lila) to the other (the inside of the house).

Depth of field:
Focus on Lila to keep the interior of the house out of focus.

Depth of field:
Shift focus to the interior of the house after Lila entered the house.

Besides drawing audience attention on a specific object or plane, the depth of field technique helps to create spatial effect on the two-dimensional frames. For example, in above photo in which Lila entered the house, the staircase and the statue in front of Lila were clearly seen, but the door or window next to the staircase was blurred to evoke a distant feeling from the foreground.

Most of the photographic elements are based on our social and cultural experience of how we see the world. Using this elements can help create rhythm to the movie and made the story more believable and realistic to the audience.

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