Guest commentary by:
Ron Dawson

Adam Roche

William C. Martell

 

Sponsored by:

Glidecam Industries

Azden

Michael Wiese Books

 

NOTES:

 

This episode features guests Ron Dawson of Radio Film School, Adam Roche of Secret History of Hollywood, and script guru William C. Martell (screenwriter for HBO & Showtime).  Mr. Martell is seen standing in front of the Revue Studios site where they filmed the first four seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  Also, we feature the brilliant voice work of Shash Hira as Hitchcock himself.

 

Just like songs aren’t solely comprised of one note, your film shouldn’t keep the same shot size throughout. Hitchcock believed in treating camera distance like music – he called it “orchestration.” Therefore wide shots work rhythmically with the mediums and close-ups to make important moments stand out.

 

In this season premiere episode of Hitch20, we take a closer look at camera proximity. We breakdown all the shots in Hitchcock’s television episode “Dip in the Pool” to figure out if there’s a pattern to the genius’ madness.

Turns out there is.

 

Here’s a summary of how Hitchcock uses various camera distances:

 

• Extreme Close-Ups - Hitchcock would save his extreme close-ups to indicate the deep anxieties of his protagonist. Rather than using the actor’s face to express this emotion, Hitchcock turned to hands. Close shots of the protagonist grabbing a box of seasick pills and hiding it in his pocket, spilling his drink at the table – they tell an emotional story. Because these are the closest shots in the film, the audience feels them the most intently. As editor Walter Murch says “without change there is no perception.”

• Close-ups - Hitchcock saves all of the close shots on faces for moments of plot revelation. He used them only for moments where new information is presented, plot-changing revelations. Close-ups on the eyes of an actor give us an amplified feeling of their emotions. Their world is so intense that they are losing control. Close-ups are also a way to display great suspicion, as a character listens to something new and grows curious.

• Mediums - The medium shot is the standard “white canvas” shot. Most of these shots are uninspiring, and serve as a white canvas for the close-ups to spring to life. The bulk of every scene is shot from the waist up. These mediums tend to include more than one character.

• Extreme Wides - To balance everything out, extreme wide shots are strategically placed before an impending close-up to give it more emphasis. Most scenes begin wide, to give the audience a break at the scene transition and gradually build toward the more intense close-ups.

 

As we saw last season, wide shots are a great starting point for a dolly-in at a key dramatic moment.  Wide shots are also a powerful way to employ a sense of helplessness of the small character to the forces of its environment, or to show emotional distance between two characters.

 

Whether you’re making a thriller, drama, or even a comedy, Hitchcock’s art of camera orchestration can help you build and maintain emotional rhythms in your film, just like a composer would in a musical score.

 

 

The full episode of "Dip in a Pool" (1958) can be found on DVD.