Transcripts
1. Welcome: How do you use the
strangest camera angle imaginable without making
your audience suspicious? Sometimes as filmmakers, we need to obscure
something from the audience curious eye to hide crucial information so
we can reveal it later. To do this, we use knowledge
about audience perception to make these unusual shots
feel completely normal. Hello, I'm Piot Zotrovic, a film director, screenwriter, and academic teacher at
Polish National Film School, which in this course, we'll analyze one of Hitchcock's
solutions from Psycho, that famous overhead screenshot, where he shows us everything while hiding the
film biggest secret. I'm going to share tips
and tricks for when you need to hide something for a specific storytelling reason. How to make your audience
comfortable with camera angles that would
normally feel suspicious. By analyzing this example, you learn how to make
unusual angles feel organic, how to guide your viewers attention through
camera movement, and how to hide information
in plain sight. Hopefully, see you in the class.
2. The Impossible Challenge: Welcome back to our analysis
of Hitchcock Psycho. In our previous classes, we've explored how Hitchcock
hooks us into stories, transfers our sympathies
between characters, and manipulates our
moral compass to make us root for characters
doing questionable things. Today, we are going
to examine one of his most technical solutions to a seemingly impossible
directing problem. You'll learn how to use unusual camera angles and
make them feel organic. This is about manipulating viewer perception through
the camera itself, guiding their attention
so precisely that they never question what they're
seeing or more importantly, what they're not seeing. Okay, spoiler warning. This lesson reveals
a crucial plot point about the ending of psycho. If you haven't
seen the film yet, bookmark this lesson
and return to it after viewing the film if
you want to enjoy it fully. Where we are in the story. Well, we're now in the
point of psycho where the heat is closing on on our new main character,
Norman Bates. His mother has killed Marian and later murdered the
private investigator, Arbogast, who was
searching for Marian. Norman has disposed
of both bodies, but now he realizes he
needs to move his mother to the basement to hide her from anyone else who
might come looking. So Norman heads upstairs
with the intention of helping his elderly
mother move to safety. Which is a little bit of
a directing nightmare. But here's what Hitchcock
faces in this situation. The big reveal at the end of the movie is that the
mother is actually dead. She's been a mummified
corpse all along. Norman is the killer, impersonating his
mother by wearing her clothes and weak
during the murders. Hitchcock needs
to show us Norman moving his mother's downstairs, but he absolutely cannot
reveal that she's actually a dead body that's
undergone taxidermy. Now, think about
it for a moment. How do you film someone carrying a corpse without showing
that it's actually a corpse? So why this seems so impossible? As a filmmaker, you need to show this moment for several reasons. One, narrative continuity. The audience needs to see Norman protecting his mother to understand his actions
and motivations. Two, building tension. We need to feel the danger
closing in on them. Three, character development. This moment shows Norman's
devotion to his mother. But if you show it too clearly, you ruin the entire
ending of the film. If the camera gets too close, if we see the mother
from the wrong angle, the audience will
realize she's not alive. The whole mystery collapses. Most directors, faced with this problem might
just cut away. Show Norman going upstairs, then cut to him in the basement,
problem solved, right? But that's not Hitchcock's way. He understood that cutting
away creates its own problems. It makes the
audience suspicious. Why don't we see that? What are they hiding from us, right? Oh, Hitchcock needed
to figure out what camera angle could show this action without
revealing the truth. He realized there was
only one angle that could work from directly
above a bird's eye view. From this top down perspective, we see Norman enter the room
and carry his mother out, but we can't see her clearly enough to
realize she's not alive. But solving one problem
creates another. If you suddenly cut to such an unusual dramatic
angle with no preparation, the audience immediately
becomes suspicious. Have a look at this clip that I myself edited to show you
how it would look like. No, mother, I'm going
to bring something up. I am sorry. Put me down. Put me down. I can
walk on my own. See, it doesn't work.
Hitchcock needed to use this impossible angle, but he needed to make
it feel completely natural and
dramatically motivated. He needed the audience to
accept this perspective without questioning why they're seeing the scene this way. So now let's make a
little assignment. Before we explore
Hitchcock's solution, I want you to watch
the scene itself. You can find it on YouTube, and I'm going to
bookmark it here. As you watch, pay attention. One, the camera movement. How does the camera get
to the overhead position? Number two, what you hear, what's happening in the
audio during this shot. And three, your
emotional response. Does the angle feel
jarring or natural? Do you question why you're seeing it from this perspective? Watch the scene now
using the link, take notes on those elements, then return to
lesson number two, where we're going to break down Hitchcock's three part solution.
3. The Three-Part Solution: Welcome back. Now let's dissect exactly how Hitchcock solved
the impossible challenge. His solution wasn't
just one technique. It was three separate
techniques working together. Solution number one,
the master shot. Instead of cutting
to top down view, Hitchcock uses what's
called a master shot, one continuous unbroken take, where the camera
follows Norman journey. Here is how it works. The camera starts with Norman
at ground level, follows him as he walks
toward the staircase, then begin to rise. The camera continues
traveling up and up, following his until
it finally reaches the Bard's eye position looking straight down.
This is crucial. The camera movement feels
motivated by following Norman's journey rather than jumping to an arbitrary angle. We're following a character's
movement through the space, and the camera naturally arrives at this point as
part of the journey. We're taking a
journey with Norman, and the camera angle is simply the result of where
that journey takes us. It's a crane shot because
it requires a camera crane, a large mechanical arm
that can lift the camera high above the
ground while keeping the shot smooth and steady. However, this crane shot
creates its own challenge. Moving a camera
from ground level to high overhead in a smooth, controlled way takes time. It's a long time for a
single shot with no cuts. If there is nothing else
happening during this movement, the audience starts to wonder, why is this taking so long? Why don't we just cut
to the next scene? The length of the shot itself could make
viewers suspicious. So Hitchcock needed something to occupy our attention during this extended camera movement. He needed to give us something
engaging to focus on, so we're not thinking
about the camera movement. So solution number two would be that we have this
audio distraction, right? During this long
camera movement, Hitchcock gives the audience something compelling
to focus on. We hear Norman and his
mother having a argument. Norman insists they need to move to the basement for safety. His mother screams at him in
protest, resisting the move. No, I will not hide
in the fruit cellar. Is the game fruity.
This conversation serves a crucial purpose. It keeps our attention on the dialogue rather
than questioning why the camera is taking so long to reach such
an unusual position. We're listening intently to their conflict instead of
analyzing the camera work. So this was solution number two, and now solution number three is the setup because Hitchcock had one more trick up his sleeve to make this
shot more familiar. He had already shown us this exact camera angle
earlier in the film. Remember the murder of
Detective Arbogast? That scene was cut as a rapid montage during
the violent attack. In those few frames, we saw this top
down perspective, just a glimpse of it during
the chaos and violence. Our subconscious
registered this angle as part of the film
visual language. So when we see it again
during the master shot, it doesn't feel
completely foreign. Hitchcock prepared us for this unusual angle without
us even realizing it. The angle doesn't trigger
suspicion because it's not new. It's
been established. So notice how this
moment also works as a subtle foreshadowing
of this big reveal. We've seen the mother
before through the window when Marion
arrived during the murders, but always from a distance
or in the shadow. Now, knowing the ending, we understand that we actually see Norman in his
mother's clothes and wig. It's another example of
Hitchcock's principle. Show the audience everything, but control what they
consciously register. So let's review how these
three solutions work together. Okay? First, we have
the master shot, which is the
solution number one, makes the angle feel motivated by following Norman's journey. So we don't question why
we're seeing it from above. Number two, solution number two, the audio distraction
keeps our attention on the dialogue so we don't notice how long the
camera movement takes. And now the setup, which is the solution
number three, makes the final angle feel familiar because we've
already seen it briefly, so it doesn't feel
jarring or suspicious.
4. Class project & Hitchcock book: Now let's explore what this scene teaches us
about filmmaking and why this represents
purely cinematic thinking that only works in
the language of film. You couldn't achieve
this effect in a novel, a play, or even a radio drama. This is a problem that
only exists in cinema, and it requires purely
cinematic solution. Know for certain this was
Hitchcock's thinking process because he explained
it himself in Hitchcock Tipo the essential
book where Hitchcock discusses his filmmaking
techniques with Francis Trefo. Since Trefo was both a
director and film critic, he knew exactly
what questions to ask about the craft
of filmmaking. The book is a conversation
between two directors, and it reveals the
meticulous thinking behind interesting choices
Hitchcock made in his film. You take only one thing
away from this lesson, it should be to read Hitchcock
34 from cover to cover. For anyone interested in
directing or film analysis, this book is
absolutely essential. When I was a film student, reading this book was
genuinely eye opening. Hitchcock didn't just
figure out how to hide information
from the audience. He made the hiding feel completely natural and
dramatically necessary. Here are the key
principles we can extract. One, every technical problem
has multiple solutions. Don't settle for the
first one that works. Second, the best solution, solve multiple problems at once. The crane shot solves
the angle problem and feels dramatically
motivated. Number three, prepare your audience for
unusual techniques. The earlier use of overhead
angle during Arbogast murder, set up the visual language. Number four, distraction
is a real tool. When you need to do
something unusual, give the audience something
else to focus on. Number five, great
technique is invisible. If the audience is thinking about the camera
work, you've failed. So how to learn from this, what to look for in other films. The next time you're
watching any film, pay attention to unusual
camera angles and movements. Ask yourself, why the filmmaker choose to show me this scene from this
particular position? What might they be revealing
or more importantly, what might they be hiding? How did they prepare me for this anger earlier in the film? What techniques
are they using to make this unusual
choice feel natural? Once you start looking
for these techniques, you'll see them everywhere. Every good director is solving problems like this
in every film. You just don't notice it because they're
doing it so well. The master shot scene represents everything we've been discussing through the series of courses, Hitchcock's ability to
manipulate audience attention, his efficiency in solving multiple problems with
single solutions, his mastery of cinema
language to achieve effects that seem effortless but are actually incredibly
sophisticated. Now it's time to
apply what you've learned by analyzing
how another filmmaker uses camera angles to
control what the audience sees and more importantly,
what they don't see. Watch the opening shot
of Touch of Evil from 58 directed obviously
by Orson Wells. This three minute
continuous master shot, which is the beginning
of the film, follows a car with a bump
through a border town. Find it on YouTube if you
write to the search box Touch of Evil opening shot or use the link that
I'm attaching here. What to analyze. You can answer
these specific questions. One, while you'll be
tracking the car, how does Wells make sure you always know which
car has the bump? What visual techniques help you recognize and follow
this specific car among all the other
cars and people? Last at least three ways he keeps reminding you
which car to watch. Number two, creating the flow. The camera moves continuously
for 3 minutes without cuts. Why don't this feel
awkward or artificial? What makes the camera movement feel motivated and natural? Number three, transitions
within the shot. Wells shifts focus
between the car, the main characters
walking, crowds, conversation, all in
one continuous shot. How does he smoothly transition our attention from one
mini scene to another? Identify at least
two or three moments where he redirects your focus. What techniques does
he use each time? Now, post your analysis, share your observation
in the project section. Be specific with the examples. Write one paragraph. Both directors use
Master Shot to control what we see and know. Hitchcock hides information
that the mother is dead, Wells shows us the information, but makes us track the car. How does this difference change their approach to camera
movement and viewers attention? Remember, there are no wrong
answer as long as you can justify your interpretation with specific evidence from the film. The goal is to train
your eye to understand how camera angles serve
storytelling purposes. And what makes a good analysis, the base project
submissions will reference specific shots
or moments from the scene. Explain not just what
the camera does, but why is it moving like this? Connect the camera technique to the larger story or themes. Use terminology we've learned, like crane shots, master
shots, angle, and so on. Look forward to seeing
your analysis and understanding how you're
applying these concepts. If you've enjoyed this class, I'd greatly appreciate
your review. I read every comment and provide feedback on
students project. Your engagement
and application of this concept is always
encouraging to see. For more content on film
analysis, directing techniques, and screenwriting, check out cinemaxplay.com. See you soon.
Piotr Złotorowicz, Screenwriter & Director
