As Melanie is sitting outside the school on a bench all you can hear is the children singing in the background, there is no dialogue in this section. Melanie gets out a cigarette this may suggest that she needs charming down because she has been under a lot of stress lately. This section is all silent, as she is sitting on the bench hundreds of birds gather around her on the surroundings. There are mostly close-ups in this section as its jus focusing on Melanie. Melanie expresses her self as a very caring person the way she is worried for the children and especially Mitch’s daughter. Hitchcock creates tension here by the whole section being silenced and just focusing on Melanie with all the birds hovering then swooping down on the surroundings.
In this section there is a lot of dialogue and sound as Melanie runs inside the school to warn Anne and the children. Melanie runs in and tells Anne about the birds then the schoolteacher Anne looks out the window and sees the birds on the surroundings and then tells the children that they are to be performing a fire drill and they are to run home or run to the hotel at the bottom of the hill. There are mostly long shots in this section as the camera is focusing on the whole class reactions. In this scene there are long shots and medium.
As the children leave the school all you can hear is flapping of wings and then screeching from the birds then as the children start running they start to scream in desperate panic to get away from the birds. As the children leave the school there is a long shot but then while they run down the hill there are close-ups on individual attacks on the children by the birds. The children are all in a panic and don’t know what to do, Melanie and Anne are struggling to protect the children and them self. Suspense is created by the silence in the begging of the get away the constant screeching and flapping then come along the screams.
My personal opinion of Alfred Hitchcock creating suspense is not very good to a modern day viewer of the film I don’t feel that I felt suspense happening most of the time. I didn’t think to my self oh my god something is going to happen I just new something significant would happen. Maybe to a viewer watching this film at the time it had come out maybe they would feel suspense and maybe even a little scared but for a modern day viewer like myself it didn’t for fill me as a good film or a recommended thriller.
Using birds was defiantly different I think the birds really helped Alfred Hitchcock create suspense usually most directors would have used Villains or a bad think in Human form for example Hannibal Hector from Silence of the lambs. It does make you think about birds like could it be true, could it really happen but to me it didn’t seem particularly frightening.
I think this scene is very effective on producing suspense the way the opening of the scene is all silent and towards the end is all a panic.
I don’t think modern audiences would not appreciate this film as a thriller it does not make you jump and it does not really get you thinking. This film was not at all for filling for me it was a very disappointing film and I’m sure other modern viewers would be disappointed to.
