The camera moves quickly between Marion and Norman to show that conversation s being made. When Marion mentions the madhouse the camera moves closer up on Norman showing he is annoyed.
We see close ups in the shower before and after the murder. In Marion’s room there are images of stuffed birds and rape scenes. These are shown whilst Marion prepares for a shower. She is filmed with a close-up in the shower and it shows she feels happy that she has sorted out with the money.
Parts of the film are seen from different points of view. From Marion’s point of view, we see she doesn’t have a easy relationship with Sam because lunch breaks are the only times she meets him. We often see things as she does them to show we feel how she feels. We see close ups of her to show we are reading her face and we know what is happening. We see this when she has strange reactions to Sam’s request for her to take the rest of the afternoon off from work, telling her it’s Friday. We see a good example of this point of view when Marion is in her room at the motel working out her money situations. We see her facial expressions as being serious and worried. This makes us feel worried and panicky too.
Throughout the film we hear voice-overs, which show Marion’s emotions. These help show that she has a guilty conscience because of the money. This manipulates us by making us wonder what is happening and what Marion’s up to with the money she has not banked from her boss We often see the camera being switched from things Norman sees because it shows he is watching her every move she makes when she is staying at the motel.
During Psycho, we hear the same music, which is played at different pitches and speeds. When we are moving in with the camera to the room we hear music whilst being informed the place, date and time. The time we are influenced the most with the music, is when Marion is on the run with the money then comes face to face with her boss at the traffic lights, she knows straight away she shouldn’t be there and the music starts place high pitched sudden music. It spreads up just as if it were her heart beating. Another time is when she travels at night and she is looking all around, then all goes quiet when she stops on the side of the road. The film starts of with high-pitched music suggesting something bad will happen.
The purpose of the lighting in this film is expressive because it’s set to the mood of the characters. This is shown in the Parlour Scene when we see Marion seated under a ravens beak, we see Norman with a dark and light side to his face showing a split personality. During the shower scene, most of the lighting is high – key imagery then after the murder and the murderer flees there is no surroundings because he is in shadow. We often see most of the dark lighting when the bad things happen to keep us watching but the murder is light, drawing our attention because it’s sudden, bold and sticking.
In the first part of the film, we see the film from Marion’s point of view. The main character is Marion. The sympathy for her is forced onto us in many ways. We see from the beginning of the film that’s she doesn’t have a strong relationship with Sam. This is shown by her having to use up her lunch breaks to see him. We are fooled into thinking their relationship is strong, the situation is, Sam’s ex-wife. Because he is paying for her alimony he doesn’t have any money to marry. Also the author uses a red herring such as the erotic scene at the start. The camera’s film the film in such a way that we are made to see and feel things as she does. It’s like us being in her shoes. When we see close up’s of her then we can read her face, we know what’s going to happen or what is happening. We also know she has a guilty conscience about the money. We see this from close ups of her face when she is looking in her rear view mirror. The voice-overs used show us what others think of her and the expressions from other characters. After the shower scene, the point of view stays with Norman. We have his point of view when we think it’s his mother. We as the eye of the camera are left in the shower. We then move away into the room and look up to the house and hear shouting ‘God mother god blood’. He realises what he’s done and we see this when he rushes to cover the murder up by taking Marion’s body to the river. This is strange and unusual to see Norman acting in this way because before the murder, we seen him as a different person. He now is rushing to cover up the murder. One minute we see that he is happy but then we see him shocked when he shouts ‘God mother god blood’. He knows he is the culprit so he is doing a cover-up; he believes he is his mother when he dresses up as her. After the murder we see the plughole where the water drains away then we are drawn to Marion’s eyes. This is all done to show the thought of the circle imagery, which is repeated throughout Psycho.