The editing in psycho is great and must have taken a week to do just one scene. It is very good for the scene and for the audience as it builds tension and creates an atmosphere. The best scene to show this as an example is the famous shower scene where Marian is murdered, whilst having a shower, by Norman dressed as his mother with a knife. There was seventy-eight separate camera set ups needed for the shower scene from the shower head, down the toilet, from the mirror, Marians view, Normans view, the walls of the shower, the plug whole, from the door e.t.c. This is very effective for the audience as the tension mounts going from one shot to another very rapidly with the music on. After the seventy eight camera set ups were filmed, the editor had to edit them leading up to hundreds of shots in the five minute scene.
Hitchcock uses a lot of irony in Psycho in clever ways. Irony in psycho creates tension, wonder and laughter as the audience knows what is going to happen and why the actors are saying what they are saying. Hitchcock gives his audience hints in his irony of what is going to happen in the film e.g Traffic cops says to marian
“ There are plenty of motels in the area… I mean… just to be safe”
This is great irony because later in the film she does goes to a motel and dies there. It was a hint left by Hitchcock of what is going to happen, it creates tension and is funny because it is so ironic that she does actually die.
Alfred Hitchcock miss-en-scene a lot but is hard to do as it needs deep thought as to what he is going to put in the scene to be ironic. The audience sees an example of this at the beginning of the film where her boss to take to the bank hands her over cash. In the background is a picture of a desert on the wall when it could be anything else. Hitchcock puts a desert in the picture to be ironic as in the end she is lifeless like a desert, goes to a deserted motel, she is isolated there like a desert e.t.c. It is very crafty but very well done; if the audience spots this picture whilst watching the film it leaves you in suspense, wonder and a great effect.
In Psycho motifs are made important as it reveals detail about the characters, emphasises strategic parts of the film and gives the film a cyclical rhythm. Mirror reflections are a common motif in Psycho. Marion sees herself in the mirror as she packs her bags, then she cant look at herself in the bathroom mirror when she buys a car with stolen money. This is a good motif as it reveals detail about Marion, emphasises that it is stolen money and she is worried. There are other motifs during the film, which are checking into the motel (Marion, Lila and Sam) and Marion packing and unpacking her bags. This gives the film a good cyclical rhythm.
Hitchcock though up many ways of which to promote Psycho, word of mouth and advertisements mainly. Hitchcock being, known as master of publicity had no problems advertising it. He used many techniques to promote Psycho such as film posters (not of murders of Marion in her underwear). Hitchcock asked people not to reveal the ending of the film. He made a six minute advert where Hitchcock walked through Norman bates house describing the film vaguely. He only let people sees the film once and if they wanted to see it again they had to pay again which was extraordinarily rare back then. It was important Hitchcock did this for the films profits and viewers because the audience were all in suspense; the film poster affected the audience because a woman in underwear attracted all the men. People must have thought it had to be good if there was a six-minute trailer the film could afford. All this helped huge crowds flock to see Psycho in the cinemas and all his advertisement ideas were a great success.
By Joe Kemp