AS Media Assesment- Physco

Media AS Assessment

The Shower Scene- Psycho

The shower scene in the film, Psycho is referred as one of the scariest clips of the film. With its high and low camera shots and its 45 degree angled shots making it one of the most looked at scenes throughout the film. It becomes clear to us watching this one clip of how this is a thriller due to the typical character being closed in and killed by some kind of amateur person that we don’t know anything about. We notice throughout the sequence that lighting stays the same through the quiet parts. The only time when it changes is when the deed is being done. When the victim is being killed. Sound wise: The majority of the sound from this clip is non-diegetic. This includes, her screaming, the knife sounds, the violins, the sounds of her taking off her clothes and the sound of simply putting an object down. Something that ties into mise-en-scene as well as sound is the shower itself. Throughout all of the clip we can hear the shower running. Whether it’s loud or quiet. Overall, the speed of the editing are clearly slow when nothing is really happening. But when the stabbing does take place, it’s a fast paced, very jumpy and within each shot have a very quick timing.

The clip starts off with lower shots of the woman going into the shower with slow transitions between each shot. . She is also naked and in her home alone, going in the shower gives us the idea that she is vulnerable and defenceless. Then as she gets into the shower, it shows 2 or 3 shots of the shower ‘head’ to try and drag it out a bit more to create more tension to the audience. The lighting in the room is all very bright, to show vulnerability. She is also naked and in her home alone, going in the shower gives us the idea that she is vulnerable and defenceless.

 

As the clip carries on, the camera gets higher and higher until we see her face when she washes herself. We then see the camera facing the shower curtain, slowly turning to the left side so we can see the killer creeping through the door. All we can hear as an audience is the loud noise of the shower running to show that she wouldn’t be able to hear anyone coming in her home or creeping in. This tracks back to the woman’s vulnerability and the fact that she can’t do anything about what may or may not happen.

The killer then opens the shower curtain, and stabs the woman several times until her death comes. This part of the extract would only actually last a few seconds, however the editor would have made it last a bit longer to keep it going for the audience’s entertainment. With it’s very fast, moving shots and the loud violins playing in the back ground. At this point when the killer makes an appearance, the lighting state changes from bright, to darker… It is not clear who the killer is as the light is only coming from the back of her this time. Mainly mid-shots are used at this point to show the character’s facial expressions and to show what is actually happening.

After her death, a shot is shown swirling around the centre of her eye with an extreme close up turning into a mid-shot of her face. This represents silence and peace. Supporting this statement would be the quiet noise in the background and the bright lights in the room resumed as normal and there is no sound what so ever so the audience simply know that the ‘silence has come’ and that is the end of her life.