Hitchcock used the extreme close-up shot to communicate a visceral sense of a subject’s emotional state, with a certain intimacy that’s always slightly uncomfortable - for example, in the famous shower scene from Psycho (above).įor your videos, close-ups can work to integrate emotion (though of a different kind, we hope) into standard interviews or monologues by video subjects. This would work particularly well for design processes, organizational problem-solving, or any other scene with lots of activity and visual appeal. It can also be used to show action “in the heat of the moment” from a high viewpoint. In your videos, the high-angle can accomplish something similar by providing a scene-establishing shot of the place where the action is happening. It gives a full overview of a scene provides a momentary objective view of a dialogue or an argument shows a character as entrapped in a space or alone in a space and reveals to viewers a danger that the main character can’t yet see. The high-angle shot creates a sense of drama in a number of ways in Hitchcock films.

He also used the rafters of a large room, or balconies. For example, Hitchcock often placed cameras up high to get shots from the top of a staircase (as shown). One of Hitchcock’s most famous shots is the high-angle. Below, we take a look at a few more of Hitchcock’s iconic shots, including what makes them interesting and how they might work in your videos. It’s achieved by simultaneously zooming in and pulling the camera away from the subject. Often called “the Master of Suspense,” he had a signature style of storytelling, characterized by unique camera angles and movements that engaged the emotions of the audience.įor example, one of the most famous of these was the “vertigo effect,” invented for the 1958 film of the same name. In a fifty-year film career, Hitchcock pioneered a number of visual effects that profoundly influenced filmmaking. For lessons on how to do it right, who better to look to than one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and arguably the master of visual narrative, Alfred Hitchcock? When it comes to getting the right feel for your videos, anticipating your audience’s emotions is key.

Inspiration for shadow of a doubt movie