following are some hand-outs I prepared for my students. in most of ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S films there is usually one or 2 sequences that stand out. like the dream sequences in SPELLBOUND, the desert plane attack in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, the shower sequence in PSYCHO or like in this case, THE BIRDS, the bird attack. I am not a big fan of his films in general, to me they look a bit static, too much rear-projection, because he did not want to go on location and preferred to shoot everything on a set. the whole set atmosphere often looks artificial, the use of tons of light create a lot of shadows and you really feel like on a set. then I prefer FILM NOIR, where nearly everything was done on location, with limited lights, because the budgets were so small. but – these few ‘master’-sequences in hitchcock’s films make them unforgettable. he worked with some of the best designers, like ROBERT BOYLE and SAUL BASS. BASS, who designed numerous film posters, for hitchcock’s films as well, was responsible for the PSYCHO shower murder. ROBERT BOYLE storyboarded nearly the whole BIRDS film. hitchcock preferred to have everything planned well, he said – when the storyboard was finished, the film was finished for him. during the shooting he didn’t even care to look through the camera. he could draw very well himself and prepared the boards himself in his erlier films. I think the following storyboard is a masterpiece in planning, there is a lot to learn from.
© universal pictures
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.
oh my god, thank you soooo much!!!!!!
excellent work to study from. i’m going to start right now!
Robert Boyle is terrific. There’ s a great documentary about him avaialable on DVD by Daniel Raims called “The Man on Lincoln’s Nose.” He’s still teaching at AFI.
He also hired Mary Blair to design color for the film version of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
from hans -
thank you very much for the info, I found some more…
here is the info about the DVD
http://www.lincolnsnose.com/
and a very interesting article in the LA times
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-boyle27-2009mar27,0,4092016.story
I hate to disagree, but I believe that Film Noir, like German Expressionism, was primarily a genre confined to the soundstage set. In fact it was considered quite revolutionary when Jules Dasin began directing Film Noirs like The Naked City on location in New York. However, I can’t say that Hitchcock is really a Film Noir director, though Shadow of a Doubt could possibly be considered an entry into the genre.
These are amazing, thanks for posting them. Loving the use of blacks and space.