[Daily Dose #4: Depends on Your Point of View (Scene from Downhill)]

POV shots like this one are always interesting because they simultaneously make you feel even more suspenseful or eager to see what going to happen next, yet they make you a little repulsed at the same time. In other words, they both pull you in to the film and make you just uncomfortable enough to the point of wanting to draw back, in totality a very rich effect.

[Daily Dose #2: To-night Golden Curls (Opening Scene of The Lodger)]

1. Compare the opening of The Lodger to the opening of The Pleasure Garden - what similarities and differences do you see between the two films?  Interesting to see "Hitchcock Blondes" at the center of both of these these early films. I see a similarity in the emphasis on facial expression and facial close-ups to tell the story. There is a lot of light and dark play in the lighting that is similar as well. On the other hand, the feel is different in them, owing partly to the fact that the shots are less creative and fairly static for the most-part in TPG. There is also less montage use in TPG and the scenes are longer in general. 

2. Identify elements of the "Hitchcock style" in this sequence? Please provide specific examples. Even if you are not sure if it is the "Hitchcock style," what images or techniques stand out in your mind as powerful storytelling? Or images that provide an excess of emotion? There is a lot of creative shooting in this one. In particular, those great shots of the body at ground level with the street lights aligned behind are definitely Hitchcock and remind me a bit of his eyeglasses shot in Strangers on a Train in that it captures the scene, but isn't exactly crystal clear - more of a silhouette and lets you imagine the detail. The lighting is him as well - he manages to convey a misty, damp, late night despite the constraints of black and white perfectly.  And his quick photoplay during the newspaper production conveys speed and frenzy and generally uses people as props, which is sort of signature I feel for him as well. 

3. Even though this is a "silent" film, the opening image is one of a woman screaming. What do you notice in how Hitchcock frames that particular shot that makes it work in a silent film even though no audible scream that can be heard. And what other screams like that come to mind from Hitchcock's later work? Of course it brings to mind the Psycho scream and in large part to me because it is such a close-up... nothing extraneous - just the face with those wide eyes that seem to be a focus as well.