Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film; Psycho is a prime example of a film that utilises expert editing. The “shower scene” from Psycho is where this incredibly skilful editing creates intense emotion in a fairly small time space through the strategic use of action, direction, form and concept edits which all ultimately add to the thriller-horror narrative of the film.
The first edit in the “shower scene” is a direction edit as the shot where Marion Crane holds her hand out with the torn-up pieces of paper in it cuts to the direction, which is the toilet, where she throws the pieces of paper away. The direction edit to the toilet flushing shows that Marion Crane attempts to get rid of the evidence that she has stolen the money and to forget that she has stolen.
The next few edits are action edits showing the simple movements of Marion Crane undressing and getting ready for her shower. Each shot is only cut to the next after a little while creating a steady pace which makes the audience feel comfortable as if they were taking a relaxing shower themselves and as if everything is happening as normal. A combination of action and concept …show more content…
The extremely fast pace of cutting to each shot breaks the suspense that was created with the slow paced cuts and also creates a huge sense of anxiety which leaves the audience feeling extremely overwhelmed as they do not have enough time to process what has happened because the gruesome murder happened incredibly quickly. The fast pace would also mimic the pace of the characters heart beat while being murdered which could in turn cause the viewer’s heart to race as well. The increase in volume and fast tempo of the music adds to the frightening emotion of the scene where she is
The first edit in the “shower scene” is a direction edit as the shot where Marion Crane holds her hand out with the torn-up pieces of paper in it cuts to the direction, which is the toilet, where she throws the pieces of paper away. The direction edit to the toilet flushing shows that Marion Crane attempts to get rid of the evidence that she has stolen the money and to forget that she has stolen.
The next few edits are action edits showing the simple movements of Marion Crane undressing and getting ready for her shower. Each shot is only cut to the next after a little while creating a steady pace which makes the audience feel comfortable as if they were taking a relaxing shower themselves and as if everything is happening as normal. A combination of action and concept …show more content…
The extremely fast pace of cutting to each shot breaks the suspense that was created with the slow paced cuts and also creates a huge sense of anxiety which leaves the audience feeling extremely overwhelmed as they do not have enough time to process what has happened because the gruesome murder happened incredibly quickly. The fast pace would also mimic the pace of the characters heart beat while being murdered which could in turn cause the viewer’s heart to race as well. The increase in volume and fast tempo of the music adds to the frightening emotion of the scene where she is