Psycho Assessment

Media Assessment

The Shower Scene In Psycho shower scene, exploring how film techniques are used to create effects.

In the film Psycho it often tries creates tension and confusion while you watch. It is very effective at doing this and this shower scene is a good example of when they cause the tension and confusion. They do this with the help of camera shots, editing techniques, sound, Mise-en-scene and many other ways, by using these to the best of their ability the make us feel the way they want us to feel.

The camera shots that they use at certain times are used to show different things. They start off with a close up of the shower head, here they have used a point of view shot of the victim and they have showed us this so that we know she cannot see much around her and with the sound of the shower she also would struggle to hear much around her. This gives us the feeling that if something or someone bad is to come at the victim will not realise until it’s too late to escape or defend herself. So this makes us feel worried and now we feel anxious to find out what is going to happen. At the time all we can here is the water hitting the floor and this is diegetic so the character can here this and only this. When showing the shower head they cut into a point of view shot so we know what the victim is experiencing at that moment in time. The lighting in the room is very bright making us aware of every little thing surrounding the woman.

Another good use of camera work and editing in the mise-en-scene was when the woman is cleaning herself and the camera starts to pan slightly to the left of the woman. The have used this type of editing to show the audience that the woman is oblivious to the things around her. Once it pans across fully we see a figure in the background. The figure looks distorted through the shower curtain but the viewers can just make it out. This could have been shot like this to add a bit of tension and mystery the killer and make the viewer’s guess what it is until we see it. This makes the viewer’s panic and worry when once they notice it. We feel the danger that the victim is in. But she is still oblivious to the danger. The woman is naked in this scene and this is to show her vulnerability as there is nothing on her to protect her. All of these build the tension towards what is going to happen, this is very conventional for a thriller.

Another great shot which goes well with the conventions of a thriller is the figure of the murderer. They have not showed the face and the killer expression but you can see the stance of her and the way she holds the knife in an attacking stance. They have used diegetic sound to scare the viewers the woman screams and the non-diegetic sound links makes us feel scared when she strikes the knife. The music they use for this is very conventional thriller music so It links very well. It is a close up of the killer but you cannot see the expressions which is very unconventional.

So this in this Mise-en-scen they use very good methods and techniques the make the audience scared and feel really tense before the murder. These methods have all been used to make the audience feel scared and intimidated by the killer and it also shows us the vulnerability of the victim. They have used all the editing techniques and camera shots very well in this film to make us feel tense and scared.