What food in your refrigerator makes the best fake blood? How should you angle the camera if you want someone to appear menacing and creepy? These are the types of questions that preoccupied Alfred Hitchcock, the masterful director of macabre, tightly-plotted, classic suspense films like The Birds, Rear Window, and Strangers on a Train. Hitchcock was famous for his precision as a director: shots were carefully plotted far in advance, editing was scrutinized, and special effects (like the sound of a stabbing) were achieved through imaginative use of everyday objects.
On Thursday, October 22nd, 2009, in honor of Teen Read Week, the Loft hosted a film workshop devoted to the works of Hitchcock. Inspired by the theme of the week – Read Beyond Reality – we decided to “Think Like Hitchcock,” and explore the world as captured by the late ingenious film director. What follows is a wrap-up of that dark and drizzly afternoon.
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The day started off small. We watched scenes from Rope, Vertigo, Spellbound, and Psycho, analyzing each for their point-of-view (POV) shots, editing, inventive camera movements and set mechanics, and simple special effects. We talked about how Hitchcock used these elements to increase a sense of dread in his audience. The dream sequence in Spellbound (designed by Salvador Dali), as well as the grisly childhood accident flashback and final gun-in-your-face POV shot were riveting. We leafed through Bill Krohn’s excellent book, Hitchcock at Work, and discussed the use of storyboards and grand locations like the Golden Gate Bridge in Vertigo and Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest.
One thread in conversation centered on Hitchcock’s aprupt endings, how it seemed like he was more obsessed with the cinematic process of reaching the end of each film than the actual endings themselves. We discussed how, in a way, this is a model approach to life – endings and beginning are brief, it’s what you do in the middle, the attention and care that you pay to living, that count.
Maybe if Marion Crane in Psycho had understood this she would have noticed the door opening behind her, the blurry figure approaching…
When we watched the shower scene in Psycho and Marion’s screams and Bernard Herrman’s classic score rented the air the whole room stopped dead – teens on computers, teens looking for books, teens studying – and everyone turned to watch. When it was over, and Marion lay slung over the edge of the bathtub, the water dripping off her fingertips, the room exploded with Hitchcock chatter. Who knew? Turns out there were some serious Hitchcock buffs in our midst.
Then came the stabbing.
When Hitchcock was making Psycho he asked his props master to line up a whole slew of fruits and vegetables and knife each one to find the best stabbing sound. With about 8 teens in the center of the Loft we re-created this Psycho production moment; I challenged them each to “think like Hitchcock,” to choose the best effect for their own murderous shower scenes.
On a table I laid out a cantaloupe, honey dew melon, tomato, carnival squash, pineapple and more, and I stabbed each of them with a large butcher knife. Some fruit were an obvious No, like the too-ripe papaya, but others, like the squash, gave us pause. Sides were chosen, with friendly arguments erupting regarding the best sounds of the knife. (Check out pics from the Fruit Stabbing in the Loft Flickr stream in the margin to the right).
Lore has it that Hitchcock settled on a casaba melon. Our group was finally torn between a pineapple and a large, onion-shaped turnip. Finally, after careful consideration and a final vote, the turnip won.
Then we devoured the produce.
I never imagined the Hitchcock workshop would turn into a discussion about food, nor did I imagine it would become a delectable feast, but we’d obviously worked up an appetite. The teens were ravenous. While Loft staff cut up the melon we started talking about spaghetti squash, inspecting the inside of the turnip to figure out exactly what it was (with some even biting into the vegetable raw) and generally chowing down. We ate up almost everything – cantaloupe, honey dew melon, even the tomato was consumed like an apple. And I was worried about wasting food.
While we ate we also talked about our favorite Hitchcock films with The Lady Vanishes, Vertigo and The 39 Steps recommended as favorites. Yum.
When it was over, the table covered in fruit flesh, seeds, and rinds, one teen checked out Spellbound to take home, while others vowed to seek out more Hitchcock soon. I kept a pretty squash for myself.
Thank you, everyone, for a great event!
(Jarrett, The Loft)
UPDATE (11/10/09): On Saturday I was in the grocery store and I came across the mystery turnip that won the stabbing contest. It’s called a jicama and is, according to the website Wisegeek, “a crispy, sweet, edible root that resembles a turnip in physical appearance, although the plants are not related.” The website’s definition goes on to explain that, “Jicama has been cultivated in South America for centuries, and the vegetable is quite popular in Mexican cuisine. Jicama has a unique flavor that lends itself well to salads, salsas, and vegetable platters.”
It also lends itself well to horror effects. -jd
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