Leonardo Ciscomani

A01251970
Alfred Hitchcock
May 6, 2019
Movie The Birds
Title: The Birds
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Daphne Du Maurier, Evan Hunter
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Production Company: Alfred Hitchcock Productions
Actors: Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Running Time: 119 minutes
Country: United States
Date: March 29, 1963
Language: English
Budget: $3.3 million
Box Office: $11.4 million
Synopsis: While in a San Francisco pet shop, Melanie Daniels becomes attracted to Mitch
Brenner, a young lawyer who is looking to find a pair of lovebirds for his little sister Cathy.
Melanie buys two of the birds and decides to deliver them to Mitch's home on an island.
After secretly leaving the birds in the Brenner house, she is returning to the mainland by
motor boat when a seagull swoops down on her, gashes her forehead, and then flies away.
Mitch meets her at the mainland pier and brings her back to his home. The next day a group
of birds attack Cathy and her friends during a birthday party. That evening hundreds of birds
fly down a chimney and terrorize Melanie and the Brenners. In the small town, birds murder
a chicken farmer by pecking him to death, create a flash fire at a gas station, and swarm
over the local children as they leave school. Following the death of schoolteacher Annie,
most of the people leave their homes and head to San Francisco. Mitch boards up all
entrances to his home and awaits the attack. The birds dive against the house, trying to
enter the house, but they are unable to get inside. When Melanie goes to the attic, she is
attacked by a roomful of crows who have made a hole in the roof. Mitch manages to rescue
her but realizes the house is no longer safe. With the coming of morning, the birds are
momentarily quiet. Taking advantage of the silence, he puts Melanie and his family into his
car and leaves for San Francisco as thousands of birds watch them escape.

Director Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in 13 August 1899 and died in 29 April 1980. He was an
English film director and producer, widely regarded as one of the most influential
filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as "the Master of Suspense", he directed over
50 feature films in a career spanning six decades, becoming as well known as any of his
actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting
and producing of the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Born in Leytonstone, Essex, Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1919 as a title
card designer after training as a technical clerk and copy writer for a telegraph-cable
company. He made his directorial debut with the silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925). His
first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the
thriller genre, while his 1929 film, Blackmail, was the first British "talkie". Two of his 1930s
thrillers, The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938), are ranked among the greatest
British films of the 20th century.

In September 1940 the Hitchcock’s bought the 200-acre (0.81 km2) Cornwall Ranch
near Scotts Valley, California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Their primary residence was an
English-style home in Bel Air, purchased in 1942. Hitchcock's films were diverse during this
period, ranging from the romantic comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) to the bleak film
noir Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Dan Fawcett Death Scene (Farmer)

Narrative
The scene begins with Mitch's mother Lydia as she drives up to Dan Fawcett's farm the
morning after her own family's house had been attacked by birds coming down through the
chimney. Lydia parks her truck and after talking to a farmhand briefly without breaking her
stride, she passes through the chained fence. Upon entering the kitchen everything seems
normal until she sees the coffee cups hanging from the undercabinet, all of which seem to
be broken in the same way that hers were broken during the bird attack the previous night.
As she travels down the hallway, at first walking in a straight line but then veering as if she's
becoming more nervous. The she enters Dan´s bedroom, and she becomes to be terrified
when she sees all the room in a complete mess. She noticed that there are dead birds as if
there was fight. As she is looking around the room, she notices a bloody foot on the floor,
and slowly walking inside the room just to discover that its Dan´s body. She was in shook
leaving the room backwards, then she starts to run scared outside the house screaming.

Technical
The scene opens on a dissolve from Melanie, into a long shot of Lydia’s green pickup truck
approaching Dan Fawcett’s farm. The camera remains static, forcing the viewer to follow the
truck. Next the camera is set up in the driveway. The truck passes in front of the camera,
and parks. Then Hitchcock cuts to Lydia exiting the truck. The camera then goes left as she
approaches George, a farmhand in front of a tractor. They briefly converse in two shot, then
she walks up the path to the front door of the house. This is all done in one shot with no
cuts. Next Hitchcock cuts to the home’s interior, as Lydia enters the front door. She calls out
for Dan, looks around, and then notices the broken teacups, which the camera zooms in on.
We see her reaction, then the camera go left as she moves towards the hallway. There is
complete silence as she slowly walks to the end of the hall. Next the camera is inside the
bedroom. It cuts to a shot of Lydia moving her head into the room. Now Hitchcock switches
to the point of view. Then there are shots of Lydia looking, then we get a shot of what she is
looking at. First, she looks at the broken window, with a dead bird hanging in glass. Then we
cut back to Lydia continuing to gaze from left to right. Then it cut to what she is seeing. The
state of the room, with another dead bird on the bed. The camera stays on her while she
continues looking left to right, finally looking down. We then cut to a pair of bloody feet,
and bloody pajama legs almost up to the knee. Then she looks around it to see who is lying
there. And then, we get the shot of Dan Fawcett propped against the wall, clearly dead, with
his eyes pecked out. Next the camera id on Lydia walking down the corridor, as we see her
running from the room towards the camera.

Cathy Brenner´s Birthday Party Scene

Narrative
Mitch´s younger sister, Cathy is having a birthday party the day after Melanie arrives in
Bodega Bay. Although, Melanie is hesitant to joins at first, Mitch soon convinces her to stay
until the party and join them for the festivities. Soon after Melanie arrives at the party and is
greeted by Mitch, a flock of birds swoop in and start to attack everyone in attendance.
Panicked, the children try to run into the house for safety. A little boy tries to escape by
hiding under a table, a little girl runs up to a hill to get away and its attacked by a bird,
another girl in blue dress fell to the ground while a bird on her back continues attacking her.
All the while Melanie, Mitch and the other adults are doing everything they can to help
children get inside and escape the chaos.

Technical
In this scene there are a lot of different shots from different angles. First there are shots
from the air that portrays everyone at the party, then a closeup to Cathy who is blindfolded,
when the bird first hit her, the camera focus on the bird as it is going back for a second hit.
Then everyone starts panicking and we see different shots from what is happening to the
people of the party. An air shot at the table in which the little girl hides below the table.
Then a shot from the back to the girl that is running up hill, and other shots at people’s faces
to demonstrate the horror of the scene.