Thriller Planning - The Story

After discussion, we decided we wanted the opening to portray both a murderer, and those trying to catch him, juxtaposing good and bad. We decided that, for the police part, we should introduce a new character, a new detective on the case. That way, as he is being familiarised with the story, so then is the audience.

The Plot
In the introduction, we see two scattered collections of photographs, one of which is the killer's, and one of which is the detective's.There have been a series of muders, and all of the victims were in the same year at school. Working on the case for two months, our detectives have narrowed down the suspects to eight, which are displayed, with annotations, on a board. They notice that one of the suspects is in the same year as them. As they are discussing this, a new character, the new cop on the case, is introduced. The two detectives tell the new guy the story of the case.
Meanwhile, our killer is introduced, washing his hands, representing his compulsion for hygiene. Hearing voices in his head, we realise that he is schizophrenic. The voice is telling him not to kill again, but he ignores it, and walks out the door.
We then see our killer waiting in a coffee shop, stirring his coffee and taking a sip. He turns around to see a man walking down the alley adjacent to the coffee shop. We see a quick flashback of the man, as one of the photographs at the beginning, and then our killer stands up and walks after him, and then it fades to black.

Storyboard

 This is our opening shot, a pan across two different sets of photographs. One set is on a light coloured table, whilst the other is on a dark one. Although not evident from this picture, we want to have one set have blue annotations on, whilst the others have red annotations. This is meant to show the difference between the killer and the detectives.

The shot then tilts up from the desk, revealing board with eight pictures of suspects on. One of the pictures is zoomed in on, the face of the killer, and then a dissolve transition is made.

The shot dissolves to the face of our killer, looking into the mirror, getting ready to kill again. From this we show the killer arguing with the voice inside his head.

When he replies to these voices, we see a different shot, further implying his schizophrenia

We see the killer exit the bathroom and walk down the stairs.

The voice inside the killer's head argues with him as he goes to leave, and stops when the killer slams the door shut.

We then cut to our two detectives at a loss about where the case is leading them. Here, they notice that one of the suspects, our killer, was in the same year at school as all of the victims, and was "unusually disruptive".

As they are talking, the head inspector walks in and introduces a third detective to the case.

We will then have the two officers telling the new one what has happened so far.

We then cut to a shot of our two police officers talking outside the police station, expressing their doubts about the new detective.

As they are talking, we see one of the victims walk past them. The camera tracks him down an alley.

We cut to the killer drinking his coffee inside a coffee shop. We see the victim walk past the window, and our killer get up and follows him.

We hope to use Café Nero for this, because the large windows would make it easier to track the victim, and have contacted them about it. However, we are awaiting reply.

"Psycho" Analysis

It is in no doubt that Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is one of the landmark films in the twentieth century. This is because of the boundaries it breaks, the lengths that it went through to capture the audience. It does so in a variety of ways.
One of the best ways in which Hitchcock made this film so successful was his ability to shock the audience without the use of gore and blood. In the shower scene, for example, we see the death of Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh), who was the main character up to this point. Looking back at the scene, I saw that there was actually very little blood, apart from that going down the plug hole, and during the "stabbing", we never once see a knife penetrating skin. One of the main ways Hitchcock was able to do this was through the musical score. His "muted strings" are still renowned today for their ability to add tension to the film.
The shower scene also presents us with another of Hitchcock's devices that broke the normal boundaries, and that was the amount of nudity used. Most nudity was not permitted in films of the '60s, or frowned upon at best. So, to have a naked woman murdered in the shower was no easy task in it's context. Also, at the start of the film, we see Janet Leigh, in a brassiere, with her lover.This is ground breaking, as previously promiscuity such as this was frowned upon. However, Hitchcock does not make a big attempt to shock the audience with graphic imagery, he simply lets it be there.
Another way in which Hitchcock broke the previous rules was his killing off of Janet Leigh, by the end of the first half of the film. We originally follow the story of her stealing $40,000 off her boss, and the detective attempting to go after her. However, when she is killed, the story of the money is buried, along with her car, when Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) pushes it into the bayou. As he is packing up her things, ready to sink them into the swamp, we are constantly drawn towards the money, wrapped inside a newpaper. We wonder whether he will find it, and that tension brings us to the edge of our seats. As the money sinks with the car, we are left wondering where this story will lead us. As Janet Leigh was a major star at the time, killing her off halfway through the film seemed to be a bad thing to do, but Hitchcock made this work, and more importantly, allowed Anthony Perkins a major role that allowed us to see into the mind of the killer.
Hitchcock broke the boundaries by the twist that's introduced at the very end. Norman Bates claims to have a mother, and we hear her voice in one scene, and the tale is set up to reveal that his mother is the killer. We see this when, in the shower scene, we see that the one with the knife is a womanly shaped figure with her hair in a bun. It is also shown when Norman Bates is arguing with his mother, and taking into the the basement to "be safe". However, when Marion's sister Lila (played by Vera Miles) enters the basement and whispers "Mrs. Bates" to the old woman staring at the wall, we see that she is long dead. Just as the audience are getting their heads around this, Norman Bates enter the room in a wig and dress, with a knife in his hand. I definitely wasn't expecting this, and it's twists such as these that have given Alfred Hitchcock his legendary status.
In conclusion, I feel that Hitchcock crafted Psycho expertly to keep the audiences attention at all times. This was done through the musical score, the storyline and twists, and the contextual risqué amounts of nudity and violence.