Thriller Opening Sequence Analysis

I am now going to do a quick analysis of the opening sequece to Psycho to get a good idea of the ways in which editing and music are used in the opening sequence and to see what (if any) shots are used.




The opening sequence to Psycho is very basic, and yet very effective. The music used creates a sense of tension and suspense right from the start when you dont even know what the film is going to be about. The Editing/Transitions it uses are way ahead of its time as it was produced without the aid of modern graphics applications,and made instead entirly by stop frame animation. The fact that the transitions and text move to the sound of the music help to make the sequence flow. But the way they have made the transitions wipe in from alternate sides brings in a sense of confusion and maybe gives away the fact that nothing will be as it seems. The opening sequence was created by a man called Saul Bass. For Alfred Hitchcock, Bass provided effective, memorable title sequences, employing kinetic typography (the technical name for "moving text").