Hitchcock has many different technology techniques that he uses in his films. He uses the use of uranium, different camera angles, rear projection process shots and more to create suspenseful films that others want to watch.
In the movie Notorious, the main motive of Devlin and Alicia is to investigate the Germans and their suspected use of uranium. Uranium is a radioactive that can be used for energy or weaponry because of its radioactivity. Radioactivity can be defined in terms of the atom, which is the smallest part of an element that can exist. Some atoms are unstable and break down into new atoms. When this happens, it gives off energy, referred to as radioactivity. A radioactive element emits energy in the form of waves or particles. As for Uranium, it primarily emits alpha particles which are the biggest and most destructive type up until a point. While alpha particles are big and bad they can only penetrate so far because of their size. They can be typically blocked by a piece of paper and at worst external exposure can give you a bad burn because it can not penetrate farther than your skin. However in the movie, Alicia ingests the uranium which is a huge problem. Inside the body alpha particles can do tremendous damage to the body and all the organs. Within the first hours of exposure you can experience headache, fever, diarrhea, nausea and, vomiting and within the week Weakness, fatigue dizziness and disorientation. All of these are symptoms that Alicia experienced.
One form of technology that Alfred Hitchcock used was different camera angles. In many of his movies Hitchcock would focus on the character’s eyes to create suspense. Eyes are a great way of relaying emotional messages. Hitchcock portrays many different character emotions by showing what they are looking at, or by actually showing an image of their eyes. One scene in Notorious that focused on the characters eyes was when Alicia realized that she was being poisoned by the tea. The characters do not come right out and say, you poisoned me, but instead Hitchcock shows Alicia’s eyes. The audience can see the fear in her eyes, as the camera moves from her eyes to the mother and then her husband. Also during this entire scene in the right hand corner was an enlarged tea cup. This also helps to create the suspense in Notorious.
The use of the camera in Notorious helped let the audience and viewers know something was important. In the movie Hitchcock would focus in on objects as well as characters. He would start the scene high and wide, then ending it low and close In one of the scenes Hitchcock zoomed in on the cup of tea Alicia was drinking which had something in it which made her very ill. Hitchcock uses this technique very well.
While we see plenty of outdoor scenes in Notorious such as the drunk driving scene at the beginning, the scene of the plane flying into Brazil and the scene where they are watching the horse race, none of those scenes were actually shot outside. In fact, the only scene that was shot outside was the scene where Develin and Alicia ride the horses next to Sebastian. Hitchcock instead used rear projection process shots (prerecorded backgrounds) to achieve the appearance of being outdoors. Hitchcock preferred filming indoors because it gave him maximum control over filming throughout the day. In other words, he could film a day time “outside” scene late in the evening and it still appear to be early morning.
Drunk driving scene that was actually filmed indoors.
One form of technology that is often overlooked in films is the physical positioning of the camera. Before the time of green screens getting a shot with the background that the director wanted was much harder. At times the director would have to take multiple takes from multiple angles in order to complete a scene. One example of this is the shower scene from the movie Psycho (1960). In this scene, first link below, multiple camera angles are used to create an overall sense for the action that takes place throughout the scene. Because of the size of the set multiple takes of the scene had to be conducted in order to collect enough film for the scene. In the picture below the shower wall was removed to allow for the point of view shots that are spread throughout the scene. Another example of this is in the movie Notorious (1946). In an early scene the viewer sees Ingrid Bergman waking up with a hangover. As Cary Grant approaches the camera rotates as if you are viewing him from the point of view of Ingrid Bergman. This scene, second link below, was filmed in two segments. The first consisted of all the shots of Ingrid Bergman in the bed. In the second the bed was moved and a camera was placed in its place to give the audience the correct angle.
