Movie Rope

Rope

A Thriller 'Rope' by Alfred Hitchcock does follow some of the rules set for thriller genre films. First and the most important thing is that the thriller has a villain and a hero. To be more specific, there are two villains in this film:

Phillip                                                                                                       Brandon


However, the hero in this movie was not as heroic as anyone could expect. The 'hero' is the only to reveal the villains, not to stop them. Either way, I could also tell he is stopping them from doing any more harm to others, but isn't stopping the murder of David. The hero in this movie was called in a name of Rupert Cadell :

In 'Rope', Alfred Hitchcock has obviously broken a lot of the rules set for thrillers by people like Roland Barthes, Todorov, Levi Strauss and Vladimir Propp. However, Hitchcock did have some sense of Laura Mulvey's male gaze. This theory is based on men and women in the film as well as in the audience. Laura believes that female actors in movies are sexualised and represented from male's point of view. In 'Rope', there were three women:

Janet

Mrs. Wilson

Mrs. Atwater

I believe the two older women were not sexualised as much for the main reason - they are quite old, and if they were it would probably be a little bit akward. However, Janet could be put in the lines of Laura Mulvey's male gaze as she is a young and attractive woman and the movie represents her so. Laura Mulvey also believes that women are being objectified and I could also agree with the fact when watching 'Rope'. Janet is slightly objectified as when men talk about her, she is mentioned as someones girlfriend (or exgirlfriend) rather than a person they know.

I could not say that Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope' doesn't deserve to be called a thriller. It does, as it thrills the audience throughout the film. However, in my opinion this film did break the barriers of most of the thriller, or I'd rather say, media theories.

Style of Editing

Style of editing

Style of editing is linking two different shots in some way or another. Transition - the movement from one shot to the next. There are a few different ways to move from shot to shot:

Straight cut

A basic cut. Shot A abruptly ends and Shot B abruptly begins.

Dissolve

Dissolve involves gradually changing the visibility of the picture. Rather than transitioning from a shot to a to a colour, a dissolve is when a shot changes into another shot gradually. Dissolves, like cuts, can be used to create a link between two different objects.

Fade

A fade occurs when the shot gradually turns to a single colour, usually black, or when a picture gradually appears on screen. Fade in generally occurs at the beginning of film, while fade out are typically found at the end of a film.

Wipe

Wipe involves one shot replacing another, traveling from one side of the frame to another.

Jump Cut

A jump cut is usually the result of a continuity error, and not a stylistic choice by the director. A jump cut occurs when a cut, designed to act merely as a camera angle change, reveals a continuity error between the two shots.

Designing/Making Ident

Ident

We decided to use first letters of our names to make up an ident. We used them in this order: Naomi, Arsena, Courtney, Diana. NACD. We have ordered and took pictures of letters from game 'scrabble'. Pictures were taken by moving the letters step by step to make them look like they are moving themselves. We wanted the wooden letters as they look better so when ordering we looked for them ones. Ordering the letters did not make any trouble to us and we got them over the term of two days.