Hitchcock’s Rule
Hitchcock’s rule is one of the most beneficial lessons you can learn from him and apply to your own work. According to Hitchcock’s rule, everything in the frame must have significant meanings. If you pay attention to the frame in Hitchcock’s films every thing within the shot is symbolic. For example, the person who appears larger in the frame often holds all the power within the scene.

Suspense Vs Mystery
Hitchcock never made a mystery film, nor did he want to. He found that to create meaningful and captivating suspense you had to ensure the audience knew more about what was going on in the film than the characters within the film. Hitchcock’s film Sabotage is a prime example of this. A young boy is meant to deliver a package, with no knowledge there is a bomb within the parcel. However, the audience is well aware, and this causes all the suspense. Because the audience knows that time is running out until the bomb goes off, while the characters have no clue.

The Power of Birds Eye View
Hitchcock uses bird eye view shots a lot in his film, and he states that it helps to create a sense that in reality the characters within the film are tiny and have little to no control over their life. In his movie The Birds, usage of a bird’s-eye view was effective. Through the bird’s-eye view shot the audience sees masses of birds watching the town people, which adds to their threat of terror over the characters in the film. It’s also very affective in foreshadowing events that are about to transpire.


Countdown To Christmas! The 5 Best Holiday Films
There is no shortage of Christmas movies in the world. Here is my list of the 5 Holiday films I find myself gravitating towards every year. 1. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) It’s a Wonderful Life is a film that I did not appreciate at all as a kid. It’s my dad’s favorite Christmas film, […]

Film Festivals and Markets Pushing past COVID-19
Everything this year has been flipped upside down. Every film festival is deciding on how to proceed and adapt to the current changes. The IndieWire recently posted a full list of every film festival still happening both in-person and online, and here I wanted to give a rundown of the standouts. New Directors/New Films, New […]

Spike Lee’s Advice: Follow Your Passion
In a recent podcast on The Craft of the Director with the Director’s Guild Spike Lee gave lots of insight into the emergence of his career and how he has found success. Lee emphasized several times that it only takes one person to inspire somebody and to ignite a spark within them that begins their […]