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Interview With Anthony Perkins (Litlog)

Posted by Karston Singleton in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

Question 1: How did you approach playing Norman Bates?

Answer: Well, Norman’s a more shy, awkward person. Having him stutter a lot and fidget made him seem ansty all of the time. Unlike his mother, he had no composure. When characters are grilling him, he seems suspicious, even if he technically isn’t and hasn’t done anything himself. I knew Norman would come across as creepy even without me making any creepy faces. In very suspenseful moments- like when the private investigator was questioning Norman- there were moments where I just awkwardly stared for a little while. It was almost as if Norman thought that saying nothing would make him go away. Unfortunately for Norman, it only proved to make him look more suspicious. With the amazing direction of Alfred Hitchcock, the lighting on Norman was often shadowy (lowkey lighting). I never had to act creepy, to be creepy.

Question 2: How did you approach playing Mrs. Bates?

Answer: She was almost the complete opposite. When she wasn’t stabbing someone or yelling at her son, she was a lot more put together. Unlike Norman, she’s more expressive when it comes to her evil intentions. In the final shot of the film, I had to make it clear that Mrs. Bates was in control. Contorting her face in a more sinister snarl made me (Anthony Perkins) feel like a completely different person. I mean, could you imagine Norman making that face? Remember, while I’m the same actor, they’re two VERY different characters. Mrs. Bates also has more exaggerated body movements. While Norman is reserved, Mrs. Bates makes her thoughts known with how she moves. I mean, every time she goes to stab someone, she raises her hands all the way up rather than just… stabbing them (laugh).

Question 3: Why do you think Mrs. Bates won the internal battle against Norman by the end?

Answer: Hmm. Regardless of the events of the movement, I don’t think Norman could ever win. Mrs. Bates is a lot more… more determined than Norman is. Norman never saw himself as the bad guy. It’s that very reason why Mrs. Bates wanted to use Norman as a fall guy for all of her crimes. While Norman is crooked in his own ways, he doesn’t have the resolve that Mrs. Bates does. That’s why Mrs. Bates was created in the first place. Norman would never kill an innocent, defenseless girl. Well, Marion wasn’t exactly innocent (laugh). Anyways, Mrs. Bates was willing to murder in a lot of cases where Norman wasn’t. After all, why kill someone you’re attracted to? He also didn’t kill Sam even though he had a perfect chance to do so. The main point is that Norman had a “weaker” personality.

Question 4: How did the directing play a role in defining the overall feel of Norman/Mrs. Bates?

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock is great at building the suspense of a scene. He’s at his best when he has two characters bouncing off each other. Take the confrontation between Norman and the Private Investigator. At one point, the camera was under my chin. It’s literally under me while I’m nervously eating candy. What it did was create this feeling of eeriness. Norman was losing his jester attitude as the PI grew closer to the truth. The camera being where it was created an uneasy feeling that was supposed to be reflected on to the audience. Whenever the camera is on Norman, there is always an underlying, uneasy feeling accompanying him. Sometimes he’s not centered. Sometimes there are stuffed birds next to him. Sometimes his face is covered in shadows.

Question #5: How did editing play a role in defining the overall feel of Norman/Mrs. Bates?

Answer: For Mrs. Bates, it added to her vile aesthetic. In the final scene, hearing her narration accompanied by Norman Bates’ facial expressions left a very disorienting experience. Seeing “Norman” but hearing the mother is genuinely uncomfortable. In the same scene, you have a quick one-second flash of the dead and decayed body of the real Mrs. Bates. It overlapped with “Norman’s” face, making this weird Norman, Mrs. Bates amalgamation. It was the perfect editing choice, to be honest. It might’ve looked a little silly if it were just me staring directly into the camera smiling. As for Norman himself, the lack of cuts helped build suspense. For instance, watching the cars sink was very tense. We practically got to see it happen in real-time.

Psycho Soundtrack

Posted by Nicolas Werner in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

“Sad Tomorrow” - The Muffs:

I don’t think this song was written about anything related to Psycho but, when heard with the movie in mind, the lyrics take on a different meaning. The opening lyrics of the song are: “I don’t even know why. Do you think I’m a mess? Maybe someday but now you’re gone.” To me, this can be read as Norman talking to his mother. He knows she’s dead because he killed her but he is still talking to her. He still cares about her opinions. The song continues, “When I do as I please, I’m no different to me. Am I crazy or have good luck?” Norman should, by all means, be free to do whatever he wants. His mother is not alive to control him anymore. But nothing is different, she still makes him powerless just now it’s from inside his own head. The chorus of the song goes, “I don’t know why you’re so glad, when my head’s filled with sorrow. So maybe if I fade away, There’ll be no sad tomorrow.” This is still from Norman’s perspective, but now he’s talking to Marion. He resents her for being of sound mind when he is very much not. His way of coping is for Norman to fade away into Mother, who then kills Marion.

“Stronghold” - Classics of Love:

This song connects to Psycho in Norman’s backstory. The song starts, “Fight to prevail, to be the first one. To climb up and break the lower rungs. So nobody tries to come up from behind. So nobody tries to take what’s mine.” These are the kind of things I imagine Norman was thinking when his mother remarried. He wanted her all to himself and considered the new husband competition. The song continues, “Defend yourself. Protect yourself. Assert yourself. Elect yourself.” I think the way these lines are delivered does an especially good job mimicking the way I imagine Norman was thinking. It’s very aggressive with short, explosive phrases that sound almost fragmented. This seems what Norman’s head was like right as he was about to murder his mother and her husband. He’s trying to protect his relationship with his mother but ends up assuming her personality. The “yourself” mentioned in the song becomes Norman and his mother. The chorus of the song goes, “Who’s gonna run, who will run the show. Who’s gonna lose, who will take control. Stronghold. Strong till your blood runs cold.” These lines can describe the power struggle between Norman and his stepfather, but I think they make more sense in relation to his two personalities. Each of them take control and “run the show” at different moments.

“Padded Cell” - Black Flag:

This song starts with the lines: “Earth’s a padded cell, defanged and declawed, I’m living in hell, it’s a paradise fraud.” This reminded me of the conversation Norman and Marion had where they talk about everyone’s “private traps.” Norman says, “You know what I think? I think we’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever climb out. We scratch and claw… but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.” Both the song and this monologue describe a feeling of confinement and utilize animalistic imagery. The song continues, “I’m invisible, nowhere to hide. I’m obscene, the living dead. See the flies in your head. Looking at you, I’m inside you. It’s Walden too but the flower’s dead” Norman is both invisible and has nowhere to hide because he is only a personality. He can no longer escape his mother because she is always with him in his mind. When Norma takes over, he is “the living dead,” but she is still a corpse. He can “see the flies in your head.” Another verse of the song goes, “Suspect, the stranger in disguise. Forced itself upon me something I can’t hide. See it in, maniacs! Their eyes, maniacs!” This can be read as one of Norman’s victims. He is a “stranger in disguise” when he murders. He’s a “maniac,” a psycho.

“Operator’s Manual” - Buzzcocks:

I interpret this song’s relation to Psycho as the Norma personality being Norman’s operator’s manual. He uses the way she ran his life when she was alive to run his own life without her. The song starts, “Operator’s Manual tells me what to do when emotions blow a fuse.” Norman turning into his mother is his fallback for when he doesn’t know how to handle a situation. His feelings for Marion confuse him so he uses Norma to get rid of her. The chorus goes, “Oh, operator’s manual, I’d just fall apart without you. If only I had a mechanic. Then somehow I know I’d pull through.” Norman can’t function without his mother to guide him so he continues to act as if under her control even in her death. He is a very lonely person and needs someone to fix him, like a mechanic. Whether or not he could actually be fixed, he definitely longs for human connection.

“What’s My Name” - The Clash:

The opening lines of this song have a clear connection to Psycho. “What the hell is wrong with me? I’m not who I want to be.” Once again, this is from Norman’s perspective, although more self aware than he is portrayed in the film. I don’t know if Norman knows something is wrong with him, but I get the feeling he’s not who he wants to be. He definitely seems like he has issues with identity, it’s just unclear what they are, aside from the obvious. I think that this song fits with Psycho if it wanted to portray Norman as more struggling with his issues instead of just crazy. The titular chorus goes, “What’s my name?” This shows the internal struggle of Norman versus Norma. The last verse of the song is: “Now I’m round the back of your house at night. Peeping in the window, are you sleeping tight?” This really reminded me of the scene where Norman is watching Marion through the hole in the wall.

Lit Log - Rear Window

Posted by Eric Casalena in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on
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Rear Window is a movie about a man who is stuck in a wheelchair looking out his window with his binoculars and camera to watch his neighbors try and cure his boardem. While doing this, he bears witness to a murder. To me, I liked the movie a lot because of the implications of how spying on people may or may not be the right thing to do even being justified or not. I changed the title to “Neighborhood Watch” for two reasons. My first reason is because of what the main character does in a literal sense but my second reason is because of the true definition of Neighborhood Watch is a group of civilians keeping watch to protect their neighborhood and seeing how the main character caught a murderer in his neighborhood and got the murderer arrested. I would advertise this movie by saying it’s kind of a “boy who cried wolf” situation, meaning the main character keeps on telling his detective friend that his neighbor is a murderer but he keeps on going against it last second. I really wouldn’t change the genre of the film because I feel like it goes well with the plot. The choice I made for the poster was a camera peeking through blinds, bending them in the process. I made this choice because, in the film, the main character used his camera to spy on people but he also was being a sneak while looking out the window.

Lit Log #1 Psycho

Posted by Claire Powell in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

There is no doubt that “Psycho” is a psychological thriller. It even says it in the name. When looking at the original movie posters for this film, they usually showcase a bright font over a heavy black-and-white image of some iconic part in the movie- usually the shower scene. For my poster I thought it was best to not give anything away. And that is exactly why I choose Norman with his taxidermy owl. It foreshadows the creepy events that are showcased in this movie, without telling us what might happen. The image itself is intense enough to lure people into watching it. The quote and fonts just add more detail and description. As for the title, I wanted to go with something that was mentioned in the movie. I do think Psycho is very fitting, but as I watched this movie, the term did not seem to be used and I believe I could come up with something more relatable and creepy. I chose “The Mother in Me ” for many reasons. As the case of the murder is solved, the audience finds out about the psyscology aspect for Normans behavior. It is explained to Sam and Lila that Norman experienced trauma from his mother at a young age which causes him to act as a second identity in ways that resemble his mother, who is deceased. In today’s terms we would call this “multiple personality disorder”. Without this disorder, there would be no movie, soley why I wanted the title to relate to Norman’s disorder. As you look at the subtle details of this poster, you may notice the two shadows that fall behind Norman. The owl above him only has one shadow. I believe that Norman has two shadows because of his split personality and the ways in which he resembles his mother and himself, but wrapped in one body. Symbolism like this is always something that should be included in a movie poster. It is vital that the audience has some small sense of what is to come, especially if it is a thriller. This poster would be more appealing to the general public based on these small changes I made. There are very iconic characteristics that go into every classic horror poster. Including the large red font and intense image that sets the background. All of these details set up a clear direction for the viewers of this film and future viewers.

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THE MOTHER IN ME

3/30 - 4/1: Q3 Report Card Conference Days

Posted by Sunil Reddy on

SLA will follow the below schedules during the Q3 report card conference dates.

Wednesday, 3/30

08:15 - 12:50 Normal SLA class schedule

12:55 - 03:30 Normal Wednesday programs (mini-courses, ILPs, and Capstone work)

04:00 - 07:00 Evening report card conferences

Thursday, 3/31

08:15 - 08:55 C1 band

09:00 - 09:40 D1 band

09:45 - 10:25 E1 band

10:30 - 11:10 A2 band

11:15 - 11:55 X1/Y1 band

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch/Dismissal

01:00 - 04:00 Afternoon Conferences

Friday, 4/1

08:15 - 08:55 B2 band

09:00 - 09:40 C2 band

09:45 - 10:25 D2 band

10:30 - 11:10 E2 band

11:15 - 11:55 X2/Y2 band

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch/Dismissal

01:00 - 03:00 Afternoon Make-Up Conferences