Old Films For New

In 1960, the director of the film obtained a cheap-feature deal with Paramount which gave him 60 per cent ownership of his movie instead of his usual upfront $250,000. The film’s budget was a loose-change $800,000).  To keep costs down he used most of his crew from his previous television series. His crew cost 62,000. The sets were relatively cheap, one of the sets costed a mere 15,000 to build. However, in the 1998 remake he financed the film himself. He had a budget of 60 million USD.

In 1960, nearly the whole film was shot with 50mm lenses on 35mm cameras. The quality of the film just about mimicked human vision however for the audience it was not a visual experience that looked real. They could use aerial shots however the footage came out too shaky to use and had to be spliced with footage from the studio.  In 1998, digitally edited soundtracks were available in the 1990’s so for Psycho it meant that the quality of sound was improved dramatically in contrast with the original. The cameras that they used were digital cameras so the quality was improved from the original.

 In 1960, the film was promoted by Hitchcock on his own through television radio and print interviews. It was released for the general public to watch in theatres. The film was so successful that CBS purchased the TV rights for the film. In 1967, paramount included the film in its first syndicated package of post 1950 movies. Years later Hitchcock sold his stock to universal studios. However, in 1998 “Psycho” was distributed by Universal pictures on December the 4^th. Due to Universal pictures distributing the film, it meant that people would be more inclined to notice the release of the film due to Universal being one of the top companies at the time. This affected the success of Psycho because platform they released their film on was well known.

In the 1960s, the use of black lighting was created as a filming technique to enhance the atmosphere when something mysterious was occurring. This was featured in the film because of the spooky events that take place such as the shower scene. In 1998, the use of close up scenes were used during dialogue rather than just wide angle scenes in a room. This was embedded within the film due to the fact that the audience could view the visual and feel closer to the characters when action climaxed.

The genre that psycho falls into is horror, slasher, thriller and mystery. The two films both fall under the category of these genres. In my opinion, if a film is remade it has to be as close to the original as possible. The fact that the two films fall under the same genre, backs up the stereotype of when films are remade they are approximately identical to the original. The two films are easily identifiable when thinking about the story line, genre and plot. In terms of original to remake, the conventions within the film that causes “Psycho” to fall under the horror/ slasher genre are enhanced over the years. For example, the remake is shot in colour whereas the original was shot in black and white. This has a huge impact on the film because it becomes more real for an audience to watch. For a scene where there is blood, the original could not show the ruby red colour of it whereas the remake can.

In the 1960, Anthony Perkins was a famous actor who was used in the film. He won an Oscar for previous films he was in. This has an impact on viewership because he was recognisable before psycho indicating that when people heard that he was featuring in the film, they knew to watch it. Also his loyal fans of his acting would want to follow him in all of his movies. In 1998, Vince Vaughn played the main role within the film which played a part on the viewership. He is an incredible actor and people would have loved to see a remake including him. Before the remake of the film, Vince Vaughn was not major actor and mainly involved himself in TV series and small time movies. When the remake was released, people viewed and judged his performance very positively causing his career to blow up.

The storyline contains more social than political issues that may cause concern. The story outlines the issues that comes within people’s minds. The film outlines also what are the causes and effects of the actions that these types of people take. The implications of this causes the film to be unique. Most films concentrate on the dream lifestyle or social issues that are regularly addressed. The audience will feel that “Psycho”, both original and remake, gives an insight into lives we do not normally see on a day to day basis. We are interested in what we have not yet seen which makes this film stand out. The film almost demonises the mentally different in a way that teaches us to not associate with people like the characters within the film. The protagonist of the film is crazy so we pay attention the personality and imagine if they were real. As the audience, we view the characters personality and actions, then form an opinion of whether we like the character or dislike him. In “psycho” we tend to be frightened from the protagonist.

The regulatory issues that the film maker of “psycho” had to adhere to was that nudity was not allowed to be exposed. This had an impact on the 1960’s original because the shower scene needed to portray the element of nudity to make the scene more powerful. However, Hitchcock overcame this issue by forming certain camera angles together to give the impression of an atmosphere containing nudity without showing it directly. Another example of this is the issue of not exposing physical violence in a gruesome manor. For example, the scene where the character stabs himself with a knife, certain camera angles are used and chopped to give the impression that he has stabbed himself without conveying it.  In the remake (1998) the regulatory issues that were a concern in the original were exterminated. The director took full advantage of the decrease in limitations, as a result could enhance a scenes atmosphere by giving the audience more explicit visuals. For example, the shower scene in the remake we see much more of the woman’s body and we can see her stab wounds clearly.