5 Responses to “TEEN HITCHCOCK”

1. Uzma Says:
   June 21st, 2007 at 1:25 pm

   Actually — here is the article:

   TEEN HITCHCOCK
   Uzma Hasan - Development Producer, slingshot

   slingshot is looking for a story that reimagines the thriller genre for a teen audience. Teen Hitchcock draws on the language of Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema, from the thematic concerns of suspense and voyeurism, to filmic techniques such as the Hitchcock zoom, whilst maintaining a clear teen sensibility. The ‘25 Words or Less’ pitch for Teen Hitchcock should encapsulate the essence of the master filmmaker whilst situating the story in a believable teen world.

   “Terror comes by surprise, suspense by forewarning” Sir Alfred Hitchcock

   “AS IF!” Cher Horwitz in CLUELESS (1995)

   Dreaming up the term ‘Teen Hitchcock’ was the result of a rather impromptu brainstorm in the slingshot office at Ealing Studios. It seemed a perfect marriage between the conceptual and commercial (and as such maybe a modest reflection of the company itself!). But, as Hitchcock lovers know, theory often gets in the way of practicalities and our fantasies are merely a quiver in the reader’s pen. If we started off steering towards a particular type of intellectual thriller, the Teen precursor is a creative ‘spanner’ in the works that hopefully nods to Hitchcock’s own rather twisted sense of humour. We hope this hybrid provides creative challenges whilst also keeping a steady eye on a specific market and its commerciality.

   SUSPENSE
   In an attempt to elucidate Teen Hitchcock, it makes sense to understand its essentials and find a way that the Hitchcock thriller can work in synchrony with the teen world. Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s prolific career spanned both sides of the Atlantic working successfully in both silent films and ‘talkies’. As a filmmaker he had the ability to both tantalise audiences and impress the critics with a perfect synthesis of suspense and macabre humour. Most of his well known work falls firmly into the thriller category but it was his manipulation of this genre and its conventions that earned him the moniker ‘Master of Suspense’. In a series of interviews conducted in the early 60s with French ‘New Wave’ filmmaker Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock discusses the use of suspense in his films and most crucially its differentiation from the element of surprise. He describes a scene where two men are talking and suddenly a bomb goes off; in an alternate scene, the audience is aware of a bomb that is due to detonate under the table with a clock visible in the background. “In the first case we have given the audience fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense.”

   Hitchcock’s conclusion was that the audience must be informed whenever possible in order to maximise tension. His films are meticulously constructed to ensure that suspense is woven into not only the narrative but the visual fabric of the film. Although his storytelling techniques set the standards for the modern day thriller, fascinating critics and theorists alike, few since have been able to create such gripping narratives. Hitchcock’s use of visual motifs, recurring themes and narrative control manoeuvred audience expectations as deftly as he did the camera. And it is this quality that most notably marks out Hitchcock’s thrillers in a league of their own.

   One of the markers of the Hitchcock film is his recurring themes. These have been poured over by generations of theorists and filmmakers alike and include voyeurism and the Gaze, evil in banal surroundings, disrupted social order, suspense, mistaken and false identity, the accused innocent, overbearing mothers, the MacGuffin. Each of these subjects could easily spawn an entire thesis but what is most exciting about Hitchcock’s oeuvre is the very specific ways in which his themes weave into the narrative construction. One of the most explicit and recurring themes is that of voyeurism. This particular theme has been pondered over most vigorously by psychoanalytic theorists such as Jacques Lacan and his contemporaries in the 50s and subsequently bastardised by film critics throughout history.

   VOYEURISM
   Notwithstanding these rather overused lit crit readings, it is clear that Hitchcock manifests his interest in voyeurism in the subject matter of his films and in the way they are constructed and shot. Taking one his most well loved films, REAR WINDOW (1954), we can track the explicit way in which Hitchcock manifests his theme into the iteration of the film. James’s Stewart’s character L.B. Jefferies is a photographer who has been confined to his apartment after an accident leaves his leg in a cast. Out of boredom he begins to spy on his neighbours and convinces himself that a murder has taken place in the building across the courtyard. He slowly involves his initially reluctant girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) in trying to unravel the mystery, which may or may not be a result of his overactive imagination. In addition to voyeurism being the subject of the film itself, Hitchcock manifests this theme and forces the majority of the story to take place from Jeff’s point-of-view, inside his bedroom and seen through his frame of mind. By removing omniscient knowledge from the audience he instils his theme into the narrative: we must becomes voyeurs in the very way that Jeffries’ is. In fact, we are made to do this doubly so as we watch the film externally (as an audience) and internally collude with Jeffries’ point-of-view.

   Although this device in itself is the substance of many thrillers, it is visually reinforced in REAR WINDOW numerous times. Jeffries is a photographer: by his very nature he creates narratives. His mastery over the viewfinder contains and contextualises these mini stories to his exact specifications. He is the creator of the picture we see in his frames. Supplementary to this, the main shot of the film takes place as seen from the frame of Jefferies’ bedroom window. The suspected characters perform, as if on a screen, at an insurmountable distance, fixed by the parameters of his confinement. As the internal and external viewer watches, these characters that drive the narrative are never heard but merely posture from afar. The protagonist must construct his own reality simultaneous to the audience, we are both filling in the blanks in the way that a voyeur projects his fantasies onto his subject.

   REAR WINDOW provides us with an efficient example but Hitchcock systematically uses narrative constraints and the visual medium to reinforce his themes in the audience’s mind. In an insightful article by John Locke a similar comparison is made with VERTIGO (1958) and its use of ‘leaving the audience hanging’. It is this doubling of efforts that enables Hitchcock’s style to so often bring substance to superficially conventional thrillers.

   MACGUFFIN
   Another oft quoted narrative mechanism is the MacGuffin which generally refers to a device that has no specific meaning other than to misdirect the plot. It appears numerous times in Hitchcock’s films with the most famous example being the money that Marion Crane steals from her employer in PSYCHO (1960). The audience is led to believe that this robbery and the subsequent capture of the rather attractive thief will be the focus of the plot. Actually, it is nothing more than an elaborate way to lead Marion to the Bates Motel and her death at the hands of its proprietor Norman Bates. Similarly, in NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) Roger Thornhill tries to track down secret information held by the man for whom he is mistaken. But the secret information is a red herring – the ‘other man’ does not actually exist. Hitchcock’s heavy use of this device points not to only to his delight in manipulating audiences but also to the wry humour that pervades all his films. Although the thriller genre was usually one of stock characters and plot lines the MacGuffin forms a gentle subversion. It pokes fun at both the ‘all knowing’ audience and the characters within the story. The audience is duped by its own logocentric desire in a way that mirrors Roger Thornhill’s pursuit of the other man or the family’s belief that Marion’s money was the motivation for her murder.

   So amidst all these subtle duplicities, what need is there for the teen precursor? Can bubble gum popping cheerleaders and long haired misanthropes survive amidst such menacing structures? Perhaps these films are only suoperficailly simple. The most successful teen movies seem to do far more than just rely on self referential stories; they manipulate existing ‘adult’ genres and transform them. These include black comedy in HEATHERS (1989), noir thriller BRICK (2005), the ruthless comedy of manners MEAN GIRLS (2004), horror in THE FACULTY (1998) or Roger Kumble’s delightful revenger’s comedy CRUEL INTENTIONS (2004). All these films share a commonality: they successfully operate within the parameters of their chosen genre whilst, and indeed by virtue of, transplanting them into the teen world. They expose and utilise the idiosyncrasies of a subculture that has its own politics, moral codes, social conventions and vernacular. We hope that Teen Hitchcock will diffract some of the meticulous elements of Hitchcockian rigour by using the teen precursor as a prism.

   The most starkly identifiable trait of a successful teen movie has to be its sense of authenticity. This legitimacy resonates beyond the right clothing labels and vernacular to a genuine understanding of the subculture’s socio-politics. Bringing together these elements with great sophistication is Amy Heckerling’s 1995 cult classic CLUELESS. Loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is a self confessed daddy’s girl and shopaholic. An air head with a heart of gold, she and her best friend Dionne (they are both named after has-been divas) rule the roost as the most popular girls at their Bel Air high school. When new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy) arrives at school, Cher takes her under her wing as a makeover ‘project’ only to find that she has given birth to a monster. As Tai becomes more popular and Cher seems on a perma bad luck streak she finds she must throw off her social shackles to discover happiness. Which has, in fact, always been on her doorstep: in the guise of her geeky (but ultimately handsome) stepbrother Josh. The happy ending of the film culminates at a wedding with all the rightful couples (re)united and on the cusp of a life more true to themselves.

   The film’s significance as a teen movie was reflected in its critical and popular acclaim; largely due to the authentic depiction of the high school social milieu. The unwavering understanding of conventions and vernacular allowed for a credible and seamless transference of Austen’s source material to the modern setting. More telling however, were the ripples that extended beyond the screen. The film popularised and influenced Valley Girl slang – from the infamous “whatever” (as a dismissive) to “riding the crimson wave” (referring to a woman’s monthly menstruation) to the particular usage of inflection when expressing disgust or delight. These influences have so comprehensively pervaded the way we speak and listen to teen language that it is no exaggeration to claim the existence of a pre and post CLUELESS teen speak. Particularly on this side of the Atlantic, the impact of US teen speak has never before influenced language knowledge in the way it did in the late 90s.

   What CLUELESS proves is that the teen precursor, in this case as applied to a comedy of manners, is more than just an excuse for an FHM spread. It can be a platform for intelligent and subversive commentary on the social structures we all negotiate as young adults and beyond. This fleeting insight, usually available to only those in the know, is a reminder of our own limited time within it. Executed with authenticity and style it can make for compelling storytelling that often resonates beyond its target demographic. If Lord of the Flies examines the corruptive menace of power through the marooned teenage boys doesn’t MEAN GIRLS do the same for competitive Valley Girls?

   With an inbuilt film audience that has been underserved in all areas save comedy and horror, the teen movie can be a powerful tool in genres as diverse as musicals or drama, political thrillers or fantasy. The time is ripe: the UK has historically lagged far behind Hollywood in the creation of cult teen viewing. Aside from the box office smashing BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (2002) and Menhaj Huda’s urban tale KIDULTHOOD (2005) there has been little on the big screen that has catered to a teen audience even after the continuing success of TV dramas such as SUGAR RUSH and SKINS.

   This audience and its values, whether discovering the first flush of love, experiencing dystopian angst, or being massacred one by one, is a creative minefield. Teen Hitchcock encapsulates the essence of the master filmmaker whilst aiming the story at a teenage demographic. Rather than dumbing down the narrative, the inherent cinematic discipline and pragmatism of Hitchcock heightens the indulgent hyperbole and appeal of the teen movie. In splicing these two worlds, slingshot is looking for a story that uses the teen audience as a catalyst to revive and reinvent the thriller genre.

   COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF HITHCOCK THEMES http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/themes.html

   JOHN LOCKE ARTICLE ON “VERTIGO”
   http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_vertigo.html

2. portia Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 12:43 am

   This article was massively helpful Uzma… I was anticipating hearing more about the ‘Teen Hitchcock’ brief, because the title alone caught my attention when it was first announced.

   Your article highlighted the fact that authenticity is a distinctive and vital quality for any teen movie. Authenticity can spring from direct experience, therefore this brief, whether it intends to or not, can seem very encouraging to young screenwriters.

   It can, at times, almost seem to need young writers, who are able to accurately conjour an entire sub-culture within a script. As you pointed out, with use of language, social codes, etc..

   But such writers are marginalised by the beaurocracy of the Film Council.
   In order to submit a script, the writer must either be represented by an agent or hold full membership with the Writers’ Guild. One of the prerequisites of full membership is that the author “has had at least one professional contract for writing in terms at or above the Writers’ Guild minimum terms.”

   If, for example, a 23 year old, with film and writing experience wanted to submit a script, but were unable to gain the interest of an agent or aqquire Full Membership at the writers guild, they would currently be unable to. This is the position I am currently in.

   Are Full Members of the Writers Guild with serious professional experience, the writers who could respond most effectively to the brief ‘Teen Hitchcock?’ Especially considering the significance of authenticity required? Surely young writers, who have some experience writing and are serious enough to ‘tick the boxes’ to the best of their ability have some ideas that may be worth hearing?

   Somehow a very imaginative brief seems slightly choked by a very rigid detail.

   Perhaps the entry requirements of the competition could be amended, so writers could hold a more realistic Candidate Membership?

3. Arvind Ethan David Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 1:42 pm

   Portia - we can’t, sadly, alter the UKFC’s guidelines as to minimum terms; but send us your pitch directly, and if we love it we will find a way to get in considered.

4. portia Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 4:14 pm

   thanx for the quick response Arvind, much appreciated. will do.

5. Edna Says:
   October 28th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

   You write very well.

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