North By North West

North by north west is a suspensuful thriller produced by Alfred hitchock. The main characters in this film are Eva Marie Hart, Cary Grant and James Mason. North by North west is a story of mistaken identity, Cary Grant playing Roger Thornhill has a very busy lifestyle worrying about his several ex, wifes, mother and his Madison Avenue job, he is at a bar when he gets approached by two very intimidating men who mistake him for George Kaplan. The men had mistaken him for George Kaplan and were trying to stop him from interefring in their plans to smuggle out microfilm which contained goverment secrets.



Red herrings -  used to confuse the audience at an anticipating event, Alfred Hitchock used red hearings in North by North west in the scene where Roger thornhill had got shot by Evie hart, this scene acted as a decoy. The audience though Roger thornhill was dead and were in all shock however he was not dead, this was all part of the plan. The main purpose of red hearings is to act as a decoy. 

Thrillers usually include fast pacing,  frequent action and better equipped villians, the thrillers main purpose is to build up suspense to leave the audience thinking about certain situations and questioning certain characters. North by North west includes all of these things.







Cliffhangers - The main cliffhanger in the film is at the end where the audience are left in suspense when one of the main characters (Eve kendall) is pushed from the cliff, the audience are unaware of whether she will die or not when she is hanging from the top of rushmore mount. This builds more suspense, this was Alfred Hitchcock's main aim as he always liked to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.

Fast pacing - Fast pacing makes the journey very personal and makes the audience get a feel of the fast event. Thrillers often use fast pacing to make the audience think about what is going on and what is happening, the fact that everything is going on so fast has more of an effect on the scene.



Sound - There's a slow shot that is set up when Cary Grant who plays Roger thornhill is at a cropduster scene, the music is slow at first which makes the audiene wonder what is going to happen next, when the music builds up eventually it promotes the action within the scene. One of the main aims for thrillers is to build suspense for the audience watching, both techniques do this effectively. Mis-en scene - Mis en scene literally refers to how everyhing is arranged and set out, in the cropduster scence, the surroundings are appropriate to the scene as it shows the character is at a disadvantage and makes the audience think he will get hit by the cropduster. The character portrays emotions of fear and the audience are left in curiousity thinking if the cropduster will hit him or not.

Editing- This scene mainly uses straight cuts, this makes the scene more intense for the audience. At the beginning of this scene it is a slow scene this allows the pace to pick up later as the scene gets more intense when the crop duster comes towards him. Hitchcock always knew how he wanted his films to be edited, in the scene at the beginning where roger is looking around we see a close up of his face, this allows the audience to gain more a feel of how Roger is feeling.






The Mcguffin
The mcguffin is an object or device used to create a motive for the book or film. The mcuffin is usually forgotten about throughout the film however is is brought back to the audience at the end. In North by North west the Mcguffin is the microfilm that is wanted by the antagonist.