Tag: The Birds
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The Birds (1963): A Bird’s-Eye View of Bodega Bay

American Cinema
In an interview conducted towards the end of 1969 with Roger Ebert, Alfred Hitchcock described how he and his team of production staff and artists achieved one of the most famous shots in The Birds. Establishing a bird's-eye view over Bodega Bay, the aerial shot depicts a mob of gulls as they swoop into frame and down towards the...

The Birds (1963): ‘Risseldy Rosseldy’

American Cinema
A couple of early incidents featuring agitated lone gulls - a swift strike as Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) prepares to dock her motorboat, and another which annihilates itself in the Brenner front door - progress into a fully-fledged attack on Cathy Brenner's (Veronica Cartwright) birthday party, as the youngster celebrates turning twelve. Later that evening a swarm of sparrows invade the Brenner home...

The Birds (1963): Storyboarding the Scene at the Schoolhouse

American Cinema
One of the myths to have built up around the career of Alfred Hitchcock maintains that, after planning and storyboarding his films so thoroughly, once on set he never so much as peeked through the camera viewfinder, bearing each scene from start to finish precisely in his head. This sounds barely sensible, an uncharacteristic relinquishing of control and disavowal of...