“I think one reason we love artists’ early work so much is because there’s an urgency behind it.”
Like many people my age, I watched, and was scared to death of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, ‘Psycho.’ Recently, I read a book about how the movie was made, written by a fellow who had insider knowledge, as well as access to many of the players. I was especially intrigued by the description of how the famous ‘shower scene’ was filmed, and the degree of attention to the tiniest details…as well as things one might have missed because of the horror-excitement, such as WAS any of her breast shown for the slightest moment, in a time when the studio rules forbade such things?
What I cam away with was an understanding of the genius of one man and his attention to detail, plus the expense of creating the movie, itself; he used a large part of his own money to do some of those scenes. But would any of that get a green light today? Or would studio execs say, ‘heck, we can do most of this with CGI and AI, so let’s save the money, hire a name hunk and a hot now woman to show up once in a while and cart the money to my bank!’
But even Hitchcock was never able to replicate his success in ‘Psycho’ again.
Yeah, so many of the best things were a struggle to get made. In a way that I think makes the end product better, actually. Something I meant to include in this post, but didn't. Maybe next one.
“I think one reason we love artists’ early work so much is because there’s an urgency behind it.”
Like many people my age, I watched, and was scared to death of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, ‘Psycho.’ Recently, I read a book about how the movie was made, written by a fellow who had insider knowledge, as well as access to many of the players. I was especially intrigued by the description of how the famous ‘shower scene’ was filmed, and the degree of attention to the tiniest details…as well as things one might have missed because of the horror-excitement, such as WAS any of her breast shown for the slightest moment, in a time when the studio rules forbade such things?
What I cam away with was an understanding of the genius of one man and his attention to detail, plus the expense of creating the movie, itself; he used a large part of his own money to do some of those scenes. But would any of that get a green light today? Or would studio execs say, ‘heck, we can do most of this with CGI and AI, so let’s save the money, hire a name hunk and a hot now woman to show up once in a while and cart the money to my bank!’
But even Hitchcock was never able to replicate his success in ‘Psycho’ again.
Yeah, so many of the best things were a struggle to get made. In a way that I think makes the end product better, actually. Something I meant to include in this post, but didn't. Maybe next one.
Love this! Thank you 🙏🏽
dear dan,
this is a great piece!
love this: "The work itself is a hard enough boulder to push up a hill. We can’t spend more time convincing people who don’t see it to see it."
appreciate you! thanks for doing what you do!
love
myq
thanks so much, myq! appreciate you reading and saying a nice thing.
and appreciate your work as well.
thanks buddy!
i really like that you left when the guy said "this will be a waste of your time."
sincerely inspiring!
Bloody brilliant. And perfect timing. I’ve got my shoulder behind my very own boulder at the moment. Thank you!
thanks so much, lindsey!