One of the most iconic scenes ever created in cinema, the shower sequence from Hitchcock's 'Psycho' has fascinated audiences and filmmakers since it burst onto the screen in 1960.
We all know that it was a Hitchcocks movie but who actually directed this scene?
The plot thickens
There are conflicting stories. Hitch said he done it but Saul Bass also claims responsibility. Saul was a graphic designer who had been working with Hitchcock on a few other projects. He is best known for his title sequences for the start of movies Like 'Vertigo'. and had been asked by Hitchcock to storyboard the shower scene for Psycho. What he produced can be seen below.
Exhibit A
According to Bass, when the shoot finally came along he was on set when Hitchcock asked him to set up the first shoot through the camera and also gave him permission to call the shot to action. Then the next one and the next, all based on his storyboard.
Hitchcock, sitting in his director's chair claimed that it was he who directed and wanted to apparently downplay Sauls's involvement.
Now, if you are familiar with this scene ( and if not you should be ashamed of yourself). You will realise that it is a very different style from Hitchcock's usual work. It has an obvious graphical quality to it which I for one can see comes from the eye of Saul and not Alfred. but as someone who has done a bit of directing in my day, I can see that Alfred had a point.
All and nothing
The funny thing about being a director is that you actually do nothing and everything on a film set. The best directors in my opinion are the ones who nurture all of the crew and get the best possible performance out of everyone, be that the Actors, Cameramen or key grip. You are there to facilitate their creativity and to try and focus it on a unified coherent end goal. You would never tell an actor how to act, you encourage the cameraman to frame his best composition and you would make sure the Key grip has his keys to grip*
*A key grip is actually a very important job on set, being the one that helps the cameraman get his position to shoot.
So I can understand from Hitchcock's perspective why he still believed he was in control. He saw that Sauls's vision of the scene was exactly what was needed to make it stand out as the pivot point to the entire movie and so he gave saul all the freedom he needed to make it so.
I could be entirely wrong but this. Although when I wear my many hats from being on set I believe this is why Psycho was such a masterpiece of cinema even the making of it has its mysteries.
Speaking about hats. I made a sand sculpture based on this philum, which you can see in this post.
The art department
I wanted to capture this scene and its intrigue. The main structure of the piece was based on Hitchcock's signature scribble, 3 dimensionalised into a portrait of his head. The sand wasn't too strong and the weather was pissy so I had to be a bit safer on the undercuts than I would have liked.
Here is his Autograph for reference. The bulbous forehead and multiple chins had to be reduced to fit the conditions. and what is Hitchcock without double chins and a bulbous head.
On the face, I used stills from the movie itself which I carved in relief. They represented the storyboard from Saul and how although not part of Hitchcock, helped make his presence felt.
These were fun to make. I had frozen frames while watching the movie and although there were 78 camera setups and 52 edits in the 45-second scene I took what I thought most represented it.
They read from left to right across his face and although it all looked a bit abstract I believe it worked quite well as I tried to angle the panels to give bone structure.
I had found some very white sand around the site and when the panels were carved I flicked it over them. It was nice to have another tone to play with and I hoped that this would give some nice highlights and represent the water in the scene.
I was quite happy with how the panels turned out although the head form leaves me questioning my mentality at the time.
I could say that because it was my sculpture the book stops with me when it comes to imperfections but because this was based on a Hitchcock movie I will give him the honour and say he directed me.
For those who are into Hitch and want to see more, be sure to check out my other post here
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Floating a Finned Whale - sand sculpture
South America at the Sand Museum Tottori - sand sculpture
Manmade nature - cement sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
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I am also starting to create NFTs of my sculptures and welcome you to my gallery where you can own a bit of ephemeral sculpture history.