Introducing Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is one of the most influential and widely studied filmmakers in the history of cinema.  Known as the "Master of Suspense", he directed over 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades, becoming as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won an award for Best Director despite five nominations. In 1955, Hitchcock became an American citizen.

Born in Leytonstone, London, Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer after training as a technical clerk and copy writer for a telegraph-cable company. He made his directorial debut with the British-German silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925). His first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the thriller genre, while his 1929 film, Blackmail, was the first British "talkie". Between 1954 and 1960, Hitchcock directed four films often ranked among the greatest of all time: Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960), the first and last of these garnering him Best Director nominations. (Wikipedia)

The "Hitchcockian" style is the way in which Hitchcock framed his shots, in order to show, don't tell. He would often focus on the fact that the audience should be able to understand his movies without actually telling the audience. His films would still be understandable on mute.