Historical and Institutional Influences

Historical and Institutional Influences

1.In the pre-production on Psycho their were many institutional factors that proved to be very important in Hitchcock's film, Psycho. Prior to the film Hitchcock was working with Paramount and he was guaranteed for another film, at this time this expected film was suppose to be No Bail for the Judge, which was about a lawyer defending her father who was accused of murdering a prostitute.However unexpectedly the main actor left on maternity leave, as a result Hitchcock conceived the idea for his proceeding film based on a novel that shown by his assistant this ideas was the start of his film Psycho.When he had presented this idea of Psycho to Paramount they immediately rejected it and said it was to "repulsive".Paramount did not play there usual role as producer because the did not like "anything about it".This was a major obstacle with Hitchcock having to finance his own film through his Shamley Productions and he did all his filming at Universal Studios. This was more of a positive outcome in the long run, Hitchcock was able to freely express himself without the restrictions of harsh movie producers, if he had to change his preconception of his film Psycho, too fit the standards of Paramount or any other production company, the film would not have the success it has today. He had said to his script writer/ director,Francois Truffaut, that Psycho "belongs to filmmakers, to you and me". 

2.a The film was based on a screen play made by Joseph Stefano who based it on the novel Psycho which was written by Robert Bloch in 1959. The document, or novel at this time was not popular until Hitchcock adapted it into a film. The novel was also influenced by Ed Gein, who was a murder and a grave robber that lived close to Bloch in Wisconsin and Norman Bates, also influenced by a murder in a rural area. In addition Bloch had also wrote two squeals to Psycho, Psycho House and Psycho 2. However when pursuing to make another film from Psycho 2 , Universal Studios rejected it because they did not want to produce a splatter film.  
b. One of the more significant reasons Psycho had become apart if film history was due to the it's new portrayal of sex and violence. This was unorthodox at the time, especially after a time of Production codes, which dictated what should and should not be censored during the 1960's. For this reason the movie gained to much controversy, even from the opening seen we see Sam and Marion in the same bed, with Marion in a bra.This was never seen before not only was a couple shown in the same bed, but Marion was exposing herself much more then a women would normally in a film that had gone through Production Code. Furthermore the film broke other guidelines in film such as a toilet flushing, showing a man's butt, etc. As far as violence there were several changes, such as shots were removed including the murder or Arbogast and a shot of the mother's dead corpse. In addition the shower scene was suppose to have minor changed because of the gore and violence, however this never happened and in the end was exactly the same.Alt the although  the unseen exposure to murder,blood and sex, the film itself was the best and the most popular thriller at this time. The critic Robert Ebert explains.It wasn't a message that stirred the audiences, nor was it a great performance...they were aroused by pure film."
c. During the studio years between 1930-1950, there were several production companies that dominated the film industries. This included MGM, 20th Century Fox, PKO, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal and Columbia. After the film Psycho, Hitchcock had not used the studio system and broke the usual production process of using these main production companies.This had allowed him the most freedom of expression without having any production company try to control the any significant parts of the film. Hitchcock also proved that these production companies were not needed to make a phenomenal film. It was the film itself that had made it one of the best films in history, like one famous critic said " What makes "Psycho" immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears: Our fears that we might impulsively commit a crime, our fears of the police, our fears of becoming the victim of a madman, and of course our fears of disappointing our mothers."