Last weekend I went to the cinema and saw the new movie "Hitchcock". To be honest: Until then I hadn't known much about Alfred Hitchcock and his movies. I haven't even seen "Psycho", which I really want to watch now after seeing "Hitchcock".
The movie is really a good one, even though I wouldn't call it an autobiography of Alfred Hitchcock. It rather tells the story of the making of his movie "Psycho". How he came up with the idea of making the movie, what kind of challenges he had to face and how it turned out to be a success. Moreover, it portrays the relationship with his wife. Although she worked together with him very closely and always supported him - She was never in the spotlight of or given any credit by the media.
Anyhow, for me the most interesting was one of the last scenes, which describes how Hitchcock promoted "Psycho". As everyone was very sceptical about the success of the movie, there was no big premiere scheduled. Furthermore, it was only shown in two cinemas, in case people didn't like it. So, the only chance for the survival of "Psycho" was becoming a sell-out, even though it hadn't been advertised.
To achieve this goal, Hitchcock did something, we would nowadays call "storytelling": He created an independent story around the movie itself and therefore enriched the experience of watching it. First of all, the crew was not allowed to talk to the media or anybody else about the plot of the movie. And of course there were no private screenings for the critics. In the movie "Hitchcock", the master even had all copies of the book "Psycho" withdrawn from the market although I couldn't find out if this was just a fictional detail in the movie or if it had actually happened this way. Anyhow, Hitchcock managed to arouse the people's curiosity and strong desire to see "Psycho".
Secondly, he introduced strict regulations concerning the presentation of the movie. You could only see the movie from the very beginning - If you were late, you were refused admission. As this was very unusual at the time, it attracted people's attention even more. Consequently, people were queuing up to get into the theatres, which made passers-by curious about the movie in turn. Over the PA Hitchock's recorded voice informed the ticket-holdes about the special presentation rules and policemen were present to see that the admission regulations were observed. Posters saying: "If you can't keep a secret, please stay away from people after you saw Psycho.", tried to raise the excitement even more.
As we all know, Psycho became a huge and incredible success and in my opinion this would never have happened without the mysterious circumstances and strange measures accompanying the film launch. No one knew, what exactly they had to expect and because of Hitchcock's warnings and announcements, it must been even more exciting to see the movie.
If you are interested to find out more about his promotion, have a look at this video:
To achieve this goal, Hitchcock did something, we would nowadays call "storytelling": He created an independent story around the movie itself and therefore enriched the experience of watching it. First of all, the crew was not allowed to talk to the media or anybody else about the plot of the movie. And of course there were no private screenings for the critics. In the movie "Hitchcock", the master even had all copies of the book "Psycho" withdrawn from the market although I couldn't find out if this was just a fictional detail in the movie or if it had actually happened this way. Anyhow, Hitchcock managed to arouse the people's curiosity and strong desire to see "Psycho".
Secondly, he introduced strict regulations concerning the presentation of the movie. You could only see the movie from the very beginning - If you were late, you were refused admission. As this was very unusual at the time, it attracted people's attention even more. Consequently, people were queuing up to get into the theatres, which made passers-by curious about the movie in turn. Over the PA Hitchock's recorded voice informed the ticket-holdes about the special presentation rules and policemen were present to see that the admission regulations were observed. Posters saying: "If you can't keep a secret, please stay away from people after you saw Psycho.", tried to raise the excitement even more.
As we all know, Psycho became a huge and incredible success and in my opinion this would never have happened without the mysterious circumstances and strange measures accompanying the film launch. No one knew, what exactly they had to expect and because of Hitchcock's warnings and announcements, it must been even more exciting to see the movie.
If you are interested to find out more about his promotion, have a look at this video: