Hitchcock's Techniques

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
(13 August 1899 - 29 April 1980)
English film maker and producer


“The essential fact is to get real suspense you must let the audience have information." --Alfred Hitchcock




Mind of the Audience 
Mind of the audience is used because Hitchcock believes that a film is all to do about the audience connecting with the ideas that he has in his head when making the films, he then thinks of a way of how to do this. This is a good technique because it makes more sense to connect the audience to the film before you start anything which could diverse this.
Frame for Emotion 
This is all to do with the camera and camera angles, for example if a shot was to be close up it could show emotion whereas if it was far away the emotion would not be so clear and therefore not be very believable or noticeable. This could be a good technique when connecting your story to the audience and making the character seem vulnerable.
Macguffin
This is to create pure suspense so is a very well used technique. When scenes are built around dramatic tension, it doesn't really matter what the story is about as the audience is already glued to watching the film. An example of Macguffin is in North By Northwest when "government secrets perhaps" is spoken because it's no longer needed to be informed.

Keep the Story Simple! 
This is a basic but crucial technique, the story needs to be kept simple so that everyone in the audience can understand it all the way through and not get lost and lose interest in the film.
Enigma
Enigma is a good technique but is risky, this technique refers to a puzzle, a riddle or difficult problem, or something mysterious or inexplicable. This is used so that people can predict what the answer is, it also makes the film more interesting. This can be used mainly for protagonist's that has to try and get the answer before the narrator gives it away or the film finishes.
Red Herring
Red herring is an idiomatic expression referring to a rhetorical tactic of diverting attention away from a certain item which holds significance. Red herring can also be seen as a false lead, assumed outcome or obvious solution which a writer plants so that the story fools the audience as they are guessing the real outcome.

Two Things Happening at Once 
This technique can build up a lot of tension because when two things are happening at once, a person would be trying to hear both sides and this is what the audience would do, when doing this the sound would rise and make the audience more involved and 'glued to the screen' which will make them want to watch the rest and not take their eyes of it.