The Power of Black and White Film

Black and white cinematography has been around since the beginning of cinema but it has only been the last 10 to 20 years that film makers have been able to unlock it's potential in creating emotion in the viewer. The most notable recent black and white film that effectively used black and white was Psycho which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho used black and white to give the audience a feeling of loneliness and isolation. Hitchcock realized that with that feeling he would be able to build his story more effectively and be able to keep the audience in a sense of unease. After Psycho was released and viewers saw it many people, especially woman, said that they were unable to take a shower they had to take a bath. This stemmed for a very iconic scene in which the main character is brutally murdered in her motel room while taking a shower. In this scene Hitchcock used his choice of black and white to perfection in building tension, suspense, and horror.Hitchcock was the pioneer in black and white and showed film makers everywhere how to effectively use it.