In his most innovative and technically challenging film, The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock follows the success of Psycho with a modernist, avant garde horror-thriller, which has spawned many imitators and triggered the cycle for disaster and man versus nature films. Now to mark The Birds 50th anniversary in 2013 and the digitally restored Blu-Ray release, The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds is the first book-length treatment on the production of this modernist masterpiece. Featuring new interviews with stars Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Veronica Cartwright, as well as sketches and storyboards from Hitchcock's A-List technical team, Robert Boyle, Albert Whitlock and Harold Michelson, the book charts every aspect of the film's production all set against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and JFK's presidency. Using unpublished material from the Alfred Hitchcock Collection, Evan Hunter files, Peggy Robertson papers and Robert Boyle's artwork, this book will be the ultimate guide to Hitchcock's most ambitious film.
The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds analyses the film's modernist underpinnings, from art director Robert Boyle's initial sketches influenced by Munch's The Scream, to the groundbreaking electronic score by pioneering German composers Remi Gassmann and Oskar Sala. The entire production process is analysed in detail, illustrated with rare behind the scenes production stills and storyboards. There is also a timeline detailing the film's production to its release at MOMA in New York, and the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.