IB Oral Assessment - Psycho (1960)

For my first run at the IB Oral Commentary, the five-minute extract I chose to focus on within Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), was the renowned shower scene along with a couple minutes prior to and after. After doing some reevaluating and self-assessing, I think my oral commentary would deserve a grade within the 16-20 point range, based on the IB rubric. As I listened to my presentation, I realized that I kept stumbling and saying "uhhh" up to a point where I lose a bit of coherence. Also, at times I would ramble on about a certain topic and eventually lose my train of thought, therefore causing me to become repetitive. Nevertheless, towards the end I did begin to gain some re composure and keep my ideas detailed yet concise. In terms of content, I feel that my background information and analyses was quite insightful and thorough, when it came to discussing the use of symbolism, artisitc styles and influences. I also think there was a fair amount of film language and terminology within my oral commentary. I talked about the director himself and how his prior films and television series applied to his work in general. I also talked about the stylistic choices Hitchcock incorporated within this film, the production design, cinematography, editing and genre. I also discussed how Psycho was a film in which was so revolutionary within the film industry that it left a legacy behind due to the way it broke down barriers and created a whole new foundation for the horror genre. As I wrapped up my oral presentation I spent some time on explain why I chose to focus on the given extract. Although the level of my overall interpretation did not turn out exactly how I expected, I believe by analysis would suffice in terms of detail and comprehension of what went into the creation of this film. This IB Oral Commentary was a great way to prepare myself for next year's presentation, that of which will go to IB.