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Born on the August the 13th, 1899, in what is now London, Hitchcock had a childhood self-described as lonely, a feeling that was exacerbated by obesity. When he was around five years old, his father sent him to a police station, to be locked away for five minutes as a punishment for misbehaving. This incident is known to have provoked a lifelong trepidation of policemen, as well as providing a motive for the harsh treatment of characters in his films, reminiscent of his experience.

 

He was rejected for military service during the First World War due to his obesity. He often submitted articles to The Henley Telegraph, founded in 1919. These articles usually took the form of realistic fiction, and contained devices such as plot twists.

 

His films often place a very average person in an erratic situation, putting their innocent life at risk, due to an erroneous identification.

 

Hitchcock's status of "Master of Suspense" implies that he is more equipped than anyone else to define suspense; he described it as being experienced by the audience when they expect something bad to happen, yet are powerless to intervene. 

 

Alfred Hitchcock chose to conclude the film, The Birds (1963), without the usual "THE END" title because he wanted to leave the audience with the feeling of unending terror and uncertainty.

 

Another example of Hitchcock's unconventional approach is that the ASL (average shot length) in Rope (1948) is 444 seconds; Hitchcock filmed 10 shots and edited them together, to give the illusion of a single shot. In Vertigo (1958) the ASL is 6.7 seconds. Before the 1960s, the range of the ASL was about 8 to 11 seconds. The ASL of mainstream films has declined since then, and now it's usual to see films with an ASL of around 3 to 4 seconds, although some directors, such as Alfonso Cuarón (see Children of Men) have experimented with shots that last a matter of minutes.