Directors from the Genre - Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joesph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was a English filmmaker and producer who created many suspense techniques in the psychological and thriller genres. He created over 50 films in six decades, mostly being silent films.
He seemed to enjoy the technical challenges of film making, for example in the film Lifeboat he staged the entire action of the movie in a small boat and yet managed to keep the production from benig monotonous.
Hitcock has a strong visual mind and would visualize the picture right down to the final cuts, he would then write this out in great detail in the script and then doesn't need to refer to the script when filming as he already knows it off by heart. He also said that when you've finished the script the film is perfect but in filming you loose at least 40% of the original concept.
While he did do a great deal of preparation, he did understand that the actual film making process often deviated from even the best laid plans and that his films wern't free from the normal hassles that production faces.
Alfred Hitchcock did not tolerate the "method approach" this is where the actors try to create themselves in to the thoughts and emotions of the characters, this helps them produce a "lifelike" performance, Hitchcock said that the actors should only concentrate on their performances and leave the script and character to the directors. He believed that the method actor was ok in theatres because they have free space to move around but when it comes to cutting the face of the actor and using shots of what they see, there has to be some discipline.
Hitchcock frequently used a technique called a "McGuffin" this is a device or plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives the plot, it is something the whole plot is built around but has no real relevance to the story. For example the "All Spark" in Transformers, it could of been anything but it is the device that drives the storyline.
Towards the end of his life he worked on a the script for a spy thriller film, even though he had done some preliminary work, the movie was never filmed this was due to his own failing health. Alfred Hitchcock died from kidney failure in his home in California at the age of 80.