Innovative Techniques In Citizen Kane's Film

Citizen Kane was a film that broke new ground for the possibilities of storytelling in cinema, and used every aspect of production­­writing, photography, acting, editing, and sound­­in masterful ways that challenged the status quo of studio films and paved the way for even greater innovation that followed. In a time of light­hearted studio films, the number of serious (what cynics might call “artsy”) movies being made was low, and often resulted in poor theater success. There was, and in many ways, still is a hesitance to place resources and money into projects for which there is no guarantee of financial return. Following the notoriety that director/producer Orson Welles’ generated from his infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast, the Hollywood establishment took a change on the young wunderkid and allowed him unprecedented freedom in the making of his first film. The result was, almost inevitably, a financial failure (although this was due not a little to the efforts of William Randolph Hearst, who tried his hardest to see the film completely destroyed). It was simply too challenging for the audience of the time to comprehend. It bucked tradition and was never satisfied with doing things the way everyone else in Hollywood had. Because of this, Kane was truly ahead of its time.

Citizen Kane is now universally revered for its cinematography and visuals.

Cinematographer Gregg Tolland used innovative techniques to create the feelings of impotent power and loss of control for Kane, as well as generating the multiple storylines and narrators and

It showed the establishment of its time what could be done with ingenuity and dogged invention and creativity. It inspired a whole generation of increasingly daring filmmakers to do what “couldn’t” be done, and it reveals to us today much about both the spirit of its time and how we relate to such ideas in our