Orson Welles’s 1941 film Citizen Kane, is a significant and brilliant film. They knew that it was going to be such a great film that the slogan on the original citizen Kane posters said “It’s Terrific!” it may have been on the vague side, but it was certainly accurate thanks to its introduction incredible camera techniques, avant-garde storytelling, the use of special effects make-up, and new cinematography methods. These methods changed the way Hollywood films were made.
Citizen Kane made cinematic advances on many fronts, and its most significant contribution to cinematography came from the use of a technique known as deep focus, which is having everything in the frame, even the background, in focus at the same time. Where before only the
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Flashbacks had been used in earlier films, but Orson Welles used this technique most effectively in his film Citizen Kane. Because of this he also changed the way story could be told. It changed the tradition way of telling a story from beginning, middle, and end. Now films can be told from any starting point and moving freely throughout the story. This new way of storytelling has been used in many films because it changed the old way of telling story it made it more exciting and curious to wonder what something you saw in a future flash back could mean it just gave the story more mystery. Just like in Big Fish, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Slumdog Millionaire, The Notebook, Saving Private Ryan, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Usual Suspects, Edward Scissorhands, Amadeus, Life of Pi, and Fight Club. Thanks to Citizen Kane all of these movies got their way of telling their story from Citizen …show more content…
The special effects makeup they used was difference from what they use to do before. Before they would just use latex wrinkles and cover the actor in gray hair but thanks to “Makeup artist Maurice Seiderman invented many techniques to age the characters in the film. Rather than just cover Welles with latex wrinkles and gray hair, he made a complete body cast and used it to create custom-fitting body pads and facial appliances that show Kane aging gradually over 27 different stages of his life. The level of detail is astonishing: Welles wore special milky bloodshot contact lenses to make his eyes look old, and 72 different facial appliances, including hairlines, cheeks, jowls, bags under his eyes, and 16 different chins. Some pieces even had artificial pores that matched those in Welles ' own skin.”3 Thanks to Maurice Seiderman it lead to better ageing methods that made for better looking movies “The curios case of Benjamin Button, a beautiful mind, and the god father. Thanks to this first step in special effect makeup we have gotten great movies out of it but also gotten really horrible attempts at aging like “Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs in Edward Scissorhands, Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb in Little
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing are used in all forms of cinema. Within the “Declaration of Principles” scene of Citizen Kane, lighting, blocking and panning are three of the main sub aspects that work in unison to consistently demonstrate important aspects of the film. Welles uses these attributes to portray to the audience how this younger Kane is an important newspaper owner, with an even more important document. He creates a scene that has a heavy emphasis on panning to continuously preserve a frame that centers Kane while also lighting the document so viewers can constantly see the important plot and characters of the movie.
consider to be more modern film techniques. Montage plays a key role in this film, as
Cohen points to Cuaron 's fluid lensing, with its emphasis on single wide-angle shots, as a special challenge. "It makes (the effects) considerably harder, because the shots are so much longer, you 've got to think about so many more different elements. With quick cuts you can hide so many things” (A1). The whole move was a new experience not only for the actors, but also to the
Before Citizen Kane, filmmaking was easily predictable and virtually all the movies used the same stagnant camera angles, same lighting, and similar sets. Citizen Kane broke all the settled rules and introduced exceptional storytelling and Cinematography methods to the Hollywood.
Citizen Kane is often recognized as one of the greatest films ever created because of how advanced it was compared to other films of its time. The producer, cinematrogropher, actros, and editors should all be equally credited for how well constructed this film was. Orson Welles used many different aspects of editing,sound, and Mise-en-Scene to create the world of the film. After watching this film and the scene "Breakfast Montage" its pretty obvious as to why the film was nominated for nine Acadamy Awards.
In your view, how does Welles’ portrayal of the complex nature of happiness contribute to the enduring value of Citizen Kane?
Citizen Kane is a timeless movie that revolutionized the film industry by bringing new techniques and ways to go about making a film that changed the Cinema forever. Orson Welles created a timeless picture by dedicated himself to the Mise-en-scene, he pushed the boundaries and found different ways to utilize what he already knew. The Mise-En-Scene of this narrative creates a film that is ahead of it’s time and a genius innovation to
Welles who would like to set up lights himself placed a grave importance on the lighting of the film. The lighting helped to compliment many of the films scenes by adding an effect of emotion. In scenes where the shadows would be more apparent there was normally something dark occurring, such as the scene where Kane is seen standing on his own after his second wife leaves him. As said by Roger Ebert “Welles created a gloomy dark visual the film world had yet to see.” The use of these techniques is seen by some as the pioneer or predecessor to the genre of noir that soon followed the film’s release. In addition, Kane had brought a great influence for French critics and filmmakers. Many began to use Welles techniques to create cinematic works of their own. This was known as the French New Wave a movement that combined philosophical and artistic themes in film. Along with the lighting Welles made sure to place musical soundtracks throughout the film a technique that hadn’t been used too often. These soundtracks helped add to the scenes and give them their own atmosphere. The musical soundtrack played a vital role in conveying the emotion of the film. In many of the scenes that contained their own sound a greater message was being conveyed than what the film was showing. Welles was very clever in his way of piecing the scenes
All directors of major motion pictures have specific styles or signatures that they add in their work. Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors of all time, has a particularly unique style in the way he creates his films. Film analyzers classify his distinctive style as the “Alfred Hitchcock signature”. Hitchcock’s signatures vary from his cameo appearances to his portrayal of a specific character. Two perfect examples of how Hitchcock implements his infamous “signatures” are in the movies, A Shadow of a Doubt and Vertigo. In these movies, numerous examples show how Hitchcock exclusively develops his imagination in his films.
Flashbacks are an interruption of an event or chronological sequence to insert past events or background context that relates to the current event. Flashbacks are important in the story to help the readers understand why the character or the character’s are doing
Many devices such as theme, subject and meaning reflect different aspects of a film. The time and place that the movie is made are usually affected but this.
Since the beginning of the American Dream, Americans have idealized the journey towards happiness. One thing people do not realize, however, is that the journey requires hard work and honesty. Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the main character of Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles, was unable to learn this through the humble happiness of childhood in relative poverty. As he grows up in a very privileged atmosphere, he views everyone as forces that are easily controllable, and the journey towards happiness as easy. This view irretrievably cost him his opportunity for lifelong contentment. Both the storyline and the film techniques used by Welles show the futility of striving for complete control. Welles also uses this movie as an allegory to the careless luxury of the 1920s and consequential fall into the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The highly acclaimed Citizen Kane creates drama and suspense to the viewer. Orson Welles designed this film to enhance the viewer’s opinion about light and darkness, staging, proxemics, personal theme development, and materialism. Creating one of the most astounding films to the cinematography world, Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography. It is an amazing film and will have an everlasting impact on the world of film.
In the modern day era, we find in society a ubiquitous usage of technology that seems to be never ending and forever growing. Included with this notion, the broad subject of surveillance is of course included. Contemporary surveillance, or more specifically technological surveillance, has been described as ambiguous; meaning that it is often misunderstood or open to different interpretations. The representation of surveillance within popular culture has played an impacting role on how we as a society perceive it and this raises certain questions that may reflect back on to society. The 1998 film Enemy Of The State directed by Tony Scott, Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight is considered to be a ‘spy-thriller’ blockbuster. Its central themes explore a range of surveillance techniques and equipment and also provides some insights, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they may be, into the real life security organisation; The National Security Agency (NSA). Using this film as an example and analysing how these themes are represented will hopefully allow us to key these ideas back to modern surveillance theories and practices.