Citizen Kane

     Citizen Kane is a film directed by Orson Welles and exhibits very strong technical skills. After watching the film I feel like the technical aspects are most important. Through different shots, lighting techniques and sounds, Welles creates different moods depending on the certain scenes.     

   
     Throughout the entire film, it seemed like sound was a big part to this film. Whether the mood was mysterious or light hearted, there was constantly music. In the opening scene the music is very eerie and fits perfectly to what is being shown in the scene. It shows a close-up on a fence before moving to a scene showing a dark house. If it werent for this type of extra-diegetic sound the feeling of the opening scene would not have been the same. The same goes for the other scenes when the mood is more exciting and it is the sound which gives the viewer that kind of feel. During the first part of the movie there is a narrator talking while the camera shot is of newspapers and other scenes that are taking place. This is a good example of diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is sound that actually applies to the story and often narrations are included in this category. There is also an example in this film of voice-off sound. It is only a small part but when Kane is on the street all dirty you can hear a woman laughing even though she is not in the shot. I thought that this film utilized the techniques of sound more than in some other films.

     Another technique Welles uses is that of different lighting set ups. Durring the scene where the men are talking after watching something on a projector, there is an example of backlighting. It shows a man talking with the projector light behind him which then makes the man a silhoette. You cannot see anything besides his outline which draws the attention then to what he is saying. Another example of a lighting technique used in this film is the rim or kick light. During the scene in a big room with a table right in the middle, the woman at the table is almost completely shadowed. Only a little part of her is not. This type of lighting gives a dramatic effect to the scene.

     Citizen Kane also exhibits a lot of different types of shots throughout the entire film. One shot which occured in many different scenes is the two shot. This shot is when only two people are in the scene and i'm sure this happens in a lot of different films without anyone really knowing it is a certain type of shot. During the scene where Kane is dancing with a bunch of girls, the shot switches to two men talking and Kane and the girls are completely in view in the background. This is an example of an open frame because the view is not closed off. The room behind the two men talking elongates the shot. One other type of shot which is prevalent in this film is the deep focus shot. One specific example of this is the scene where Kane is by the window while another man in the foreground is reading something. Kane in the background is somewhat out of focus until he walks into the foreground. There are many other shots but these three examples are ones that I thought made the film more interesting.

     In the New York Times article which was published in May 1941 says, " 'Citizen Kane' is far and away the most surprising and cinematically exciting motion picture to be seen here in many a moon. As a matter of fact, it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood". I thought this was interesting to see how the people felt about it during the time this movie debuted. To us it just seems like some old black and white film but to the people of that time it was one of the best films ever made. It would be interesting to see what these people think about movies we have today.