ipl-logo

Camera Techniques In Orson Welles's Film Citizen Kane

753 Words4 Pages

Photography is the key element of mise en scene that determines how an audience will interpret the visual information in film. Orson Welles used the photography of his 1941 film Citizen Kane to emphasize aspects of the film he wanted viewers to focus on, and to remove non-essential information from the frame. This was accomplished through various camera techniques including manipulation of angles and proxemic patterns. Approaching the end of the film, there is a scene just after Susan (played by Dorothy Comingmore) has left her husband, Charles Foster Kane (played by Orson Welles), where he proceeds to trash her bedroom in a fit of anger. As Kane stumbles around the room, sweeping items onto the floor and throwing things into walls, (Welles …show more content…

The camera panned away from Kane for the first time since the sequence had begun, revealing a shift in power on screen. Placing the snowglobe in the foreground and center of the frame provided a visual example of the snowglobes' significance to Kane. As stated by Gianetta and Leach: “The central portions of the screen are generally reserved for the most important visual elements” (101). Kane's placement on the left of the screen where only his legs were visible suggested he was strongly influenced by the central image: “The left and right edges of the frame tend to suggest insignificance because they are the areas farthest from the center of the screen” (Gianneti an Leach, 103). The influence the snowglobe had over Kane was demonstrated as his destruction was brought to an immediate halt when the snowglobe lay in his path. Orson Welles used the sequence to set up and ultimatley define the significance the snowglobe had to Kane, as it played a key part in the mystery plot of the films plot. The photographic manipulation of angles and proximity composed visual information that would prepare the audiece for the resolution of the

Show More
Related

  • Why Is Citizen Kane Important To The Film Industry

    623 Words  | 3 Pages

    Welles used low-angle shots as a *motif* throughout the picture, especially ‘to emphasize the awesome power of the protagonist’. Combined w/the perspective-distorting wide-angle lens, such low-angle shots as the one filmed from below the floor, portray Kane as a towering colossus, capable of crushing anything that gets in his

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of What Is Snow Like

    663 Words  | 3 Pages

    Doyle promulgates a description allowing for deeper analysis of snow; “Snow starts white and then gets grayer and browner and sometimes black as if it’s rotted, which in a real sense it does,” creates an image in our head that begins to form a life-like cycle of snow, you may compare it to metamorphosis, a physical transformation occurring in nature. The audience can then conceptualize snow and its traits, seeing they have never experienced it firsthand. His description deepens the image his audience has formed of snow throughout his article. Initially, Doyle aims to have his audience picture the physical transformation of snow, even when not in its

    Read More

  • Why Does Ansel Adams Bring Attention To The Teton Mountains

    1281 Words  | 6 Pages

    In this picture, we see the Teton Mountains covered in snow with a few clouds hovering over them with a shallow horizon line. I think Ansel Adams sets a low horizon line because there is not much to look at above the horizon line other than grey wispy clouds. This empty space leaves our eyes to mainly focus on the Teton Mountains. Once again the black and white color scale helps the snow stand out and highlight the rocky mountains. Since Ansel Adams took this photo from a high vantage point at the top of Signal Mountain it makes the tall trees in the foreground look more flat and tiny compared to the massive mountains.

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock Rear Window Analysis

    1431 Words  | 6 Pages

    With Rear Window (1954), Alfred Hitchcock proved himself to be one of the best directors of suspense thrillers filled with mystery and humour. He himself called the film his most cinematic one because it was told only in visual terms (Morrow), but it was also a challenging “editing experiment” as the entire film was shot from one place, Jeff’s apartment that overlooked his backyard. The Film follows L.B. Jeffries “Jeff” (James Stewart), a photographer confined to a wheelchair in his apartment after breaking his leg at work. He spends his days watching his neighbours and eventually suspects that one of them killed his wife. His caretaker, his girlfriend Lisa and his detective friend, at first unconvinced of his suspicion, eventually join him in his voyeurism and help him to solve the crime.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Killers Of The Flower Moon

    567 Words  | 3 Pages

    To start, Grann uses imagery to evoke pathos. He describes the day they found Henry Roan’s body: “the weather turned violently cold. Icy winds cut across

    Read More

  • How Did Citizen Kane Change

    717 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Film Citizen Kane was a groundbreaking film in the 1940’s, the way Orson Wells depicts his film with different lighting, cinematography, choice of camera shots and mise-en-scene throughout this movie truly showed the masterpiece that this film is. In the Film Citizen Kane, it was the first movie that went against true Hollywood cinema by introducing flashbacks throughout the movie to show us how Charles Foster Kane changes throughout the movie. Throughout this movie the audience can see how Charles Foster Kane undergoes a variety of physical and emotional changes from when he was just a young boy all the way until his unfortunate death. Power, that’s all that Kane wanted in the start of the film. In the beginning of the film Kane gets ownership of the struggling New York Daily Inquirer, Kane suggests that he wanted to use journalism to apply to the public and protect the interest of ordinary people.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Ice And Cold Analysis

    515 Words  | 3 Pages

    This shows Victor realizing the inhumane activity he has done and how mentally unstable he has become. Ice and cold symbolize death in the story because someone always died by someone's hands. Usually it was the monster who killed someone and it happened in a cold and isolated place. Also at the beginning of the story, Walton is exploring the icey cold

    Read More

  • Charles Foster Kane And The American Dream

    1366 Words  | 6 Pages

    (Citizen Kane, 1941) Kane’s parents used the power of money as an accessory for giving him away to a billionaire. Since that day, the protagonist went through a traumatizing experience, insecurity and redisposition due to his parents’ actions, which marked the beginning of his tortuous need, to be loved. This unreturned love created a sense of fear and mistrust to love something or someone, only to experience abandonment again was something Kane never got a chance to learn. Citizen Kane broke all the rules because of Welles, there were no

    Read More

  • Citizen Kane Opening Scene Analysis

    1571 Words  | 7 Pages

    Directed by Orson Welles, the 1941 motion picture “Citizen Kane” is the story of the rise and fall of a great, influential man. The opening scenes of “Citizen Kane” are quite different from what follows during the rest of the film. Fading in and out of different landscapes instilled mystery. This mysterious vibe was carried on during Charles Foster Kane’s death through the use of shadows, quiet music, and close up shots. Isolated in his vast empire of a home, Kane uttered only one word before he passed: “rosebud.”

    Read More

  • Citizen Kane: Classic Hollywood Film

    510 Words  | 3 Pages

    Citizen Kane challenged the traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema mainly in the area of sound. Orson Welles was ahead of his time when he created his works of manipulating sound to transfer meaning in the film Citizen Kane. Welles used concealed hanging microphones to obtain different levels of sound throughout the film. The manner, in which the story was told, from Kane’s death flashbacked to his life of success and ultimate failure, was also a new style of storytelling for films. Welles also used symbolism with his last mumbling word “Rosebud.”

    Read More

  • Citizen Kane's Citizen Kane: The Classic Hollywood Industry

    389 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many things that make “Citizen Kane” considered as possibly one of the greatest films every made; to the eyes of the passive audience this film may not seem the most amazing, most people being accustomed to the classical Hollywood style, but to the audience with an eye for the complex, “Citizen Kane” breaks the traditional Hollywood mold and forges its own path for the better. Exposition is one of the most key features of a film, it’s meant introduce important characters and give the audience relevant details and and dutifully suppress knowledge in turn. “Citizen Kane” does not follow this Classic Hollywood style exposition, instead going above and beyond to open the film with revealing as little information as possible and confuse/intrigue

    Read More

  • Photography In The 1950s

    295 Words  | 2 Pages

    Modernism and popular styles became indistinct from each other in the 1950s. Art was never the same after the Holocaust and atom bombs. Plurality of visual forms existed in 1950s. If we take 1950s painting as an offshoot of New York school of abstract art, then photography in the 1950s is a more eclectic phenomenon, harder to classify. This can be attributed to the commercialisation of photography by the mid-century due to the rise of print media during the 1940s.

    Read More

  • Citizen Kane: A Cinematic Classic Hollywood Cinema

    585 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie overlaps the interviews to tell the life story of Kane while the flashbacks are doing the storytelling. The story is not told in chronologic manor, uses several techniques to tell the story of Kane. The angles used to portray certain scenes, getting all of views in, having lighting changes, shadows are all creative to the movie and introducing these techniques into Hollywood

    Read More

  • Shot Analysis: Citizen Kane

    1038 Words  | 5 Pages

    Shot Analysis: Citizen Kane Orson Welles, director of “Citizen Kane”, is well known for his unusual directing methods that defied conventional cinematic techniques. Welles provided his audience with original forms of cinematography, narrative structures, and music. The scene I chose to analyze is extremely important to the plot of the film because Kane begins to realize that he is going through some serious financial problems. During the scene, Kane maintains a sarcastic mood, until he finally decides to surrender and signs the papers that transfer the ownership of his media empire to Mr. Thatcher.

    Read More

  • Cinematography In Shutter Island

    1072 Words  | 5 Pages

    I. INTRODUCTION: Interest-catching opening. : Background: Shutter Island is a 2010 film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a U.S. Marshall who goes to a mental hospital to solve the disappearance of a patient, and the person responsible for killing his wife. While investigation this disappearance he uncovers secrets and truths of his own, the most damming is the horror of losing all three of his children due to his wife killing them, leading him to kill her.

    Read More

More about Camera Techniques In Orson Welles's Film Citizen Kane

Open Document