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Citizen Kane: The Elements Of Classic Hollywood Cinema

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The goal is to always catch everyone’s attention; do something that has yet to be done. This is how one’s legacy will influence an entire industry. When a person has the ability to change the game, to improve the experience, that is when brilliance is seen in the making. This was the exact approach Orson Welles took when presenting the world with Citizen Kane. His innovation in turn challenged all elements of classic Hollywood cinema—most of all the films plot structure, sound and deep-focus cinematography. It is said that “a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p. 453). Just as in life: one is born, will live, and inevitably pass on. Although this is the truth, it does not mean that this is the only order in which the story should always be portrayed. This is exactly what Welles did with Citizen Kane. “Instead of a chronological plot that follows Charles Foster Kane …show more content…

With strategically placed hidden microphones throughout the set, Welles was allotted the opportunity to catch each of the subtle nuances of the scene. “We hear these multiple sounds simultaneously, distinctly, and at the proper sound levels in relation to the camera’s placement, so that the farther we are from the sound, the softer and less distinct the sound becomes” (Barsam & Monahan, 2016, p. 398). The strategic placement of these microphones allowed for the depth of the sound where some noises throughout the scenes would be duller than others. Due to the fact that he had produced “a cluttered soundscape of live and dubbed music, sound effects and competing lines of dialogue” (Lewis, 2008, p.161) with this approach, he gave himself the opportunity to really show the way sound plays a role within the movie. There was background conversation, music and actual dialogue that all occurred at the same time. This allowed for direct sound recordings to be used instead of the usual Hollywood post-production sound

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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.

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This recreation of the ambient sound also helps place the viewer in the scene which, results in more emotions being

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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

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Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is a cinematic classic, released in 1941. Citizen Kane challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema. Kane was narrated by several people that include their take on Kane’s life. The story unfolds by many flashbacks and is told by different perspectives over the years through different narrations. Charles Foster Kane was a millionaire, head of newspapers and died saying “rosebud”.

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Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema through techniques in cinematography, mise-en-scene and lighting. The mise-en-scene build of Citizen Kane is the pivoting point of the narrative forthcoming and Welles uses every technical element encompassed in this build to span his narrative across 60 years of Charles Foster Kane, the main character 's life. The beginning of this build is founded on the black and white shooting choice which sets an ominous almost 'film noir ' lighting and feel of the opening scene of the castle in Xanadu. This where we see end of Kane 's life, but every aspect of the film 's narrative will revolve around these frames and including the questions of 'who has died '?, 'what was the significance of the snow globe? ', and 'Who is rosebud? '. The camera angle in the deathbed scene is deliberately shot from a low angle, which further implies the importance of the person lying in the bed as well as providing mystery as the viewer is not yet privy to whom has just

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He took great pride in his radio success and ultimate film success. Welles was pleased to be the cutting edge creator of Hollywood film sound. The outstanding sound works displayed in the film Citizen Kane would not be challenged until the

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In the final transition there is a short sound of music that is very humorous. Throughout the film, Welle’s includes these pieces of sound that relate with the dialogue, it is a continuous pattern throughout the film. Welles uses these unusual techniques to create different emotions among the audience. The transition between this shot and the next is characterized by a small dim of the light that darkens and transitions into the next

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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.”

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Kylie Mawn Professor Rodais CINE 121 Midterm 4 March 2018 Question 1: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is a film that is well known for pushing cinematic boundaries in many ways. One commonly recognized technique in Welles’ film is deep focus photography. Deep focus photography is used in films to allow everything in a shot to be in focus at once. Typical, only specific characters or objects are in focus in any given frame in order to guide the audience’s attention in a scene, but deep focus can bring a new level of sophistication to a shot.

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This movie detained the top position for the fifty years until it cut down to succeeding following Vertigo (1958). The movie “Citizen Kane” is typically admired for its obscured plot, packed with the flashbacks that drag feet of the viewers towards the chronology of the life of the Kane, its astonishing performances; its spectacular technical stunts and aerial tricks and its deep-concentrated photography. A small range of if any among the technical possessions are completely unique to the Kane, although Orson Welles and his crew’s masterly use of the so many of them in single movie has built the “Citizen Kane” and weight on almost the whole things that came later than. (bj_kuehl,

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Silent movies were almost always accompanied by music, from a multipieced pit orchestra to a single piano or even a guitar. This is why silent film audiences seemed perfectly happy with silent movies. There was also technological difficulty of matching sound with visuals so that everyone in the audience could hear. The problems were synchronisation and amplification. A vitaphone was something that produced the first commercially viable sound system.

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