Camera Advancement in "Citizen Kane"

Citizen Kane made cinematic advances in many unique ways. Its most significant contribution to the art of cinematography came from the use of a technique known as “deep focus”. The term “deep focus” refers to having everything in the frame, including the background, in focus at the same time. This technique is used as opposed to having only the people and objects in the front being focused upon. The “deep focus” technique makes it mandatory for the cinematographer to combine the lighting, the composition, and the type of camera lens to produce the effect they desire. Again, with “deep focus”, a director can showcase overlapping actions, and the mise-en-scène of the film becomes more critical. Manipulating the mise-en-scène with a certain amount of effectiveness for deep focus actively brings together the whole frame without leaving the viewer befuddled. “Deep focus” is most emulated in scenes that depict Kane’s loss of control and his personal isolation. This is because it gives the viewers an unobstructed view of the space that he commands, as well as the space for which he has no power over. Gregg Toland is the cinematographer that Orson Welles chose for his film, Citizen Kane. This is as a result that he had used the technique in an earlier film he had worked on, The Long Voyage Home, so he had experience. However, Citizen Kane marked the first time it was used so this much or had the amount of success that it had. This film introduced the film industry to the potential of other creative and innovative cinematic techniques as well. Just one of the innovations used was a technique known as the "wipe”. This is where one image is "wiped" off the screen by another image, a technique that we as an audience now see in much more modern films.



Welles chose a cast that was an asset to the film. Moreover, they were important to the success of the “deep focus” technique. This is because the actors were classically trained theatrical actors. What’s astonishing about this is the fact that this is the first time they would appear in a film. Their stage training helped them to place themselves firmly in each scene, an essential attribute when using “deep focus”. The cinematography and acting technique combined so perfectly that the total control Welles was given over casting was justified. The fact that Citizen Kane is so versatile makes it an important film to the cinema world.



Another important technique employed in this film is the storytelling. Again, this is common in film now a day, but was brand new to an audience back in 1941. Citizen Kane portrays a long period of time realism and acts like a biography the way the film allows its characters to grow old while keeping the context of the story line. Instead of being told in chronological order, Kane’s story unfolds in overlapping segments that add more information as each narrator adds his or her story. Telling Kane’s life story entirely in flashbacks was another innovative approach to storytelling. Flashbacks had been used in earlier films, but Citizen Kane used them most effectively. The flashbacks are given from the perspectives of characters who are aging or forgetful, and leaves us hanging on the edge of our seats to uncover the answer to the unanswered questions. It gives us multiple first person accounts, which are not seen in other films of the same time period. The storytelling techniques succeed in painting Charles Foster Kane as an enigma, a tortured, complicated man who, in the end, leaves viewers with more questions than answers and inevitably invokes sympathy rather than contempt. Especially when he left the surrounding characters with no answer to his famous last word, “Rosebud”.




WORKS CITED

"Citizen Kane" filmsite.org. Web. 10 May. 2010
"Citizen Kane" imdb.com. Web. 10 May. 2010
"Citizen Kane" movieimages.com. Web 10 May. 2010

"3:10 to Yuma" Character Analysis

In 3:10 to Yuma, there are two characters in which the film focuses on. These two characters are outlaw Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe; and rancher Dan Evans, played by Christian Bale. At first, it would appear that these two characters have nothing in common. Ben Wade is the nastiest outlaw alive and robs banks, stagecoaches, and trains. On the other hand, Dan Evans is a hard working rancher who attempts to give his family the best life he possibly can.



Let’s start off with Ben Wade. He is played up by the newspapers and authors as the most dangerous man to walk the face of the earth. While he is extremely dangerous there is also an extremely sensitive side to him. He enjoys drawing, and not only drawing, but drawing subtle things. The first drawing in which we are introduced is a hawk perched up on a branch. The second drawing we are introduced to is the back of a naked woman. The final drawing we are introduced to is Dan sitting in a chair. All of these represent moments of subtlety and shows us another side of Ben Wade that the general public is never shown nor knows it exists. The side that does exist to the public is the gun slinging side for which he was nicknamed “The Hand of God”.



Now we move on to Dan Evans. The rancher who has fallen on hard times when he is first introduced. His barn has been set ablaze by the henchmen of an impatient debt collector. After, Dan and his sons witness a stage coach robbery by the notorious outlaw Ben Wade. Dan agrees to help take Wade on the cross-country journey to the town of Contention where they will place him on the prison train to Yuma. Dan's motivations are more driven by desperation than Mr. Smith's Samaritan nature. An unspoken motivation is for him to prove to his kids that he is what they think he is.



Throughout the film Wade and Evans go back and forth with each other, although we start to see a bond develop. Their relationship first started when Evans and his children were riding looking for their cattle. They have their confrontation in which Wade takes the horses from them, but soon thereafter leaves them tied up to a tree, unharmed. This shows a sign of respect for Dan. Later on as the two are both in town, they run into each other at a saloon. Wade offers Dan money, and Dan gets greedy with what he wants, but Ben respects him for his bravery. This is where Wade gets caught, and is upset with Dan for not warning him, although he already knew the sheriff and his crew were on their way. Throughout the journey to take Wade to Yuma on the 3:10 train, they both have scraps with each other and develop a rough bond. The main objective on this mission for Dan was to pay back the debt so he can better support his family. The main objective on this mission for Ben is to escape and not take the train to Yuma. Both of these plans pan out, but probably not as well as either of them has hoped. Dan ultimately ends up paying the debt, on top of gaining more money for his family, and owes it to Ben a great deal for getting on that train. That is an example of the bond they developed for each other. Another example, probably the best one, is when Dan confesses that he really lost his leg at the hand of one of his own men.


WORKS CITED

"3:10 to Yuma" comingsoon.net. Web. 10 May. 2010
"3:10 to Yuma" imdb.com. Web. 10 May. 2010

Examining the Reflection of "Time" in "The Piano"

Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) explores the make-up of sexuality for the time in which it was set, the 19th Century in New Zealand. The film surrounds Ada, a mute Scotswoman who was married off by her father to a man in a different country without even having a say. Again, we are not even a full minute into the movie and the differentiation between our time and the early 19th Century is being demonstrated. These relations are often addressed throughout the film in one form or another. Many things are realized in this short period of viewing, the fact that she has a daughter, and the director never gives us a true explanation as to where or what happened to her father. The director leaves these questions unanswered and leaves us to purely speculate what happened to the girl’s father. Also, the girl not having a father has an effect on the man to which her mother is now married to and this plays a large part in the lack of development for a relationship between the mother and the now father.
The relationship status between Ada and her new husband never truly develops either and this leads to sexual tension between Ada and Baines. She has needs and although she shows resistance in reaction to the deal Baines offers her in order to get her piano back. Her reluctance eventually turns to desire, but she is a woman and both genders have sexual needs. Ada also doesn’t feel fully compelled to commit to her marriage because it was not her choice, so she may feel like she has more freedom to do what she wants to, even though she technically does not. Since the sexual tension between Ada and Baines starts to build, her husband begins to become suspicious to the fact that she is visiting Baines after the fact that he gave her piano back. This leads to jealousy and he boards Ada up in the house. Shortly after, Ada tries to have a sensual relationship with her husband, but only with her committing acts and not having him involved. He did not appreciate this approach and turned her away, showing how he always has to have a sense of control over everything. When Ada finally makes an attempt to send a piano key to Baines when her husband let’s her go, her daughter brings it to the husband instead. This leads to craziness among jealousy and leads to Ada getting her finger cut off and a confrontation in which her husband confronts Baines in his house with a loaded gun while he is sleeping. This is a sort of cowardly approach, but also an understandable one too.
Irony strikes on their way back to Scotland, as Ada demands that the piano be thrown overboard. After a long argument, it is agreed that the piano be thrown over the side of the boat, but as it falls it hooks on to her leg. There was irony in the fact that it was difficult for her to untie her legs as a result to her finger being cut off. All of these events tied together. However, she was able to kick her shoe off and swim to the top, and this moment was not a predictable one and had me on the edge of my seat. All in all, this film explores many options and did a fantastic job corresponding with the time frame that it was dealt.

Sounds of Cinema

"The cinema is an audiovisual medium, one that saturates our contemporary media experience" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.186). Most of the visual technology that we use everyday, also is a sound technology. Examples include: television, video games, computers, mp3 players, along with many more. Sound is used as a compliment to aid the visuals and amuse the audience. In film, sound affects the way the viewer feels, in the sense the sounds control the emotion of the audience. Certain music in horror films can make the audience suspenseful, while certain music in comedies can keep the audience entertained. In animation, sounds are often used to exaggerate an action of a character, especially in classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes (1929).



Sound is pivotal to any film and any genre. Even some silent films include sound, but not peoples voices. They include music among other miscellaneous sound effects. Now a days, a movie can be followed strictly through the communication of listening to it. The dialogue is often so deep that the story is practically narrated by the characters acting it out. Some directors even go so far as to make the screen go black for a short period of time, all the while keeping the characters talking, forcing the audience to follow along through sound.

Sound, unlike images, cannot be distinguished from its original when it is edited. "With images, we readily recognize that we see only a two-dimensional copy of the original" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.191). Sound is much easier to incorporate into a film than the editing of images, but this was not always the case. A perfect example would be old Asian movies. Often times the sound would not match up with the movement of the characters mouth, and the character would often finish speaking before the sentence was completed. Sound editing has come a long way since sound was first included in cinema. One area in particular where sound has flourished is in musicals. Westside Story (1961) is one of the most popular musicals of all time, and one of the first musicals to be a cinema success. Incorporating sound into film has brought some of Broadway's finest work to a much larger audience who wouldn't otherwise have a chance to see one.

Sound is an afterthought for most viewers, even for most filmmakers. Since film is meant to be dominated by visual, sound is not the main focus. Sound recording is something that takes place in the development of every film. "When the slate is filmed at the beginning of each take, the clapboard is snapped; this recorded sound is used to synchronize sound recordings and camera images" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.196). Microphones may also be placed around the set or on the actors to help the sound quality.

Relating Images: Editing

Editing is everywhere. It happens in the film industry, in the television industry and especially in the magazine industry. Editing can be seen "in store windows, on highway billboards, or on television when we channel surf" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.136). A director of a film only lets us see the things that he wants us to see. Therefore, he can edit out any of the things that he believes have little to no meaning during the juncture of his film. Also, images are linked together from different periods of time; however, this is not something we ever see in everyday life. "Thus we find that a film consisting of eight hundred or more images makes sense" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.136).



There are many ways in which editing is used in film. Some of these ways include: establishing continuity in a film, emphasizing particular patterns or graphics, organizing images as being meaningful, and edited certain images in which they are based on a break in the film. Personally, when I watch a film I notice "the cut and other transitions". This is an important process because it leads the audience onto the next scene with what is a usually smooth transition. "The earliest films consisted of a single shot, which could run only as long as the reel of film in the camera lasted" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.143). Technology has obviously been largely enhanced since this was what now seems to be a pre-historic time. Another method, well the only method, of editing during earlier years required the camera man to pause the reel. The stage workers would then rearrange the scene and proceed with the filming of the movie. Filming a movie using this method would obviously be a complicating thing, so new methods had to be constructed.

What is known as the cut is the foundation on which film editing is based upon. The cut "describes the break and the common border that separate two shots from two different pieces of film" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.143). This is used in mostly every scene in a movie and goes unrecognized because the viewers have become so adapted to it. Also, using this particular method gives multiple perspectives and viewpoints to the audience.



Edits can also be used to identify with the personality of a film. Certain ways can be used to have an adverse effect on our reactions, such as fading out, fading in, and in an older fashion, dissolving. According to film editor, Walter Murch, there are six main criteria for evaluating a cut. This is called the "Rule of Six". Here is his list in descending order of importance: 1) Emotion 2) Story 3) Rhythm 4) Eye-Trace 5) Two-Dimensional Plane of Screen 6) Three-Dimensional Space of Action.

•Emotion — Does the cut reflect what the editor believes the audience should be feeling at that moment?

•Story — Does the cut advance the story?

•Rhythm — Does the cut occur "at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and 'right'"

•Eye-trace — Does the cut pay respect to "the location and movement of the audience's focus of interest within the frame"

•Two-dimensional plane of the screen — Does the cut respect the 180 degree rule?

•Three-dimensional space of action — Is the cut true to the physical/spatial relationships within the diegesis?

Editing is one of the most important facets in a film. The director uses editing to control the emotions of the audience and keep a story line fresh. This can make or break a film.


WORKS CITED

"How to Edit" introtoediting.com. Web. 10 Apr. 2010
"Film Editing" wikipedia.org. Web. 10 Apr. 2010

Analysis of Stanley and Blanche of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951)

Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques by which actors try to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters in an effort to develop lifelike performances. This is an acting method that was adopted by the star of "A Street Car Named Desire"(1951), Marlon Brando, "a role in which the actor and character seem almost indistinguishable" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.72). His performance in this very controversial (at least controversial for its time) film further demonstrated how he employed method acting in the film.



STANLEY KOWALSKI

Marlon Brando plays a tough Polish character by the name of Stanley Kowalski in the film "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951). At first, it appears to the audience that Stanley is a hero of sorts, and that he is passionate towards his wife and loyal to his friends. Although. Stanley possesses an aggressive personality and this shows in his love of work and fighting. During the development of the film, Stanley develops an intense hate for Blanche (played by Vivien Leigh) and finds suspicion in most of the activities she takes part in. Also, he does not trust her, nor does he like the fact she takes he and his friends for fools when she makes attempts to fool them and manipulate them. His hatred towards her is even more exemplified when he searches into her past to find out her true story and then attempts to ruin her relationship with Mitch (played by Karl Malden). Stanley's originally thought to be down to earth personality was proven wrong by the end of the film. His forms of amusement included gambling, sex, bowling, and drinking. He shows a degenerative nature in the way that he treats his wife and the first time we saw him hit her was not the first time he hit her. When he rapes Blanche, he shows even less remorse for his brutal actions.



BLANCHE DUBOIS

Vivien Leigh plays Blanche,a former high school teacher from Laurel, Mississippi and older sister to the Stella, the wife of Stanley. Blanche is a fragile woman both physically and emotionally. She is also a very insecure women, as she fishes for compliments often, but rarely gets a response throughout the course of the film unless they come from Mitch. Blanche is a flirt. She has strong sexual urges and has apparently had many lovers in her day. Also, she comes off as being delusional of sorts and doesn't seem to have a full grasp on reality, while she prefers to live in her imagination rather than face the facts of the 'real world'. Blanche is a woman who tends to make an attempt to manipulate most of the people that she comes into contact with, or lies to them in some way. An example of this would be when Stanley asks her if she would like a shot and she says "I rarely touch it". This is a boldface lie, as she drinks often and covers it up in a very poor manner. Another thing she does is flirt, often. She seems to be in hot pursuit of Stanley's buddy Mitch and the two come to an agreement to be married. Stanley, however knows her back round and successfully foils her plans to do so. This leaves her even more alone in her own little world and leads her to be even more delusional.



WORKS CITED

"A Streetcar Named Desire" IMDB.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2010
"A Streetcar Named Desire" filmsite.org. Web. 29 Mar. 2010
"What is Method Acting?" wisegeek.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2010

"Exploring a Matierial World"

Mise-en-scene: Mise-en-scene "comes from the French term meaning 'placed in scene' or 'onstage', mise-en-scene refers to those elements of a movie that are put in position before the film actually begins and are employed in certain ways once it does" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.62).

There are many things that go unnoticed to the average film viewer. These include how settings create environments with meaning for a film, how lighting is used to show different meanings, and how the set is set up and the props are used relate to the story of a film. In fact, mise-en-scene happens in everyday life and nobody really notices or takes the time to relate their surroundings to such a thing. There are two types of mise-en-scene in life, public and private.For example, "the architecture of a town may be described as a public mise-en-scene" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.62). This makes perfect sense since movies are all based off of real life in some way, shape, or form. Another example is how a person decorates a room. This can be described as private mise-en-scene. A police station or a court room can provide an authoritative vibe and can also be classified into the first of the previous two categories. This is just an example of how most of the things around us represent mise-en-scene in some way.

Examples of mise-en-scene are not only in the surroundings of the films environment, they also connect to the characters. We as people look at what they're wearing or what they look like. Those first impressions either make us fall in love with a character or hate them with a passion. The emotion that we feel also comes through mise-en-scene and the environment in which the film takes place, along with the characters that are placed in that environment.



Sometimes where the movie takes place is what motivates people to even consider watching it. Some people may be able to relate to the place, live there, had lived there, or have been there. Depending on the memory that the individual had when he or she was there may decide if the film is appealing in the least. Sometimes a historical landmark in a film can also attract a particular audience. Personally, a movie that is set in the dessert is less appealing to me, while a movie that is set in snow among other things is more appealing to me. The most obvious mise-en-scene that people take for granted is the setting. This is the real or fictional place where the events of a film take place.



In the film industry these days, computer generated imagery (CGI) is used often and creates images that are more realistic. "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) does a good job using computer generated imagery to create many of the characters that were portrayed in the film. The film "portrays the internal world of its lonely child heroine in a rich mise-en-scene constructed from actual sets, costumes, prosthetics, and computer generated imagery" (The Film Experience: An Introduction pp.67).