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