2. Orson Welles
• 1939 – Orson Welles creates a cultural
phenomenon with his radio broadcast
adaption of H.G. Welles War of the
Worlds
– Many listeners thought it was a real alien
invasion
– Welles brought to Hollywood
– RKO studios was financially troubled and
looking for a miracle director
– Welles gets six film contract, complete
control
• Originally Welles wanted for adapt
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to film
• But then screenwriter, Herman J.
Mankiewicz suggested a project titled,
American
• Script loosely based on America’s yellow
press king, William Randolph Hearst
3. Cinematography
• Greg Toland – cinematographer
– Deep Focus
» holding all focal planes
(foreground, mid-ground,
background) in sharp focus
» Achieved primarily through
color-film lighting, wide-
angle lens, and small f-stops
(aperture)
– Long Take
» Allowed to develop scenes
without resorting to editing
» Influence of French Poetic
Realism
4. Lighting and Camera
• Chiaroscuro lighting
– High contrast of shadow and
light
• Extreme angles –
Expressionist influence
• Muslin ceiling sets
– Provided easy concealment
of lights and microphones
– Allowed for low-angle shots
– Also conveyed
claustrophobia
5. Sound
• Innovative uses of
sound
– Lightning mix transition
• shots rapidly linked
together not by
narrative logic, but by
continuity of the
soundtrack
• “merry Christmas … and
a happy new year”
• Transitions rapidly from
child to twenty-one year
old Kane
– Use of overlapping
dialogue
6. Narrative and Editing
• Non-linear narrative
– "prismatic" technique (later called
the Rashomon effect, after
Kurosawa’s film)
• structured largely in flashback, flows
poetically from image to image like
human memory
• amalgam of psychological pluralism
and temporal manipulation
– Each person offers a different
perspective on Kane
• Each provides a vital clue towards, if
not solving the mystery, at least
elucidating the character of Kane
– Motif of jigsaw puzzle is related to
narrative form
