January 21, 1999

Announcements:  None.

Lecture Notes:

I.  General Review of Citizen Kane

• Because it violates Classical Hollywood Style in terms of visibility, it was a flop when it first came out.
• People weren't used to seeing movies like this
• The movie uses contemplative editing, which was a new technique designed to draw in an audience
• Form of editing where you're not told directly how to interpret each scene
• The overlapping sounds throughout the movie create a sense of confusion

II.  Tracking Shot

• A single, uninterrupted shot moving parallel to the floor
• Primes audience to receive a lot of privileged information about characters
• Although Welles(director of CK) uses tracking shots, he doesn't always provide any information
• Technique widely used by Martin Scorcese(Goodfellas)
• Complicated to set up because the actors have to move with exact synchronicity
• Since there is no editing, if the actor messes up, reshoot the whole thing
• Considered expensive, artistic indulgences

III.  Lighting

    A.  High key

• 3 point light system
• backlight - provides 3-dimensionality
• key light - in front
• fill light - from the side, washes out shadows
• High key lighting very evenly lit, used in upbeat films

• Used in thrillers, film noirs, films with shadowy motives and a sense of mystery
• Style used in CK
• Never really capture essence of Charlie's life - it remains a mystery
• Shadows are not washed out by fill light
• Principal characters' faces are obscured
• Welles uses diagonal lines, oblique shadows
• Clip:    Thompson receives his assignment
• all the characters are obscured, especially Thompson
• although he is a principal character, he is actually just a channel to relay information about Kane
• Lighting establishes a symbolic motif

IV.  Dialogue

• Should be the clearest of all signs
• Clip 1:    Kane's office at the Inquirer
• high key lighting
• overlapping sounds suggests busy-ness, success
• Clip 2:    At Xanadu
• huge, empty of emotion, love
• low key lighting
• sound is sparse, echoes

V.  Flashback Narrative Structure

• Complements viewer's misunderstanding of characters' goals
• Controls amount of information we get about Kane
• Avoid use of cross-cutting
• editing technique of shifting between 2 events happening at the same time
• never compare what each character says about Kane
• restricts amount of knowledge about his life
• don't get a sense of how each character's accounts of Kane come together
• Rosebud remains a lost object

VI.  Montage

• Technique to compress or expand time
• A days worth of events put into 30 seconds of screen time (compress)
• Shower scene in psycho (expand)
• CK compresses years of marriage into one scene
• Music complements montage

VII.  Editing Within Scenes

• Editing meant to be invisible
• Tracking shots connected by series of dissolves, which are barely perceptible
• Graphic match
• series of shots have to be matched very carefully
• 180 Degree Rule
• Maintains continuity
• See diagram on page 59 of the textbook