Director Orson Welles, along with cinematographer Gregg Toland and others, skillfully controlled the atmosphere of Citizen Kane through the heavy use of long shots long shots and the occasional instance of conventional shot-countershot passes. Through careful use of framing within these shots, the makers of Citizen Kane were able to focus the audience's attention on particular parts of the frame without forcing the viewer to observe only a small part of the film's environment. The use of the shot-reverse shot technique marked a dramatic turning point in the exuberant but troubled life of Charles Foster Kane. Overall, the long shot adds realism, as it allows the audience to explore the setting for themselves, while the shot-reverse shot transitions eliminate deep space composition to focus on the dialogue and emotions of the characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first shot chosen for discussion is a particularly strong example of a long shot because it not only lasts two and a half minutes but contains multiple deep space composition elements, but also uses a multitude of characters placed at different depths. I chose this shot because it agrees with Jean Renoir's 1938 quote that the characters are "placed at different distances... to make them move" and to avoid the shot looking like a posed photograph. The shot, which takes place 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 33 seconds into the film, begins with a dissolve to Thompson's interview with Susan. At the beginning she stands in the foreground, together with Mr. Matiste and the pianist during rehearsals, completely covered in attached shadows. When the previous shot dissolves, the main light turns on and the characters appear in accordance with the background lighting. The setting uses a high-key light in the three-dot pattern to eliminate deep contrast. This form of soft lighting is used because this aspect of the narrative is important more to Kane's development as a domineering and energetic husband than as an emotional or dramatic scene that often involves contrasts and shadows to heighten facial expressions. Furthermore, the fill light is necessary because the background plays a vital role as it is filled with elements such as statues and paintings that reflect Kane's obsession with collecting, a trait that ultimately adds drama to the scene immediately before the Rosebud reveal . As the transition completes, a crane support becomes apparent as the camera, originally positioned at a slightly high angle, pans forward and to the left to keep Susan in the frame and her profile at a consistent angle. The only major change in framing during the shot, this movement serves three purposes as the scene progresses. Obviously, he places Susan in the foreground, emphasizing that she is the center of attention, and moves Matiste to the center of the frame as he stands up in disgust, distinguishing himself from the pianist. More importantly, place the door in the center of the background, so that when Kane enters the room twenty seconds into the shot, he can be seen clearly in deep space. From her appearance, the drama builds as Matiste criticizes Susan for forty seconds before Kane has enough and speaks out. Kane then steps into the foreground, eliminating much of the background space as the frame pans slightly to the right to keep him centered. Again in reference to Renoir's quote, Welles avoids being on the same level asMatiste, opting instead to move closer to the camera so that all four characters remain in distinct positions. By stepping forward, Welles also creates the illusion that Kane is greater than Matiste, maintaining intact and promoting the master-servant relationship that Kane believes he is entitled to. In deciding to film this scene in the fluid form of long takes rather than the more traditional method of edited together cuts, Welles and his crew took into account the mood of the scene. Although Kane and Matiste, and to a lesser extent Matiste and Susan, compete in heated verbal exchanges, the feeling of the scene is not one of confrontation but of suspense. The continuous shot allows the audience to see Kane enter the room forty seconds before the other characters notice him. As Matiste's anger increases and Susan becomes increasingly submissive, the viewer is left wondering how far Kane will let his wife's emotions drop before he's had enough. The suspense builds and the audience's eyes move back and forth between Kane and Matiste, trying to anticipate who will collapse first. Shooting this scene through a series of cuts would have required showing Kane in a separate shot, leaving out Matiste's expressions, an element of the scene that was crucial in the development of his growing disappointment. A long take avoids this potentially disastrous complication by giving the viewer full access to all the information in the environment and allowing them to move freely from one character to another. Moving from the long shot to the shot-reverse shot transition, it's easy to see how abrupt cuts can control the mood of a scene. In the passage in question, 1 hour, 43 minutes and 38 seconds into the film, Kane has just slapped Susan after she realized that he didn't love her. Here one long take, rather than a series of cuts, would have altered the mood of the scene in a way that was not productive for the narrative. The shot-reverse shot technique creates a feeling of confrontation, in this scene accurately. The aforementioned long sequence avoided cuts to avoid a confrontational attitude, while this scene used the same concept to artificially increase the sense of urgency and emotional disagreement. To create the effect of a final and complete confrontation between the characters, the filmmakers relied on lighting and camera positioning to create a false sense of intimacy for the viewer. Susan is seen in the foreground from a high angle with her eyes ready to fill with tears and a side light from the left creating a small shadow cast on her neck. He stares at Kane in silence, the only diegetic sounds coming from the off-screen band and a woman's ecstatic screams. His eyes look up, he speaks and the cut occurs, seamlessly transitioning to Kane who represents a perfectly opposing force. In this situation, a cut is used rather than a pan or tilt to give the impression that we are looking from the character's point of view. Cutting directly to Kane emphasizes a quick change of perspective, while the camera movement would have taken longer and left the audience feeling like they were an audience member, rather than the character in the scene. Now, almost in shock, Kane stares at Susan as a low-angle camera looks at a medium shot of his frame, once again allowing the viewer to see Kane as if he were Susan. Faced with the loss of his wife, Kane for the first time appears neither arrogant nor domineering, but instead truly sincere. Although he understands that his relationship with Susan is most likely over, he has nothing to say to her as the scene ironically ends with the woman screaming, cries of.