~ John and Steve ~
Citizen Kane – The film and its Audience – Task 2 – Jack Grindey
FADE IN:
INT. STUDIO – DAY
JOHN and STEVE are both facing the camera,
engaged and ready for the show to start. The
studio is blue with red sofas.
JOHN
Welcome back for week 2, episode 2
of our show where we will be
reviewing elements of the film
‘Citizen Kane’. Start us off STEVE.
Turns right to face Steve, they are now in at a
conversational angle but still appeal to the
camera.
STEVE
In this show we will be talking about
Citizen Kane and its audience. In
case you didn’t watch last weeks
episode and you don’t yet know what
Citizen Kane is, I bring you up to
speed quickly. Citizen Kane was
released in 1941 and is a black and
white film released by director
Orson Welles. This film was his
debut, Welles had a roller coaster
career after this point. Citizen
Kane is about a man named Charles
Foster Kane who was adopted at a
young age to be brought up in New
York by a very wealthy man, then
would later go on to own the enquirer
newspaper.
JOHN
That’s right, Kane was just a young
boy when his family decided they
would hand him over to Mr. Thatcher
who would raise Charles in a
wealthier family where they believed
he would have more potential to be
successful and have a brighter
future. Kane takes over the Enquirer
newspaper business and becomes a
very wealthy American man. After a
life with ups and downs and a lot of
money Kane dies, his last words
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~ John and Steve ~
being
“Rosebud”.
This
causes
journalists
to
investigate
the
meaning of “rosebud” in hope to find
out what it meant, along the
journalists journey he interviews
people who knew Kane, along the way
we find out about Kane’s past.
STEVE
This film, ‘Citizen Kane’ is said to
be the greatest film ever made, it
also considered to be extremely
ahead of its time, technology and
quality wise. The film includes
advanced cinematography techniques
such as deep focus.
JOHN
A good example of deep focus was the
childhood flashback scene which we
played last episode, however for you
new viewers we will play just a short
part of it so you know what we are
talking about.
Small snippets played from childhood flashback
scene (18:57 – 23:16)
STEVE
Due to these techniques including
deep focus it was the first time
people of the time witnessed such
quality film making, leaving split
opinions.
The
audience
didn’t
respond to the film as well as we
think they might have as many didn’t
enjoy it.
JOHN
This was because for the audience
this was the first time they were
seeing advanced cinematography in
use, leaving many distracted from
the plot and therefore leaving them
with a negative experience from the
film.
STEVE
As well as the cinematography being
very advanced and ‘ahead of its
time’, so was the make up used in
the production. Both me and John, as
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~ John and Steve ~
well as the majority of audiences
today are very impressed by the make
up during Citizen Kane.
JOHN
Orson Welles was in his twenties at
the time of Citizen Kane where he
both directed it and starred as the
main character Charles Foster Kane,
yet
he
played
this
character
throughout the film despite Kane
ageing. I and many others are
astonished by how they managed to
make him look in his fifties with
the use of make up. This may have
inspired the audience of the time to
pursue a career path in make up in
films, opening up new job roles and
inspiration.
STEVE
Citizen Kane uses a non-linear
structure as it included flashbacks
and seemed to have a lack of order
to it. However this wasn’t the case,
the film was carefully and well
ordered,
it
just
comes
across
complex and sometimes confusing to
the audience, however once the
audience
does
understand
the
structure it makes for a more
interesting watch.
JOHN
I personally really liked this
structure as although it left me
confused at times when switching
from past to present, once I had the
structure understood it did indeed
make for a more engaging watch, job
well done with structure that’s for
sure!
STEVE
Citizen
Kane
is
packed
with
narrative techniques, including an
enigma code (ELABORATE WITH MORE
TECHNIQUES). The enigma code in this
film was the mystery of finding out
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~ John and Steve ~
what or who “rosebud” was, without
our knowledge we, the audience
actually saw ‘rosebud’ near the
beginning of the film, but we were
clueless to its significance at that
point, the sled.
JOHN
That’s right Steve, I feel stupid
looking back on it having not
figured out what rosebud was sooner.
The sled, rosebud, was emphasized by
the use of camera work.
STEVE
The camera work when featuring the
sled was clever, a long cut was taken
focusing on the sled slowly being
covered with snow, with cuts in the
middle to signify the passing of
time and give a time lapse effect.
This is clever and powerful as it
almost
foreshadows
the
sleds
significance in the film. The effect
this has on the audience is to
appreciate the effort made by the
film makers to have made such an
engaging
enigma
that
you,
the
audience, the viewer don’t pick up
on the hints given.
JOHN
That’s it for this segment of the
episode folks, we are going to run
some commercials and will be back
shortly where we will begin to talk
about lighting and its effect,
linking to audience.
FADE OUT:
5 MINUTES LATER
FADE IN:
STEVE
Welcome back! Now where were we… oh
that’s right, lighting in Citizen
Kane!
JOHN
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~ John and Steve ~
Lighting is extremely important in
this film, due to it being in black
and white, lighting and contrast was
one of the main ways to help present
purpose and give structure to scenes
visually.
STEVE
Contrast is an effect of lighting
and was used to help the audience
connect with the character on scene,
females were presented with low
contrast to help support the idea
that females have this beauty and
innocence about them. This would
appeal to the female audience as
they appreciate being presented by
the use of glamour.
JOHN
Where as males were often had high
contrast, making them look more edgy
and making the scene look more
intense. This portrays the men as
more ruthless and less elegant than
the females which wasn’t necessarily
a bad thing as the male audience at
the time would have appreciated this
as they feel important and are proud
of being working class / high class
members of the public and like the
way they have been presented.
STEVE
Lighting was also used to help drive
the script in places, for example
there was one scene where Kane was
in the street when a passing women
started laughing hysterically at
him. Personally, I was extremely
confused at this point as to what
was going on and why she was laughing
at him because due to the dim and
dark lighting at first I was unable
to see the mud that Kane was caked
in. Again, the harsh contrast made
this harder to spot, but it was all
part of Kane’s image.
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~ John and Steve ~
JOHN
So true Steve! It wasn’t until the
women told made a comment about the
mud all over his suit until I
realised. I’m sure others would
agree with me when I say this was a
very clever use of lighting used to
drive the narrative, it helped give
the spoken words more value and
helped
pick
out
something
we
otherwise might have missed. Now,
camera angles.
STEVE
Camera angles are used in this film
to support character profile and
authority. At the time this film was
made and released women were mostly
house – wives and men were the
workers in the household. When
having both males and females in the
same scene, discreet changes in
angle were used to show superiority.
JOHN
For example, when Kane and his wife
were together in the same scene,
when the camera was on him it was at
an angle that looked up at him from
below, this low angle looking up at
him
suggested
his
power
and
influence looking down on his wife
who was often shown with high angles
from slightly above her.
STEVE
The use of a crane shot in the
opening scene of the film was very
effective and well used as the long
crane up gave us a sense of scale
and how big Kane’s property was,
this was made even more effective by
the cut in the middle of the shot
which helped suggest that the fence
was so big that they had to cut it
to stop the shot from running on to
long.
JOHN
This helps leave the impression on
the viewer that both Kane and his
huge property is to be feared,
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~ John and Steve ~
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making the audience feel anxious and
apprehensive due to the superiority
and power that is suggested.
STEVE
Also, during the opening scene,
unlike the rest of the film, a
shallow depth of field is used to
draw all of the audiences focus onto
the fence, making it the focal
point. This technique is also good
at engaging the audience by the use
of a technique that they are used to
seeing
in
movies,
instead
of
starting of with deep focus and
confusing them from the start, deep
focus also wouldn’t have had the
same impact in this scene as mystery
is created by the lack of vision
beyond the fence due to the shallow
depth of field.
JOHN
Blimey that was a mouthful but very
true, I was indeed a fan of the
opening scene, we will play you a
snippet now.
Opening scene played for viewers who
watch last weeks episode (00:33 – 3:09)
didn’t
STEVE
Something I noticed and liked about
the film was the diverse and almost
versatile target audience due to the
episodic structure. Different scenes
could be interpreted as having
different target audiences. For
example, in the childhood flashback
scene showing Kane playing in the
snow, I think this scene is more for
the female and parental audience as
they would be able to relate more as
stereotypically females are more
sensitive and sympathetic, where as
parents can understand what it is
like to have children.
JOHN
Where as the majority of the film
could be said to be targeting males
from the late twenties and above,
~ John and Steve ~
this is mostly because this is the
age range of Kane and other males in
the film. I also think this film was
mainly targeting the working class
due to the amount of working
involved,
the
culture
and
the
lifestyle of the men. They wear
suits, hats, briefcases and they all
work in a newspaper agents which
suggests that working class would be
the target audience as it’s the
working class who are the focus of
the film, the items they were
wearing are considered iconography.
Pausing on that long winded point,
we are going to take another quick
commercial break and will be back in
just a few minutes!
5 MINUTES LATER
STEVE
In Citizen Kane, multiple audience
theories are used throughout. For
example, in the newsreel scene I
think the two step flow theory is
most relevant. I think this is
because at the time, with no
internet, the news was the only way
the public were getting ‘official’
information as far as the public
were concerned. The news was very
influential and the public believed
every word because they took it as
fact due to the source it was coming
from, the official news.
JOHN
Hypodermic needle theory could also
be applied to this as the news
audience would take everything they
are being told as fact instead of
thinking to question it and accept
it could be wrong. However, another
theory you could apply to Citizen
Kane would be the Reception theory
because depending on your class and
education you may interpret the film
differently. Therefore I think that
the
audience
the
film
mainly
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~ John and Steve ~
targeted was the working / higher
class citizens as they would relate
more with the lifestyle and context
in the film, this could lead to
increased engagement and therefore a
better
experience
from
this
audience. Where as in contrast, a
poorer person would be clueless to
that kind of lifestyle, leading to a
lack of connection and maybe even a
less enjoyable watch.
STEVE
That
is
basically
audience
in
Citizen Kane summed up, to conclude
we will break down what we discussed
in this episode.
JOHN
Citizen Kane is an old film,
released in 1941 for those of you
who didn’t tune into last weeks
episode. The film is is diverse,
therefore allowing you to apply many
different audience theories to it,
for example Reception and Hypodermic
needle theory. Different scenes tend
to target different audiences so
that the film applies to a larger
audience, however the film on a
whole appeals more to higher class
males, well at least for the most
enjoyable watch.
STEVE
That concludes todays episode, or
week two of our Citizen Kane review
show by John and Steve! We thank you
for tuning in and will look forward
to seeing you next week!
JOHN AND STEVE BOTH WAVE GOODBYE AS THE CAMERA
ZOOMS OUT TO A FADE.
FADE OUT
Bibliography:
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~ John and Steve ~
Information
on
applying
audience
theory
from
http://www.slideshare.net/robertclackmedia/audience-theorypowerpoint
10
-
Clips
shown
on
screen
from
http://estream.kennetschool.co.uk/View.aspx?ID=3860~4r~SBdEPDe
T