Director Orson Welles, along with cinematographer Gregg Toland and others, expertly controlled the atmosphere of Citizen Kane through extensive use of long takes and occasional instances of conventional shot-reverse-shot passages. Through careful use of framing in these shots, those responsible for 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. When the reverse shot technique was used, it marked dramatic turning points 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 on their own, while the reverse shot passages eliminate deep space composition to focus attention on the dialogue and the emotions of the characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first shot chosen for discussion is a particularly strong example of a long shot, as it is not only two and a half minutes long and features several elements of deep spatial composition, but it 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 . Taking place 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 33 seconds into the film, the take begins with a dissolve of Thompson's interview with Susan. At the beginning, she stands in the foreground, with Signor Matiste and the rehearsal pianist, completely covered in attached shadows. As the previous shot dissolves, the main light comes on and the characters appear in line with the background lighting. The setup uses intense light in the three-point pattern to eliminate deep contrasts. This form of soft lighting is used because this aspect of the narrative is more important to Kane's development as a bossy and energetic husband than for an emotional or dramatic scene which would often involve contrast and shadows to intensify facial expressions. Additionally, fill light is necessary as the background plays a vital role as it is filled with elements such as statues and paintings which reflect Kane's obsession with collecting, a trait which ultimately adds from the drama to the scene right before Rosebud's reveal. At the end of the transition, a crane mount becomes apparent as the camera, initially placed at a slight high angle, moves forward and to the left in order to keep Susan in the frame and her profile at a constant angle. The only major change in the framing during the shot, this movement serves three purposes as the scene progresses. Obviously, this places Susan in the immediate foreground, emphasizing that she is the center of attention, and it moves Matiste to the middle of the frame as he stands up in disgust, distinguishing himself from the pianist. Most importantly, he places the door in the center of the background, so that when Kane enters the room twenty seconds into the take, he can be seen clearly in deep space. Upon his appearance, the drama builds as Matiste criticizes Susan for forty seconds before Kane has had enough and speaks up. Kane then comes into the foreground, eliminating much of the background space as the frame shiftsmoves slightly to the right to keep it centered. Still in line with Renoir's quote, Welles avoids standing on the same level as Matiste, preferring to move closer to the camera so that the four characters remain in distinct positions. By stepping forward, Welles also creates the illusion that Kane is greater than Matiste, keeping intact and furthering the master-servant relationship to which Kane feels he is entitled. In deciding to film this scene in the fluid form of a long shot rather than the more traditional method of edited together montages, Welles and his team took into account the mood of the scene. Although Kane and Matiste, and to a lesser extent Matiste and Susan, engage 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 temper rises and Susan becomes more and more submissive, the viewer wonders how far Kane will let go of his wife's emotions before he has enough. The suspense builds and the audience's eyes dart back and forth between Kane and Matiste, trying to anticipate who will crack 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 is key in the development of his growing disappointment. A long shot avoids this potentially disastrous complication by giving the viewer full access to all information in the environment and allowing them to move freely between characters. By moving from the long shot to the shot-reverse shot, it is easy to understand to what extent abrupt cuts can control the atmosphere of a scene. In the passage under discussion, 1 hour, 43 minutes and 38 seconds of the film, Kane has just slapped Susan after she realized he didn't like her. Here, a long shot, rather than a series of cuts, would have changed the mood of the scene in a way that was not very productive for the story. The shot-reverse shot technique creates a feeling of confrontation, in this scene with precision. The aforementioned long shot avoided cuts to avoid a confrontational attitude, while this scene used the same concept to artificially heighten the sense of urgency and emotional discord. In order to create the effect of a final, 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 close-up from above, from above, with her eyes ready to flood with tears, and sidelight coming from the left creating a small shadow cast on her neck. She watches Kane in silence, the only diegetic sounds coming from the group off-screen and the ecstatic screams of a woman. Her eyes look up, she speaks and the cut happens, transitioning smoothly to Kane who presents himself as a perfectly opposing force. In this situation, a cut rather than a pan or tilt is used to make it appear as if we are looking from the character's point of view. Cutting directly to Kane emphasizes a quick change in perspective, whereas the camera movement would have taken more time and left the audience feeling like an audience rather than a character in the scene. Now, almost in shock, Kane looks at Susan as a low-angle camera looks at a medium shot of his frame, again allowing the viewer to see Kane as if he were Susan. Confronted with the loss of his wife, Kane for the first time seems neither arrogant nor overbearing, but rather genuinely sincere. Although he understands that his relationship with..