Final Exam

Annie Adams

5/16/12

Elements of Film

1. Citizen Kane has won 14 Academy Awards, and raving reviews critics and viewers. What made it such a hit was its originality in its time, thus being the original in a slew of clichés to follow. It is so influential because Orson Welles managed to craft the film in such a way that whoever saw with fresh eyes, walked away from it glowing about how well it was put together. In essence, it had the same innovation and creativity that Inception had without the advantage of being able to have CGI or even color. Orson Welles had full control over the film because he was the producer, co writer, director, and even acted in the movie. Part of what made it so influential was that Orson Welles couldn’t live up to his achievement with the movie, and fizzled out into the world of long lost movie buffs.
2. Although Orson Welles struggled at first, he managed to land full control of Citizen Kane because of his natural talent and his experiences with roles like Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. What really got him hooked in were his work on “The War of the Worlds” and his other work with John Houseman. Basically, Orson Welles developed a pretty good resume for himself growing up and was able to get people’s attention very easily, which allowed them to trust his ability to create a phenomenal film like Citizen Kane.
3. Citizen Kane’s Z-axis scene is one that I found incredibly powerful and bold with witty lines speckled throughout. This scene is a great example of Orson Welles’s bold decisions to use low angles and shots that have a whole lot of depth. It’s transition from the bar to the house was particularly different from other things I’ve seen because it was a close up of a document but it was passing the writing so quickly, I couldn’t really read what was there. Orson’s use of unconventional angles, transitions and depth really added to his witty one-liners, which painted a very fitting description of how the characters felt about money. The acting was also very good which tied all of the other elements together to tell a very good story of how the situation was changing in the overall plot.