Citizen Kane Research

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

  • 1939 Hollywood was at its peak/big films were being made.
  • William Hearst owned many newspapers and other medias.
  • Orson Welles’ parents died when he was at a very young age. He was in boarding school and “grew up” very fast.
  • Hearst ran for congress but didn’t show up half the time.
  • Orson Welles caused $40,000 worth of damage when people did not like his shows
  • Orson Welles thought Hearst was a stiff old man who was cut off from the world.
  • Hearst kept spending money thinking his newspapers would supply money to him but didn’t. Then he started selling his stuff.
  • Luella was feared by everybody in Hollywood. But especially her younger sister.
  • Hearst put threats towards Orson Welles in his newspapers, he didn’t care about the truth.
  • Walt Disney was Jewish.
  • RKO delayed the release of Citizen Kane.
  • Welles liked to be challenged.
  • Hearst called Orson Welles play communistic.
  • FBI thought Orson Welles was a threat and had suspicions.
  • Orson Welles gets canceled. 😍

Docudrama RKO 281

  • Orson Welles went to New York at 18.
  • Hearst didn’t allow smoking or drinking at the parties he hosted.
  • Orson Welles was known as “Wonder Boy”
  • Hearst goes bankrupt. 😮‍💨✌🏿

Orson Welles Interview on Citizen Kane

  • Storytellers first duty is the story.
  • Citizen Kane was only 25 when making the film.
  • He had total control of his film.
  • He really didn’t want to make a film, he wanted authority.
  • When you know something about a profession, you seem to be more timid.
  • Citizen Kane thought the camera could do anything that we could see and our imagination.
  • His main character in the film he made is everything that he is not both good and bad.

Story of Film – Episode 2 – The Hollywood dream

1918-1928: The Triumph of American Film…

…And the First of its Rebels

Session 5 Production Project

SUMMARY

Role

Cinematographer

Intention (SMART Goal)

By May 10th, as a part of Team 6, I will have successfully shown CAMERA MOTION and will have given justification for the movement by studying camera shot sizes, movement, and angles from the worksheet provided in the session 5 film evidence for each role.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Greig Fraser

Greig Fraser is a cinematographer and producer known for filming Dune, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and was the director of photography for The Batman.

Training Source(s)

  • The motion of a camera can create different emotions for example in a fight scene the cameras movement is very fast and shaky, making you feel like you’re in the action and builds tension. (40 seconds)
  • Sliders create cinematic shots and are great for short films, interviews, wedding videos, intros, etc. (1:12)
  • Foreground creates depth. (1:44)
  • Find a good foreground. No foreground is boring. (2:33)
  • Sliders are a great way to provide production value. (3:43)

Project Timeline

  1. Find topic/story.
  2. Create storyboard.
  3. Pitch storyboard.
  4. Create advanced storyboard.
  5. Make script.
  6. Find actors.
  7. Film the film.
  8. Edit film.
  9. Add SFX/ADR.
  10. Present film.

Proposed Budget

No budget.

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1E9YNHB9EyhXN6Yxg1hQLRjfesYEyDBnjt8GATP0I1_4/edit#slide=id.g124fedb6277_0_34

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Josie, our screenwriter, was gone, so as a team, we thought of a way on how to include him and still be productive (like attempting to film our film).

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

In this session, I focused on the shot list, and came up with new ideas for the shots to make it more creative and interesting, with my team as well.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Josie Wardé

Name of Scene Research

CueNotes
How can we use the technique used in the opening scene of Napoleon Dynamite in our film?While discussing our new storyboard, we decided the opening scene would have a close up of a persons hand grabbing a photo of our main character from a printer, using this opening scene from Napoleon Dynamite as our reference, studying how close the camera actually is, the angle, and when it goes in/out of focus.

Andrew Stanton Storytelling

CueNotes
How can you use wonder in film?


How can you include experiences from your life into a story/film?
-Each story leads to a single goal.
-Story’s allow similarities between other people.
-Make them care.
-Story’s allow you to express yourself.
-At beginning, show a promise/lead that the story will get somewhere and will be worth your time.
-“Storytelling without dialogue”
-Humans wants to put their own things together: They want to figure stuff out on their own.
-Change is fundamental in a story.
-“we’re always learning.”
-Storytelling has guidelines, not rules
-Must like your main character
-Constant/strong theme in every story.
-“Can you evoke wonder?”
-Use what you know, including things from your experiences.
Summary

In storytelling, each story there is a constant, strong theme under all the little stories and conflicts in film. It’s all about making the audience care and evoking wonder, making “promises” to the audience that something is bound to happen. Using what you know and honest experiences that has happened in your life gives the audience wonder.

Production Project – SESSION 4

SUMMARY

Role

Director.

Intention (SMART Goal)

By March 2nd, as a part of Team 6, I will have successfully explored visual story structure and movement by using The Visual Story by Bruce Block and the Advanced Story and Operation Control Blog, and will have a successful advanced storyboard, and evidence of BLOCKING choices.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Catherine Hardwicke.

Catherine Hardwicke directed the first Twilight movie in 2008. I chose her because she directed one of my favorite movies, and I think her work is exceptional because the storyline is great and the setting blends perfectly together with the characters and the decisions they make it all goes together well and keeps the audience engaged.

Training Source(s)

  • Blocking is where you place your characters into the frame (31 seconds into the video)
  • Three main visual elements when blocking a scene: Space, Shapes, Lines. (42 seconds into the video)
  • Space between characters are important, the closer the character the more important the character is. visual contrast is created. (1:26 in)
  • Film blocking can help two people having a conversation be more exciting. (20 seconds in)
  • Three basic shapes: circles, squares, and triangles. (1:32 in)
  • Shapes come with certain emotional qualities and assumptions, and can be found everywhere around us. ex. actors head is the form of a circle (1:45 in)
  • circles feel safer and inclusive, squares create limited space, Triangles are sharp and aggressive. (1:47 in)
  • Lines create visual tension, for ex. one person standing up (vertical line) and one person laying down (horizontal line). the person who is standing up gives “power”. (3:03 in)
  • By contrasting, you’re blocking by whats being said or done. (3:53 in)
  • Blocking tells us about what the characters are really up to and what they mean, and what is actually going on. (4:16 in)

Project Timeline

  1. brainstorming / collaborating with teammates.
  2. writing script
  3. creating advanced storyboard
  4. shot list
  5. choosing actors
  6. begin filming feb. 24
  7. editing film
  8. final product

Proposed Budget

$0.00

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pScMtywMvURQnfn1igGonO58swjbsXwt/view?ts=62291ab8

Skills Commentary

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aU4-1_b85KFeOfZbecLpN-8tP5WCm6QIWpg-UcwvID4/edit#slide=id.gf65c05dca4_0_93

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

The first time we filmed 2 of our members were gone, so this second time we filmed we thought of a way to include everyone and add more lines and scenes into our film.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

As a director, I communicated with my team and suggested new things when shooting new scenes and worked better to collaborate more with each team member on what could make our film better.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

As a tool, we used The Visual Story by Bruce Block. To edit we used Premiere Pro and to film we used the cameras here provided for us as well as the lighting tools and a stabilizer for a couple of our scenes, and a boom mic.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

During Session 4, I have learned how to manage and direct a team better and communicate with teammates and collaborate as well as working around obstacles and fitting new things into our film to make it better.

Reactions to the Final Version

Eric, one of the advisors, said mostly positive things about our film, the only thing I can remember is that our film looked like a 70’s type film and was really cool.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Visual Story Structure Research

Seven Visual Story Components

CueNotes
 How is space used in film?Space
Use of depth and distance
 How does line and shape effect the film visually?Line and Shape
Line can be controlled through lighting, more contrast controls lines. Lines/linear motifs can change the intensity of a scene.
Most intense frames are diagnols.
 How can you control
tone?
Tone
You can control tone by certain lighting and camera and lens adjustments.
 Color
What are different types of movement?Movement
Actual movement (occurring only in the real world)
Apparent movement (one stationary object is replaced by another stationary object)
Induced movement (occurs when a moving object transplants movement to a nearby stationary object)
Important when finding movement:
-Direction
-Quality
-Scale
-Speed
-Camera movement
-Point of attention
 Rhythm
  

Summary

Resources

Story of Film – Episode 1 – Birth of the Cinema

Introduction

1895-1918: The World Discovers a New Art Form or Birth of the Cinema

1903-1918: The Thrill Becomes Story or The Hollywood Dream

SESSION 2 – Production Project

Film Production: Cinematography

SUMMARY

Role: Cinematographer

Intention (SMART Goal)

Intentional lighting and intentional focus was my role intention. For the intentional lighting I used a cell phone flashlight and moved it across the actors face from underneath so it could give off like a creepy vibe like there are shadows around. For the intentional focus I manually focused on the actors face and then focused on the item in front of her.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Hoyte Van Hoytema

Specific work: Interstellar

Training Source(s)

Project Timeline

Proposed Budget

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

Grammar and Spelling

Editor