Citizen Kane Research

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

  • 1939 – Height of Hollywood
  • Highlight of the year was new media star Orson Welles
  • New Media v Old Media (William Randall Hearst)
  • Citizen Kane heavily criticized Hearst and plunged Hollywood into shambles
  • Hearst tried to censor the film
  • Hearst growing up was a spoiled only child with a very rich father
  • Hearst used fabricated stories for the paper
  • Hearst started the newspaper “The Examiner”
  • Welles first play was Shakespeare
  • Hearst first tries to run for mayor but after failing he went into show business
  • He owned a ranch with a huge mansion that was about half the size of rhode island.
  • Hearst wanted the film to be destroyed by buying it and burning it
  • Citizen Kane only won award for best screenplay

DocudramaRKO 281

  • Orson Welles and Hearst in Elevator, Hearst tells Orson that it is not Hearst’s end of his career but instead Orson’s.

Orson Welles Interview on Citizen Kane

  • Effort to stop film while in production
  • intended as a social document
  • director had total control
  • cinematographer was highly experienced
  • Kane was made to be an edge of controversy made to blur the lines between this and the idea of too far
  • Orson was seen as an enemy to the system he critiqued
  • Kane was suppose to be what Orson isn’t everything even the good and the bad

Session 5 Production Project

Sound Design for Visual Media’s New Digidesign ICON Dual-Operator System

“Sound Design for Visual Media’s New Digidesign ICON Dual-Operator System” by vancouverfilmschool is marked with CC BY 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Sound Design

Intention (SMART Goal)

By May 10th as part of team 3, I will show evidence of Recorded ADR &/or Sound Effects in Premiere Pro or WeVideo by following the instructions in ADR for Beginners

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

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

John P. Fasal

Known for The Fugitive (1993), Inception (2010), Tenet (2020), The Fifth Element (1997)

Recent Works The Batman (2022) (sound effects recordist)

Winner of Career Achievement Award (2018)

Nominee of Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley for Feature Film (2008)

Nominee of Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects (1994)

Training Source(s)

CueNotes
Controlled Environment (3:16)Match acoustics on screen or dry and exploitable in post production
Mic Placement (3:37)-Location not against wall or in two inclosed of a space

-Distance between mouth and mike depending on scene context
a. Short Distance ~ 10 inches
b. Medium Distance ~ 24 inches
c. Long Distance ~ 40 inches

-Use same mic used to record for consistency
ADR Directing (4:21)In big budget movies actors are usually contracted to do retakes/ADR.
Foley (4:52)-recreating and recording everyday sound effects to lay in synchronized track so sequence doest seem abnormally quiet

-record sound on screen

Project Timeline

  1. Planning
  2. Storyboard Draft 1
  3. Discuss and Review
  4. Storyboard Draft 2
  5. Discuss and Review
  6. Storyboard Final Draft
  7. Discuss and Review
  8. Script Version 1
  9. Review
  10. Final Script
  11. Shot list
  12. Advanced Shot list
  13. Film
  14. Review
  15. “Cleanup” Shooting
  16. Edit
  17. Completed Version

Proposed Budget

$0

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

The Film

Skills Commentary

In this film, I focused on adding sound effects and ADR to the film after we recorded the actual scenes. I went to the filming location with my team and recorded ambience, footsteps, door sounds, and dialogue. I then organized the audio recordings inside of our project folder.

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

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Alien (1979) Scene Notes for Session 4

CueNotes
Ambience Sound of chains dangling and rain falling
Where? Room is large with industrial architecture
LightingDark and intense with light slightly looming over everything
1st 1/3 shots (buildup)Everything shot to set the stage. Camera looming over character almost like a predator stalking prey.
2nd 1/3 shots (tension)Close ups of character and cat while alien approaches from behind
3rd 1/3 shots (payoff)Series of fast cuts when character is killed by alien, almost like a stretched jump scare. showing little bits and details that you can pick up if you squint your eyes.

Ends with close up of cats face.

Andrew Stanton Storytelling

CueNotes
Story telling is Joke tellingIts knowing what to say when to deliver and how to deliver it
Story should make you careStories should make a promise that its gonna lead up to something
Unifying Theory of 2+2storytelling without dialogue is the most cinematic
Character Spineall good characters have goal that they are striving for
even if they don’t know what it is
Changeif things get stale they get boring and flat
Story structure Story telling had guid lines not hard fast rules
Strong theme always running through a well told story
Theme Use what you know, express values you personally feel at your core
Wonder A since of wonder is what is key like before more is less, less is more audience doesn’t want the plot shoved down their throat. They need something to think about they need something to hold onto and remember.
Summary:I learned that a good story has no set rules, but only guid lines that aren’t direct instructions to making a good story.

Production Project Session 4

Photo Bombing Chicken

“Photo Bombing Chicken” by MTSOfan is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Editor

Intention (SMART Goal)

By March 2nd, as part of team 4, as an editor, I will control color and learn how to edit with film language by using The Visual Story by Bruce Block by the end of post-production, Session 4.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

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

Sally Menke from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill Vol 1”

Born on December 17, 1953, in Mineola, New York. She was known for specifically Quentin Tarantinos She died on September 27, 2010, in Los Angeles.

Smooth editing made me want to learn how to edit myself.

Training Source(s)

The Visual Story by Bruce Block

Cue: Express the feeling in the film right now
Colors = Significance

Visual Story Structure Research

PRODUCTION – ACTION

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lfdQH9S-L4Lsm9Ry5JpPRwwnyAdbSASE/view

Skills Commentary

I edited the film together and had to replace some audio tracks with ADR. Then for controlling color which was my smart goal, I put a black and white filter over the film to give it more of a dark comedy feel making the film more serious than it actually is. Also since the background was green it was a little distracting so the black and white smoothed everything out.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

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

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

During Pre-Production as a team, we all went to the filming location to plan out the shots, lighting and re-wrote some of the scripts to make it better.

Reactions to the Final Version

“Concentrate on what we did well and rather than what we did bad”

-Eric

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

The finished film was good, I thought I did a good job editing for the most part except that some of the ADR didn’t match the scenes sometimes and was unsynchronized.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned that as a part of a team I should communicate with the cinematographer that the lighting should be a bit brighter if we were going to put a black and white filter over the film because in the finished product some shots were a bit dark.

Grammar and Spelling

Google, Grammarly

Editor

Casey

Visual Story Structure Research

Fishing
“Fishing” by pianowow is licensed under

Seven Visual Story Components

CueNotes
 Space
Use of depth and distance
 Line and Shape
diagonals convey “fear” or uneasiness, camera angled
 Setting a particular feeling.Tone
reveal things, tone defines brightness of objects. ex make character set in dark with a bright background
Express the feeling in the film right now
Colors = Significance		Color
Color wheel, can be used to express audience of rise or run of tension.
What is the audience paying attention to?Movement
The attention of the audience
 BackgroundRhythm
alteration, repetition, tempo. Where the audiences eyes go. Using audio to go over.

Summary

Resources

Production Project Session 3

SUMMARY

Role

Editor

Intention (SMART Goal)

By January 8th as part of film class I will have completed editing to be able to listen to the directors vision and make smooth edits for Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

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

Joe Walker

Training Source(s)

What is Rhythm in Video?

Proposed Budget

~ $4.00 For Almond Milk

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ppb7sQ8TminSTKCI73WlKSBDQtY09WB3/view

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

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

I was out with covid for almost the whole production phase but when I got back I had edited the video clips that were shot by my team. Then I added music and the new dub-over and the video was done.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

we all realized the audio files with dub-over were not that good so we needed to re record that.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

WeVideo

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I developed communication skills working on this project.

Reactions to the Final Version

“Cuts really added to the atmosphere” -August

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I thought the final version of the film came togethor pretty well especially with the film cuts and how long I let shots last as an editor really made it work.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to convey impact and emotion in a film using editing.

Editor

Casey

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

Ultimate Guide to Scene Transitions – Every Editing Transition Explained [The Shot List, Ep 9]

00:00 – Intro — 9 Essential Editing Transitions

01:19 – Editing Basics: The Cut

02:10 – Fade

04:47 – Dissolve

06:43 – Match Cut

08:53 – Iris

10:24 – Wipe

12:16 – Passing

13:19 – Whip Pan

14:06 – Smash Cut

16:02 – J-Cut / L-Cut

18:11 – Honorable Mentions

18:36 – Get your FREE Editing Transition Shot List