Orson Welles’ career took place in the mid-thirties to late eighties in the twentieth century. He began his career at age fifteen, starting in Ireland, making his acting debut in the Gate Theater in Dublin. By eighteen, Welles started to appear in off-Broadway productions. It was then that he also launched his radio career. By age twenty, he had presented alternate interpretations of certain well-known plays and movies. At age twenty-two he was the most notable Broadway star from Mercury Theater and, because of this, BBC radio gave him an hour each week to broadcast whatever he pleased. That’s when, at age twenty-five, he broadcast War of the Worlds, which caused panic due to the “Martian invasions”. By the time he came into …show more content…
His Mercury Theater of the Air also set high and new standards for future radio drama productions.
His directing philosophy was that his way was the best way. Welles’ work was solely self-reliant and dependent on his representation of guise. This style/philosophy contributed to the way modern artists presently direct their films and movies. He began his most notable movie, Citizen Kane, with multiple test shots and killed his own character by using a very low angle, as if the viewer was right there, dead, with his character. Welles loved to introduce his films by starting with mysterious, bleak worlds. His main goal was to show future directors that deeply focused camera shots, shadows, askew angles, multiple action points, sound techniques borrowed from radio, and deeply focused shots worked in the favor of the production.
Orson Welles didn’t just impact the filming realm, but, by being an actor himself, showed that he possessed a very strong standpoint on what an ideal actor was. Orson said that, to him, acting “was like a sculpture. It’s what you take away from yourself to reveal the truth of what you're doing that makes a performance. A performance deserves to be considered great or important. It’s always entirely made up of the actor itself and entirely achieved by what he has left in the dressing room before he came into the camera’s view. There’s no such thing as becoming another character by
Welles was a master at producing radio drama because he made his plays believable. To begin with many people had missed the beginning of the show because they were listening to another show. While the
Welles had been living overseas in Europe for ten years, earning some success there, and later had decided to return to America to work on films.
Orson Welles’ theatrical background and his love for painting are probably the greatest contributions to his
In the article America under attack I: a reassessment of Orson Welles’ 1938 war of the worlds broadcast the author argues the significant impact on Orson Welles’s media sense impacted the effective radio formats from the previous years. Welles used three types of techniques to send a clear message to his audience, his way of convincing the general public, with his powerful voice, and the way others reacted to the event. The world was in a panic when they heard the radio on October 30, 1938. Some say it was a scary night. It was a broadcast of War of the Worlds a radio show that shocked the nation. Many Americans were so frightened that they were being invaded by Martians. There were many people attempting
“One of the most promising artists of our day,” “ One of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, “ and “A major creative force and ultimate auteur,” were all praises and titles from major media moguls, publications, and critics given to Orson Welles. Not too shabby for someone who hasn’t even turned thirty yet, eh? Right out of the gate Welles proved to be an innovative and artistic force that could hold its own, and even surpass, the heavy hitters of his day. His career seemed to be on a steady incline for almost a decade; however, did his talent and work hit a plateau? Welles was always seen as an active political figure that was not afraid to voice or project
Let’s start with good ole Citizen Kane. I think the way Orson Welles and Greg Toland use the camera to convey the story is absolutely ingenious. The way they tell the story with visuals is really how a lot of filmmakers try to tell their stories today. This film really sets the precedent of how a
Citizen Kane made significant contributions to cinematography. One of the most notable contributions came from the use of a technique known as deep focus (Dirks, n.d.). Deep focus refers to having the entire shot, both
Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) is known as one of the most innovative and highly rated films of all time. Welles and his cinematographer, Gregg Toland, were among the first filmmakers to use deep-focus photography for significant portions of the film rather than using the more classic medium and close up shots. Welles and Toland also used unconventional filming methods, such as “high contrast, unusual camera angles, and the use of shafts of light” (Cagle, Dombrowski and Ramaeker), which created a unique feel and story presentation. The cinematography of Citizen Kane soon led to the creation of new photography standards that encouraged more realistic and dramatic choreography.
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film directed, co-written, produced by, and starring Orson Welles. The story is a film à clef that examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a character based in part upon the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Chicago tycoons Samuel Insult and Harold McCormick, and aspects of Welles' own life. Kane's career in the publishing world is born of idealistic social service, but gradually evolves into a ruthless pursuit of power. Narrated principally through flashbacks, the story is told through the research of a newsreel reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper magnate's dying word: "Rosebud". Cinematographer Citizen Kane is best known for its best cinematographer because of it stylist techniques, deep focus- or the foreground and background of the shot to be in focus using lighting, composition, and lens- choice is constantly is utilized to bring to bring both plot and perspective of the viewer, in addition deep focus makes anything and everything in the shot immediately relevant.
Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) is considered one of the greatest films of all time. Through his unconventional use of film composition and mise-en-scene, Welles’ clever manipulation of the camera and the scene before it effectively captured audiences in a manner that was unprecedented in American cinema storytelling. A significant filmic element of the assigned sequence of Citizen Kane would be its consistent use of deep focus. Shallow focus is used to emphasize one part of an image over another, and Citizen Kane fails to do so the entire time.
An Exploration of Charlie Chaplin?s Influences, Symbolism, and Use of Sound in The Great Dictator (1940)
Film scholars and historians view Citizen Kane as Welles's attempt to create a new style of filmmaking by studying various forms of film making, and combining them all into one. However, Welles stated that his love for cinema began only when he started the work on the film. When asked where he got the confidence as a first-time director to direct a film so radically different from contemporary cinema, he responded, "Ignorance, ignorance, sheer ignorance — you know there's no confidence to equal it. It's only when you know something about a profession, I think, that you're timid or careful."[48]:80
The number one film, “Citizen Kane,” was directed by Orson Welles in 1941. Although it is not boldly stated in the film, the story was about William Randolph Hearst. Welles defied tradition with this film. He made it about a powerfully, well-known man, who upset him, and the film’s opening was a dead screen. By utilizing the dead screen, Welles demonstrated that his film would be different and unique than the rest.
Every day millions of Americans go to theaters with their families to enjoy movies. Watching films has become one of the most popular activities to do. Although plenty of people know of Charlie Chaplin, most do not know any real information about him. Charlie Chaplin has been a major contributor to America’s advancement in the film industry from his innovative beginnings, and perseverance to improve and succeed, to his overall achievements in history.
Citizen Kane is a movie that can be rewritten and implemented into any film created today. In many ways, the storyline tells us more about ourselves than anything else and it relates to each one of us who has ever wished for a blah blah life. From his flamboyant adventures to the blah blah to his political agenda in his later years. Every film that came after Citizen Kane owes a great deal to Orson Welles because of the way he used music, shadows and lighting, and special effects, which without a doubt makes it one of the finest movies ever made. Some even call it the Mona Lisa of its time because Orson Welles was the first to implement these techniques, which revolutionize cinema forever.