Citizen Kane was directed by Orson Welles and was released 24th January 1914.
When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) dying words, his investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights. Though Kane's friend and colleague Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), and his mistress, Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), shed fragments of light on Kane's life, the reporter fears he may never penetrate the mystery of the elusive man's final word, "Rosebud."
1. ORSON WELLES GOT UNPRECEDENTED CREATIVE CONTROL.
By the time he came to Hollywood, Orson Welles was regarded as one of the great young geniuses of his time. His work in the theater earned him the cover of TIME magazine by the age of 23, and the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds—arguably the first “mockumentary” ever made—caused such a national panic that he was forced to apologize for it. It was no surprise when Hollywood began seeking his talents, but what was surprising was just how much freedom he was given.
2. WELLES’ FIRST IDEA WAS AN ADAPTATION OF HEART OF DARKNESS.
When Welles was granted his ambitious RKO movie deal, his initial plan was to make an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s classic novel Heart of Darkness, featuring first-person camera techniques, elaborate sets, and Welles’ own narration. Though production got far enough that test footage was shot featuring miniature set designs, RKO ultimately shut the movie down because the budget grew too high. In searching for an alternate project, Welles happened upon a massive screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz called American. After several rewrites, this screenplay would become Citizen Kane.
3. AUTHORSHIP OF THE SCRIPT IS STILL DISPUTED.
In the end, both Mankiewicz and Welles would win an Academy Award for the screenplay for Citizen Kane, but it’s still not entirely how much work each man did on the final product. Welles once claimed that Mankiewicz was responsible for the first two drafts, while he had significant input on the third. A contract signed by Mankiewicz apparently stipulated that the studio was allowed to omit his name on the script, while a Screen Writers Guild rule at the time stated that a producer (in this case, Welles) could not be given a writing credit unless he wrote the script “entirely without the collaboration of any other writer.” In the end, the two parties agreed to share credit.
Part 2
Citizen Kane uses ingenious camera techniques to allow some shots to happen, some techniques used would involve props that would pull apart to allow the camera to move through a certain area, they would create elevated sets so that they could place a camera at the actors feet.
the film uses light in a way to portray characters. For example during several key points during the film where an important moment of Kane's life is happening all light is removed from Kane's face. This shows mystery within Kane and subliminally reminds the audience that this is still a flashback, therefore the person who is having the flash back wouldn't know what Kane was thinking.
character movement and positioning were used along with lighting
