Cinematography Techniques in Citizen Cane and Blade Runner

Cinematography Techniques in Citizen Cane and Blade Runner

Introduction

Creating films tends to be a complex process that requires various skills and skilled workers. The process entails using lighting specialists, make-up artists, actors, and cinematographers. All these individuals play crucial roles in ensuring the process becomes a success. The cinematography work may be perceived to be simplest as it entails holding the camera. However, it is a complex process that entails artfully combining clips, viewpoints, and angles hence giving a scene its identity. Therefore, various filming techniques are crucial to producing the most notable films enjoyed globally by the viewers and entail a complex process. The process has been made easier with the technological advancements in the film industry. For instance, the drone has become increasingly popular in the film industry with its various advantages replacing costly methods to have overhead shots. This paper explores the cinematographic techniques used in the movies Citizen Cane’ and ‘Blade Runner.’

Cinematography Techniques in the ‘Citizen Cane’

            The most common cinematography techniques include music, lights, camera angle, sound, computer-generated imagery, Mise-en-scene, et cetera. In the movie ‘Citizen Cane’ various techniques are utilized, as illustrated below: Sound. The movie’s introduction begins like a horror movie as the camera focuses on a dark castle, specifically in one of the rooms where music plays and stops abruptly, creating silence (Gottesman, 45). The cinematographer uses the sound contrastingly to illuminate Kane’s public and private life as the movie proceeds. While depicting his public life, there tend to be heightened volume levels, whereas, in his private life, there tend to be relatively quiet volume levels. Also, the camera angle technique is prevalent in the film, revealing the existing relationship between the two main actors, Kane and Susan. Throughout the movie, there is a tendency in the camera angle to focus on Kane from a low angle, making him appear tall, large, and dominating. In contrast, the camera angle focuses on Susan from a high angle, diminishing her physically and making her appear small and vulnerable.

Additionally, the cinematographer interplays the light and shadow technique. In the movie, Kane’s face tends to be lit at the beginning, portraying his youthful, idealistic face, but as the film progresses, the light fades on Kane’s face when he becomes a less comprehensible figure. Besides, the cinematographer used the technique of deep focus, which portrays everything in the frame, including the background. The technique utilizes a type of camera lens, composition, and combining positively to produce the desired effect that can show overlapping effects and misce-en-scene.

Cinematography Techniques in the Blade Runner

Ridley Scott’s film ‘Blade Runner’ is a science fiction film that uses various techniques like symbolism, noir, and cinematography, making it distinctive. The cinematographer of the movie used various techniques to highlight the distinction between the natural and unnatural world. The first cinematic technique evident in the film is the camera angle, whereby, in the opening shot, there is a view of the Los Angeles skyline at a wide angle (Bukatman, 1). Another technique used is lighting, which plays an important role in the overall film shot composition. In the film, the lighting is important as it differentiates replicates from humans. The sound technique entails the sounds heard in the film other than dialogue or music sounds. There are background sounds like noise in the city and other sounds amplified to create effects in the movie. Moreover, the Mise-en-scene technique is used in the movie, which entails the arrangement of everything in the film, including the camera angles, actors, props, costumes, lighting, sound, et cetera. The Mise-en-scene techniques evident in the film entail the rainfall on the street with the artificial lights, which contributes to the feeling of claustrophobia depicting dystopia.

Compare and Contrast Cinematography Techniques in Citizen Cane and Blade Runner

The two films used the most common film elements in their casts. The ‘Citizen Cane’ and ‘Blade Runner’ used lighting, sound, camera angle, mise-en-scene, and genre. These techniques tend to be crucial in the film industry as they play a crucial role in making successful movies of different genres known today. It is because of the techniques that the movies tend to be thrilling and entertaining. However, the two differ in how the cinematographer used the lights. In the film Citizen Cane, the light is used as part of a deep-focus technique that illuminates figures and characters, including the backgrounds. In contrast, in the film blade runner, the light is used as part of making the film.

In conclusion, creating films is a complex ordeal that entails various components, including actors, make-up artists, and filmmakers, among other parties. The cinematographer plays a crucial role in ensuring the film generated is quality hence controlling various aspects such as lighting, camera angle, sound, genre, et cetera. The two films Citizen Cane’ and ‘Blade Runner‘ used similar techniques, including lighting, sound, camera angle, mise-en-scene, and genre in their cast, but differed in some aspects like the use of lighting and the concept of deep-focus technique that illuminates the scene and projects everything including the background. The two films employ creative techniques, making them considered successful. In Citizen Cane film, it appears to be biographical as Blade Runner tends to be a dystopia.

Work Cited

Bukatman, Scott. Blade Runner. London: British Film Institute, 1997.

Gottesman, Ronald, ed. Focus on Citizen Kane. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

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Do the cinematographic techniques in Citizen Kane and Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut or Blade Runner: The Final Cut stress material presence (the image as presence) or textual representation (the image as text)? Use examples of particular cinematographic strategies from both films to support a conclusion. You need not compare or contrast the two films, but you may do so where the comparison or contrast will help you make your point. You also do not need to argue about the relative dependence on one of the kinds of images (i.e., whether the films emphasize one kind of image over the other kind). It is more important to demonstrate how certain approaches in each film emphasize one of the kinds of images. You should also indicate how one of the kinds of images promotes the film’s themes or messages in specific ways.

Cinematography Techniques in Citizen Cane and Blade Runner

Possible sources

Bukatman, Scott. Blade Runner. London: British Film Institute, 1997.

Gottesman, Ronald, ed. Focus on Citizen Kane. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Kerman, Judith B., ed. Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State UP, 1991.

Lebo, Harlan. Citizen Kane: The Fiftieth-Anniversary Album. New York: Doubleday, 1990.

Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. London, British Film Institute, 1992.

Neumann, Dietrich, ed. Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner. Munich: Prestel, 1996.

Schwartz, Richard A. The Films of Ridley Scott. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.