Citizen Kane...

I do believe that films can indeed be influential over individuals overall. film director's opinions and morals come into play when creating plots and stories, not to mention any biases they inject into it as well. For instance, war propaganda movies are made to sway opinion to one side's cause or the other, often depicting that the other side is not human, or somehow lesser than their own, and that it is necessary to kill and/or fight them.

Orson Welles' careful use of dialogue and scene setup throughout Citizen Kane definitely show off his knowledge of radio and theater. an example of this is how there are many interviews throughout, and even if you look away from the screen, you can still get a good sense of what is happening by the audio ques he leaves through all of his transitions, be it flashbacks or to a new scene altogether.

One example I can think of where low-angle shots were used heavily was then his ex-guardian goes to talk to Kane about his newspaper's campaign against the Public Transit company. At first the camera is angled down on Kane as he's kicked back in his chair, the other man coming in from the high point which seems to signify his supposed importance. the camera suddenly shifts though int he opposite direction when Kane begins to speak and the roles are reversed, the camera angle giving a sense of depth and importance to Kane as if he has won the argument.

A prominent example of how transitions were used in this film is the breakfast scene in the memorial hospital. first we start off in a small, fairly confined scene, but cuts to a larger dining room scene. This is done by use of a long fade-transition that blends the 2 scenes together until the first disappears and you are left with the later one. during this next scene of them at breakfast, use of a spinning camera int he room signifies the passage of time between different shot sin the same room, depicting their relationship deteriorating over the years they were together.

Early Sound and The Artist

The 2011 movie "The Artist" has alot in common with with older silent films which it is based off of, but introduces a few modern concepts here and there I think to make it appeal to a modern audience.Here are some of my observations form the film in regards to how it compares and contrasts to older silent films.

Camera Work
The camera angles in The Actor somewhat resemble earlier silent films by pulling the camera back in many scenes. the thing that makes it obvious this is a modern film in this regard (other than picture quality) is that there are alot of three quarter shots used in this. In early silent/voiced films, there still wasn't a solid concept of proper shot size, so full shots were still fairly the norm if i am not mistaken.

Sound and Music
The sound used in this film is somewhat reminiscent of the early synchronized sound films as it has orchestra playing different parts that are suited to the scene, not an overarching soundtrack like in ones of the silent era.

Dialogue/Speech
the speech and text dialogue confuses me a little bit honestly. Its obviously going for the silent film aesthetic as it has notecards that come up, and I assume having it in another language as the main writing is part of that effect, but the reason for it somewhat eludes me really. 

Editing
The editing in The Artist, is in my experience, much more up to modern standards than compared to the old style of editing. there are alot more cuts and transitions used here than in older works, which would have had alot more static or drawn out shots overall.

Special Effects
I feel as if they really tried to subdue alot of the modern special effects in this film to try and make it feel more authentic overall, and to pretty darn good effect. the part where he momentarily hears sound in the dressing room was a startling event int he movie and was definitely evidence of modern editing techniques.

Genre codes and Conventions
I'd say overall that The Artist uses alot of technical codes instead of symbolic ones. heavy editing from our modern era gives it a slightly different overall feel from its old predecessors and in that way goes against the conventions of the time. 

Acting
The acting in this film was pretty good overall for a silent type film, but I feel as if they forgoed some of the dramatization to differentiate between the film and the in movie filming scenes, and instead used alot more notecard prompts to indicate speech as well as just using more subtle actions.

Northwest film history - Scarecrow Video