Analysis of Citizen Kane opening

In the Opening of Citizen Kane there are various of different shots being used, creating many effects. In the very beginning there was a close up shot of a sign saying "No trespassing", this is telling the audience that the place this movie is situated in, is dangerous and could also hint of the genre which could be either horror or drama.The establishing shot was of a possibly abandoned castle in a deserted cemetery emphasising the fact this movie will contain thriller and horror. The extreme close up was when Kane spoke his final words, while this was happening the camera zoomed around Kane's lips; these were his final words that Kane spoke.

The Fading transitions does also suggest that the shots will continues. The use of accelerating time was used to fast forward the time from the bottom of the cemetery until the death of Kane on his deathbed.When Kane is laying in his deathbed about to pass, hes holding a mysterious object which later turns out to be a snow globe. This snow globe falls and breaks as soon as Kane dies. The snow globe is representing Kane's life, once he died everything will be gone and vanish.

The music and sound being played in the background is very creepy and eerie, this creates suspense because the music is slowly starting to progress and build up speed as it get closer to the main part which is the death of Kane. At times the sound went silent to bring in the audience and to make them more focused into the movie. The lighting was low-key this caused intimidation and tension because the audience did not have a clue of might happen during this scene. Fog was used to emphasise the fact that it was really hard to see and it also to emphasise more the scene this was situated in was more scary.

Different type of camera angles were taken to not only make the movie better but also to emphasise the spookiness of this castle. A low angle shot was taken to make the castle seem much more bigger than it is. Pan shots were used to show us how empty the surroundings of the castle are and to also emphasise on how big the whole area is.High angle shots of boats were taken to show the inferiority compared to the castle.