The Significance of Lighting, Blocking and Panning in...

In cinema, lighting, blocking and panning drastically influence what an audience will notice and take away from a scene. Orson Welles’s 1941 Citizen Kane has numerous examples of effectively using these aspects within mise-en-scà ¨ne, cinematography and editing to portray the importance of specific events and items in the film. The scene where Kane writes and then publishes his â€Å"Declaration of Principles† (37:42-39:42) in the New York Daily Inquirer after buying them focuses on important elements of the film, aiding the audience by combining lighting, blocking and panning to define significant roles and objects that further the movie as a whole. Mise-en-scà ¨ne, what the audience sees in a film, is crucial to the movie’s development.†¦show more content†¦A few cuts later he writes on the document right before handing it off to Sully, the lighting shows proud grins between all the faces present in the frame and also in the left of the frame has a n illuminated bottle of champagne to signify the accomplishment of the document’s exchange of hands. The effective lighting in each cut along with props allows the viewer to gather significance in the scene as a whole. Blocking, an attribute of cinematography, is used very effectively in this scene in part with both lighting and props. The positioning of each character tells a great deal as to their role in the movie as well as to the scene itself. The inclusion of chairs pays tribute to the lesser roles of both Leland and Bernstein. The two of them are sitting down almost entirely during the scene while Kane is standing the whole time, towering over them and allowing him and his document to be the most natural observation of the scene. To further the importance of both Kane and his paper, there is the inclusion of more props and blocking methods throughout the scene as well. For the majority of the scene, Kane is centered, representing his title as the newspaper’s owner. Even when moving to different locations during cuts, there are only brief moments when Kane and his document are not in the camera’s center focus. This being the case, the lighting does not illuminate him as much as the supporting cast. This is because he is the