Film Studies Daily Log

Wednesday, May 12

Students checked out films for the second Outside Viewing essay, which is now due Monday, May 24.

Partly as a model for what students should do in those essays, we began to analyze Citizen Kane with regard to the elements of filmcraft listed on the assignment sheet for the essay. (Students need to examine one element in their films, while our analysis of Citizen Kane will examine all five: cinematography, lighting, mise en scene, film editing and sound.)

We looked especially at the motif of blank whiteness (movie screen, blank page, snow) and at the use of mise en scene in the Colorado scene.