Orson Welles was by far the most intriguing person we looked over this week. Not to say that Keaton, Chaplin, and Hitchcock weren't without their own charm. But, Welles just seemed to me to have more raw emotion in him when working with the camera. Welles started in radio witch I think gave him an incredible insight in the mind and how happiness and fear is drawn upon and toyed with throughout a performance of any kind, may it be in radio or on the big screen. .
When watching a small documentary on Welles, it had a small clip of his reaction to all the hysteria brought upon by his 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds. Welles standing in front of what must have been fifty news reporters form various papers and stations from all over the world was able to stand up in the middle and say he had no idea that his production had caused such a craze. This furthered my respect for him as a man of control in any setting or situation. In my opinion he new exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it. The answer is power the power to have someone linger on your every word spellbound by what was said or the shear silence. .
Welles, who also had this power of suggestion and control in a cinematic sense. He wasn't afraid to use and means necessary to control us as the viewer to feel or see whatever he wanted us to feel, see, or maybe not see. In 1941 Welles made Citizen Kane which was an amazing show of control well still showing the viewer what they wanted to see. But, to me it was his control of light and shadow that interested me the most. He was able to shroud the "reporter" in dark for as long as we needed to know more about Kane's life. Welles also used such subtle transitions form one shot to the next that it made the audience feel comforted in the film and it's pace no matter what the speed of the given scene may be. Welles throughout his career I think understood our trust in the media to deliver us the facts and nothing else, this was apparent in both War of the Worlds and Citizen Kane.
