"Citzen Kane- is a bold movie and is an acknowledged milestone in the development of cinematic technique. The intriguing opening is filled with mesmerizing lap dissolves and camera movements from one sinister, mysterious image to the next, searching closer and closer it seems. The film's first sight is a "No Trespassing" sign hanging on a giant gate in the night's foggy mist, illuminated by the moonlight. The camera pans up the chain-link mesh gate that dissolves and changes into images of great iron flowers or oak leaves on the heavy gate. On the crest of the gate is a single, silhouetted, wrought-iron "K" initial (for Kane).
In a sequence of views, the subjective and curious camera, approaches the castle and violates the "No Trespassing" sign by entering the neglected grounds. This is the first cinematic technique we see Welles use "the subjective camera. The subjective camera is "a camera shot or film style that provides the audience with the specific vision or perspective of a character in the film or the point of view of the film's author."".
When the scene shifts to swirling snowflakes, we find that the camera has panned inside a crystal glass globe, which is one of three appearances of the globe, each symbolizing different people/things in Kane's life. Flashbacks, which Welles used very effectively to tell his story, eventually show us that the broken globe seen in the first scene represents broken love. .
Orson Welles also uses shadows very efficiently. Such as when the camera enters the house through the window and all the viewer can see is a silhouette. He can create moods very effectively this way; making sure the viewer is feeling exactly what he wants them to feel. Welles creates these shadows by using unconventional lighting techniques. He seems to be using light and shade to make the viewers feel like they're looking at a picture. During most of the movie, Orson Welles uses the dissolving technique to switch from scene to scene.
