Citizen Kane Research

about randolph hearst
- one of the richest men in america
- “like a god in the newspaper business”
made by orson wells
- worked for tko
hearst would make news even if there wasn’t any
- told one of his reporters to jump overboard on a boat so he could write about how long it took for someone to save them
- paid a woman to collapse in the middle of the street and wrote an article about how they treated her

wells’ career was based on controversy
- that’s what he thought while making citizen kane
- ended up hurting him instead of benefiting him
orson directed play macbeth
- composed of mainly black actors
- none knew how to read shakespeare
- wells was constantly on their back
- got them to perform “as if they had been preparing for that show their whole lives”
had the ability to create dread in audiences

“every melodrama has at least three close calls”
- makes up stories/twists them so they are appealing
newspaper business=incredibly rough
- competition for papers was so intense they would shoot eachother
- President McKinley shot because of this
- would steal or buy eachothers papers out so people would have to buy opposing paper
- became a joke to the public
- ran for several more political roles, didn’t even get close
- was governor but hated it and sucked at it

wells began to run a radio station
- implicated dread even over radio
- was scaring people
hearsts second wife marion was a gold digger
made films form merion
deeply in love with her, showed it by spending money on her
- built her a palace
- constantly featured her in his newspapers
- she was very comedic but hearse kind of hid her true personality
had biggest private zoo in the world
palace was half the size of rhode island
“the place god would have built if he had the money”
hearst started to run out of money
stocks dropped but he kept spending money on ridiculous amounts of art and other fancy stuff

hearts found out that movie was about him when he saw copy of script that was annotated by hearst lawyers
hearst was a visionary, not a stuck up old man as portrayed in the movie
- his papers became lower quality
luella parsons had a gossip column in the hearst paper
another one of his eyes and ears

welles had to give a speech to get rko to release the film
people started to dig into his personal life
- reporters, journalists, etc
- hearst started to suggest welles was a communist
fbi opened a file on welles and came to the conclusion that he was a threat to the nation
started to destroy welles
citezen kane only won one oscar, for best screenplay
- had 9 nominations total
orosen never got control of a major picture again
hearsts reputation was ruined by citizen kane
film could not be killed no matter how hard hearst tried
movie was very ahead of its time
- almost like the story of kane related more to his life
welles became incredibly obese
life wasnt what is was before
“2% movie making and 98% hustling”

wells works for rko
doesn’t get along with hearst at all
- thinks of him as a hyppocrite
wells wants to take him down, take away his power
“love on his own terms. those are the only terms anybody has ever known” = tragedy of film
name “kane” chosen because it was one syllable and had a good sound to it
orosen shot many takes of each shot to get it exactly right
makowitz-screenwriter
- wells cut his name out
- eventually put his name back on it
for one shot they literally tore out the floor to get the camera at the right angle
newspaper lady snitched on wells and told hearst after first screening of film
hearst’s “eyes and ears” failed him and he didn’t find out about the movie wells had made detailing his life until after it had been made
lots of threats towards wells and rko to get them to not release the picture
hearst becomes 125 million dollars in debt
marion sold her jewelry to help hearst pay back his debt
major movie industry owners want to by the movie and then burn it
movie ended up being released

Game Design and Film