Split diopters can bring two things in focus simultaneously without causing uneasiness. It may appear too manipulative in some cases. This can guide viewer’s attention from one character to another or from a foreground action to a background smoothly, but the invisible hand is so obvious. There is a technique called “rack focus”, in which the cameraman changes the plane of focus from background to foreground, vice-versa during one shot. Brian De Palma is known to be particularly fond of this technique. This half-lens has been utilized in many films since ’70s, when the particular scene calls for two distinctive planes of focus, one in background and the other in front, without resorting to post-production processes or back-projection techniques. Composite Shot in CITIZEN KANE Multiple Exposure Shot in CITIZEN KANEĪ split diopter is a device, with which a cameraman can have two different planes of focus in one shot. But I have never heard about the use of a split diopter. As Schrader points out, some of the most stunning “deep-focus” scenes in CITIZEN KANE are not deep-focus as advertised. According to Linwood Dunn, the RKO special effects engineer, “in some reels the percentage of optically printed work is as high as 80 percent”. Some of them were multiple exposures and the other were processed using an optical printer in the RKO lab. shot in one take using a wide-angle lens with a small aperture. Carringer, you must be familiar with the fact that a large part of “deeply-focused” scenes was not deep focus, i.e. Game Changers: The Birth of Narrative, Paul SchraderĪctually, if you have listened to the Roger Ebert’s audio commentary on CITIZEN KANE BluRay or have read “ Making of Citizen Kane” by Robert L. The fact is, Toland had used deep-focus photography before, and some of the most stunning “deep-focus” scenes in Kane aren’t even deep-focus-they were done with a split diopter and two different planes of focus. In the mythology of Hollywood the mantra has become that Gregg Toland and Orson Welles created deep-focus photography. And therefore the focal length was a little deeper. Gregg Toland was using the new coated lenses, which allowed him to let about 10 percent more light into the lens.
Sometimes a film will get an undeserving reputation for a certain kind of technical innovation. Then, I ran into this passage written by Paul Schrader: Film history books tell you that Gregg Toland was behind this technological wizardry in this 1941 RKO film. I do admire the look of the certain frames composed in tortuously forced perspective in Orson Welles’ films, especially in CITIZEN KANE. And the use of deep focus cinematography is the topic many of the cinephiles would love to discuss in great length. CITIZEN KANE must be the most analyzed film of all time.
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