Chapter 3- Art Direction

It is interesting to see the contrasting personalities of Welles and Ferguson that managed to come together to create Citizen Kane. This chapter really stresses the importance of an art director in the production of film in more ways than one- for the creative development and the personalization of the film. It was necessary that Ferguson was the way he was, getting along with everyone on set and getting work done efficiently. He was easy going, which juxtaposed Welles temperament and demands on set.
I learned a lot about the art director's role in the production of the film that surprised me. It is interesting to discover the the script of a film only contains minimal information about the scenes, and it is the art departments job to bring those scenes to life. With this in mind, it really shows how Citizen Kane is made personal through the eyes of Ferguson. I also found it interesting to learn how the cost of production was not financially dissimilar from other films, yet the sets were very unorthodox and had special requirements. The film even had a record number of 93 sets, and they each represented a variety of diverse places covering a 75 year period. That demonstrates the skill of the art department and their ability to portray the film in a creative way.