Y10 Media assignment

These are my original teaching notes from when I was researching the project. You might find them useful although most of what you have here we've been through in class.

The Prologue

Luhrmann:
‘The truth’- Prologue functions to tell truth of the play. Function of the news?Signpost; modern mise-en-sceneThe gentle tracking-in shot, compared with montage of fast cuts of violent scenes and headlines in the establishing shots’.Signalling Action Adventure genre?

Zeffirelli:
Male voice-over– male authority?Tracking shot of Veronese roofttops– romantic, dawn setting.Font of opening credits– archaic italic (which means Italian!) script– signpost for C12th Italian mise-en-scene.Signalling Historical Romance genre?

Establishing Shots

Luhrmann:
Fast cuts, montage technique: sensory overload of modern urban life?
Headlines / front pages: immediacy and ephemeral nature of newspapers–
emphasises pace of R&J plot (the play’s action lasts just three days)Christ statue and ‘Montague’ and ‘Capulet’ towers– church and state are one, money / power and religion integral to story.

Zeffirelli:
Slow tracking shot, C12th Italian market, establishing mise-en-scene.Prosperity, peace of Verona– compare with atmosphere of Luhrmann’s ‘Verona Beach’.Historical accuracy of costume and setting in contrast to Luhrmann’s innovation and invention.

Opening dialogue

Luhrmann:
Gangster rap delivers macho boasts of Shakespeare’s original.Stylised challenge of Shakespeare’s original becomes a Western movie-influenced ‘goad the other guy to draw first’ situation.Innocence of young boy, nuns and Catholic iconography on clothes and guns contrasted with violence of the Capulet and Montague boys – Tybalt’s behaviour, Abra’s ‘Sin’ tooth-cap, Montague boy threatening nun with his pistol.

Zeffirelli:
Much of Shakespeare’s dialogue cut– bare bones of challenge, none of the macho boasts.Extra lines given to other Veronese, eg. a disapproving, ‘look at them!’ Idea that Verona is tired of the feud.Lines delivered with emphasised iambic pentameter– a classic reading.Little primary or secondary movement– cinematography imitating theatre experience?

The fight

Luhrmann:
Influences
Visual: Hong Kong ‘Gun Fu’ cinema (John Woo movies, The Matrix– balletic, stylised, slow-motion gunplay); Flamenco dance; bullfighting arrogance (Hispanic gang so Spanish influence); Westerns, especially ‘spaghetti Westerns’ of Sergio Leone (Tybalt’s cowboy boots with ‘spurs’, his cheroot, his fancy gunplay).Soundtrack: Enio Morricone ‘whistles’ and jangly guitar; Mariachi (Mexican) brass; Flamenco guitar and castanets.General sense of the urban, the multicultural, the cosmopolitan.

Zeffirelli:
More realistic than Luhrmann– swordplay gritty and chaotic, more people killed and injured (only one injury in Luhrmann, despite the close-range gunfight and explosions)Less glamorous, more visceral violence– in contrast to purity and romance of Romeo and Juliet’s love.Sense of Montagues and Capulets as two private armies, rather than mere youth gangs.

Entrance of Prince Escalus

Luhrmann:
Captain Prince helicopter entrance– sense of superior technology and organisation against the ferocity of the gangs.‘Three civil brawls’ speech in police station– separate from helicopter scene– change of pace, different from ‘set piece’ of the shoot-out.
Prince Escalus horseback entrance– again, superior technology (cavalry, armour) and organisation.

Zeffirelli:
‘Three civil brawls’ speech delivered from horseback– sense of immediacy of justice, Prince maintaining order only through superior force of arms, no
police or legal resources behind him.

Media coursework for Y10

Hello, everyone! You have successfully located Lighting Fools, Mr.Davies' blog created especially as a forum to support you chaps in getting the lovely shiny A*s for English Language and English Literature which you all so richly deserve.

You have, of course, handed in the first draft of your media assignment, and had it marked. Somewhere in the work I have underlined a passage and put an asterisk (*) beside it in the margin. This is the best idea or most beautifully-turned phrase in your assignment: your 'Golden Lines'. What I'd like you to do now is click on the 'Comments' tab below this post and type in your 'Golden Lines'. The rest of the class can then view it, and you can view theirs. It's a great way to share our best thoughts and turns of phrase. Please remember, though, there's sharing and there's copying: I don't expect your final drafts to be some kind of Frankenstein's monster of stitched together extracts from other people's work!

This is all a bit experimental: my first attempt at using the internet for something useful, rather than just buying rubbish off ebay and checking my bank account.

Testing