Video Worksheet
What do you think are the challenges that face anyone who adapts a literary text into a film?
Think about:
· Language
· Names
· Particular expressions
· Locations
· Settings
· Context
How does a filmmaker make the text relevant to a contemporary audience?
Key decisions have to be made when the text is being prepared for a film:
· You can easily cut from location to location without having to verbally establish it.
· Actions speak louder than words.
· Cutting lines from one character may change the balance in favour of other characters.
· Some characters may be cut or amalgamated with others.
Working in groups, think of texts you have read which have been adapted for film.
Think about:
· Language
· Names
· Particular expressions
· Locations
· Settings
· Context
How does a filmmaker make the text relevant to a contemporary audience?
Key decisions have to be made when the text is being prepared for a film:
· You can easily cut from location to location without having to verbally establish it.
· Actions speak louder than words.
· Cutting lines from one character may change the balance in favour of other characters.
· Some characters may be cut or amalgamated with others.
Working in groups, think of texts you have read which have been adapted for film.
Which did you enjoy / dislike?
Why was this?
Be as specific as you can in your answers.
Discuss your views with others in your group.
Are there common factors which make an adaptation enjoyable or disliked?
What are the differences between seeing a film, watching the play in the theatre and reading the text of the play? With each experience of the text we are 'reading', but how do we read and experience each text? What gives us ideas about how to understand actions and characters?
What are the differences between seeing a film, watching the play in the theatre and reading the text of the play? With each experience of the text we are 'reading', but how do we read and experience each text? What gives us ideas about how to understand actions and characters?
Fill in the table with your ideas and then compare notes with the rest of your group.
The Fairy Tale Structure of the Film
The world of the reality of the relationship and the world of Romeo and Juliet get ever more intertwined and overlapping until in the last sequence Will is playing Romeo and Viola is playing Juliet.
At one point they kiss backstage and the film audience thinks they are being seen by the theatre audience when, in fact, the action has melted into them kissing on stage.
In a fairy tale the characters have hopes and dreams which seem impossible to achieve but by the end have miraculously or magically happened.
These are some of the hopes and dreams of the characters. Are they fulfilled as the story progresses?
The Fairy Tale Structure of the Film
The world of the reality of the relationship and the world of Romeo and Juliet get ever more intertwined and overlapping until in the last sequence Will is playing Romeo and Viola is playing Juliet.
At one point they kiss backstage and the film audience thinks they are being seen by the theatre audience when, in fact, the action has melted into them kissing on stage.
In a fairy tale the characters have hopes and dreams which seem impossible to achieve but by the end have miraculously or magically happened.
These are some of the hopes and dreams of the characters. Are they fulfilled as the story progresses?
What twists and turns are added to make the story even more detailed and satisfying?
- Will wants to write a new play. He feels he needs to find a new Muse to help him do that. He needs fifty pounds to buy into The Lord Chamberlain's Men.
- Viola wants to believe a play can show true love on stage.
Queen Elizabeth agrees to judge the wager between Wessex and Viola set up by Will.
- Mr De Lesseps wants his daughter to marry someone with a title.
- The Earl of Wessex wants to marry someone with money.
- Viola loves Shakespeare's plays and knows the words of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona'. In that play Julia needs to find her love and disguises herself as a boy to travel in safety.
- Mr Henslowe wants a successful new comedy for his Rose theatre.
- Mr Fennyman wants his money back. Plays never make any money.
- Mr Henslowe's tailor wants to be an actor but he stammers.
Has the film got a happy ending? How many threads of these storylines are completed by the end of the play? Are there any other threads? If it is a fairy tale should the hero and the heroine get married?
- Will wants to write a new play. He feels he needs to find a new Muse to help him do that. He needs fifty pounds to buy into The Lord Chamberlain's Men.
- Viola wants to believe a play can show true love on stage.
Queen Elizabeth agrees to judge the wager between Wessex and Viola set up by Will.
- Mr De Lesseps wants his daughter to marry someone with a title.
- The Earl of Wessex wants to marry someone with money.
- Viola loves Shakespeare's plays and knows the words of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona'. In that play Julia needs to find her love and disguises herself as a boy to travel in safety.
- Mr Henslowe wants a successful new comedy for his Rose theatre.
- Mr Fennyman wants his money back. Plays never make any money.
- Mr Henslowe's tailor wants to be an actor but he stammers.
Has the film got a happy ending? How many threads of these storylines are completed by the end of the play? Are there any other threads? If it is a fairy tale should the hero and the heroine get married?
"By the time I had finished reading page one of the script I knew I'd never be offered another one as good. What it meant to me was that I would be able to get virtually every actor I wanted just by showing them the script. even the tiniest role has an interesting journey and everyone has something to say."
John Madden, director 'Shakespeare in Love'
By the end of the film Will's Muse has become the inspiration not only for 'Romeo and Juliet' but also 'Twelfth Night'.
The Parallel World of the Lovers
The relationship of Viola de Lesseps and Will Shakespeare parallels and informs the writing of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Shakespeare uses the memory of 'real' events in his relationship to Viola when writing scenes for 'Romeo and Juliet'. A good example is the scene in the film depicting the morning after the consummation of Viola and Will's relationship and how it eventually appears in Will's play as a similar scene after the consummation of the marriage of 'Romeo and Juliet'.
The similarities
- Both couples are under pressure to be away from the room. Will has to write more of his play; Juliet must not be discovered with Romeo and he, in turn, has been banished to Mantua.
- There is a reluctance to leave as well as an urgency.
- In both cases it is dawn and the Nurse interrupts them.
- Compare the following extracts, one from Tom Stoppard's screenplay
and the other from the text of Romeo and Juliet (Act III, scene v).
The Parallel World of the Lovers
The relationship of Viola de Lesseps and Will Shakespeare parallels and informs the writing of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Shakespeare uses the memory of 'real' events in his relationship to Viola when writing scenes for 'Romeo and Juliet'. A good example is the scene in the film depicting the morning after the consummation of Viola and Will's relationship and how it eventually appears in Will's play as a similar scene after the consummation of the marriage of 'Romeo and Juliet'.
The similarities
- Both couples are under pressure to be away from the room. Will has to write more of his play; Juliet must not be discovered with Romeo and he, in turn, has been banished to Mantua.
- There is a reluctance to leave as well as an urgency.
- In both cases it is dawn and the Nurse interrupts them.
- Compare the following extracts, one from Tom Stoppard's screenplay
and the other from the text of Romeo and Juliet (Act III, scene v).
What can be told in images rather than words?
What are the similarities in the texts in terms of language?
posted by Instituto Cultural Pueblo Blanco | 9:58 AM
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