Modernising Shakespeare - Weekly Notes.

Week 8
We are getting more educated in the Film and TV. We did Film Appreciation. This will help us to get more incite and knowledge about acting styles in Film and Television. The film we watched was The Shining.This film got famous because of Jack Nicholson performance.Also the line "Hello Charlie" when he is chopping down the door with the axe also made is reputation. We watched how his thought process was very huge but showed it through his eyes. Usually on stage, an actors thought process is shown through gestures, face expressions and through the line. Their voices would be projected to fill the space.But in the film, Jack Nicholson's thought process was very huge like he is on stage. But he portrayed his thought process through his eyes.It was minimal face expressions, but his eyes told us a s a class a lot of what he is thinking. This was the best example of a film to watch because when modernising our shakespeare pieces, that is the level of focus that we should in our film and television unit.

Historical context of the Perfomrnace

My group piece is Macbeth. I am playing a Psychic Doctor and in my scene, I am having a observation on Lady Macbeth because of her sleep walking habits. My character was usually really old fashioned and back in those times, would most likely be wearing a robe, and head garments with sandals and pencil behind his ear. But in the modernised version, he is played as a everyday doctor seen in hospitals on a regular basis. Because of this, one my characters objective are slightly changed throughout the scene. In the classical version,one of my objectives is apart from trying to find a diagnosis for Lady Macbeth, trying to find out what the Gentlewoman is hiding from me. In the classical version that is changed ever so slightly. The Gentlewoman does not really have anything to hide any more.

Our piece is being modernised in a number of ways. We are now set in a hospital, specifically the corridors. Lady Macbeth is no more sleep walking, but is actually mentally disabled and keeps talking to herself about things that happened in her past, which is a bit over exaggerated in this case. The gentlewoman's role is changed to a student doctor who is learning from my expertise. I am not a psychic doctor, but a general doctor who oversees the entire hospital.

Social, Historical, Cultural and Political Influences

to be researched.

The play was set in Dunsinane Castle in Scotland, but now its changed to 

to be researched

Modernising Shakespeare

The next unit that we are doing at the moment is modernising into aspects of film and television.
 our shakespeare pieces and doing it to camera (film). We have started looking
We were lectured by Alex on Film and Television. He talked about different shots for. film
For example:

Extreme Shots -  This is a very close shot showing the detail of an object or the physical features of a person. 











Long Shot -  this category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of of the background details still emerges.

Medium Shot -This shot contains a figure from the knees/waist up and it is normally used for scenes with dialogue in it, or it is also used to show some detail of action. This could be two shots ( has two persons from the waist up) and three shots (containing three persons). But any more than three persons in a shot is known as a long shot.
Also included in this category is the over-the-shoulder shot.

Close-up - This shows very little background and it focuses on either the face or a specific part of a scene. Everything else in the background id blurred. The close-ups takes us into the mind of a character.

Extreme Close-ups - This version of the close-up generally show beyond what the normal eye would go through in real life. Extreme close-ups mostly shows the mouth or eyes, with nothing in the background. This shot is mainly used for dramatic effect.

Also in film and televsion, different camera angles are used.

the Bird's-Eye view

CAMERA ANGLES 

This shows a scene from directly overhead. This angle is very unnatural and strange angle. This shot puts the audience in a godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look in many different ways, for example, ant-like.

2. High Angle

This view is not as extreme as the Bird's eye view. They raise the camera above the action using a crane to give a general overview. The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting.

3. Eye Level

This shot is fairly neutral. The camera is placed as though it is a human actually observing a scene so that actors heads are on a level with focus. The cam,era is placed approximately five to six feet from the ground.

4. Low Angle

Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot tend to be just sky or ceiling, 

5. Oblique/Canted Angle

Sometimes the camera is tilted to suggest imbalance, transition and instability. This technique is used to suggest point of view shots.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

A director might choose to move the action along by telling the story as a series of cuts, going from one shot to another, or they might just decide to move the camera with the action. Moving the camera takes a great a deal of time and this makes the action seem much slower, as it takes many seconds for a moving camera shot to be effective, bwhen the same information may be placed on screen in a series of fast cuts. The style must not only be a chosen movement, but the method of moving the camera must also be selected. There are seven basic methods:

1. Pans 

This is a movement which scans a scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod, which operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving abject which is kept in the middle of the frame.

2. Tilts

A movement which scans a scene vertically, otherwise similar to the span.

3. Dolly Shots

Sometimes called trucking or tracking shots. They place the camera is placed on a moving vehicle and it moves along side what is going on, following a moving figure or object. 
Dolly shots that are complicated will involve a track laid down on the set for the camera to follow. The camera might be placed on a car, plane, or even a shopping trolley. 

4. Crane Shots

Crane Shots are dolly-shots-in-the-air. A crane is a very useful way to move a camera. It can be move up, down, left, right, swooping in on action or moving diagonally out of it. The camera operator and camera are both balanced by a heavy weight and trust their safety to a skilled crane operator. 

A crane in use, following the path of a balloon floating into the sky

5. Zoom Lenses

A zoom lens contains a mechanism that changes the magnification of an image.On a still camera, this means that the photographer can get a close up shot while still having distance from the object. A lens with a video zoom can change the position of where the audience is, either very fast, using a smash zoom or slowly without moving the camera. This saves a lot of time and trouble.

6. The Aerial Shot

This is an exciting variation of a crane shot, which is usually taken from an helicopter. This is often used at the start of a movie to establish setting and the movement. The helicopter is like a flexible kind of crane because it moves everywhere, can keep up with everything,can move in and out of a scene and can show real drama and exhilaration.

These are different types of shots and angles established in TV and Film.