Description
Guidelines:
- The paper must have a title— be creative but stay on point!
- The paper must have developed introductory and concluding paragraphs.
- The paper’s thesis must address your stance on whether you agree, disagree, over even are mixed between the two towards the director’s technical choices throughout the film and why? A more straightforward statement is: Do you believe they did the play “justice” through their adaptation as a whole? How so?
a. This “why”/ “how so” is where you discuss what you’ve chosen to specially examine about the film itself
b. *See below for the list of possible topics to explore. - The paper’s body must discuss/ examine all the following:
a. A synopsis of your chosen Shakespeare play:
i. For example: Is it a comedy or a tragedy? What is it about? Where does it take place? What’s are some of the notable themes within it? Etc.
b. Your chosen film and the background of the film:
i. For example: The film’s budget, year release date, reception, significance of its release date—for instance, why does an adaption of one of Shakespeare’s plays show up in 1996? Any notable actors and actresses? Etc.
c. *3-4 credible film reviews (not opinionated blog posts)
i. Your film reviews may agree, disagree, or may lie between a neutral area to help support your own stance on the director’s adaptation.
ii. *See https://guides.temple.edu/english822 for a film review database.
iii. *If your chosen film doesn’t have many reviews on the site (specifically for the case of Rupert Goold’s Macbeth), you may ask me for assistance in finding credible reviews.
d. *A discussion of what film techniques you want to examine to support your stance(s)/ views:
i. Some of them may include the director’s choice of the following, such as, but not limited to:
➢ Overrepresented/ Overlooked Themes
o *this is specific to your play/ film
o Love, hate, murder, death, ambition, power, violence, time, fate and/or free will, the supernatural, age—youth and elder, race/ethnicity, justice, wealth, greed, revenge, religion, social classes, marriage, gender performances and/or gender roles, familial relationships, friendships, etc.
➢ Camera techniques
o camera angles, scene shots, camera movements and positions, etc.
➢ Editing
o fading, cutting, long takes, etc.
➢ Sound
o Film score, synchronous sounds, theme music/tune, sound effects, sound bridges, etc.
➢ Lighting
o Color schemes, cast shadows, “hard” light, “soft” light, top lighting, etc.
➢ The settings of the film
o Same as play or more modern?
➢ The language/ dialogue
o True to the play or more modernized?
➢ Clothing
o Period clothing or more modernized?
➢ Character relationships and/ or character representations
o their race, ages, behaviors, mannerisms/ expressions, costumes, etc. (**DO NOT do a direct, majority copy and paste of the Film analysis paper though!)
▪ *See our Canvas page’s “Film Terminology” sheet for more examples.*
Sample Solution
