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Interpretation Through
Film Assignment
Clips from 2008
Clips from 2007
Shakespeare creates complex,
psychologically vibrant worlds through the words of his
plays; ultimately, this is why he remains the Master of the
Canon without question even four hundred years later.
He does this both by what he says about the characters--and
by the gaps that remain. I would argue that he is more
interesting--and more like us and like the neighbor in the
apartment down the hall--because of the gaps in our
knowledge--and even, perhaps, the gaps in Iago's
self-knowledge.
Theater productions and films
are like written literary analyses except that they are
holistic and global (they embody a vision of the entire
text), which literary analyses are not required to be.
Directors of theater and film make choices large (how can
the end of Taming of the Shrew make sense to modern
readers?) and small (what does Bottom the ass look like?) that fit
into their interpretation and understanding of them thematic
issues and emphases in their vision of the play. Every
valuable interpretation takes what is on the page and
breathes life into it whether it is on stage, on film, or on
the page.
The midterm assignment has
three components: filming (40%), writing (40%), and presenting
(20%), and you will be working in groups for these
assignments (although you can chose to work independently if
you would like). You will be working in pairs on a scene or
focus of your choice but you will be doing filming in groups
of four: this will provide technical support for camera work
and actors if you don't have others available.
Filming
Each pair of students will
produce a three - five minute sketch inspired by either
Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The
Taming of the Shrew.
These sketches may be narrative but are not limited to
narrative: imagistic sketches would be interesting as well.
For these sketches, you may
-
stage a brief, dense scene
within the play (example: the discovery within
Twelfth Night)
-
condense texts and/ or
actions from several scenes to make a thematic focus
(example: use lines from several scenes to compare and
contrast Bianca and Katherine)
-
take a thematic focus and
stage an interpretation of that theme (example: the
origins of love in Midsummer Night's Dream)
 While
I appreciate and encourage creativity, remember that it is
the relationship of your film to the text that is my
concern and that will be the focus of your presentation,
paper, and evaluation.
The mini DV cameras can be
checked out (for 24 hours) from Professor Chris Goble, who
will present on
Adobe Premiere; they must be reserved
through the schedule outside of the media lab. You will be
required to work in the CATA lab at least once when there is
a lab associate/ media tutor on duty. You may use i-Movie if
you are familiar with it and with Macs if you do not need
technical assistance. Ultimately, you must burn your sketch
to CD-R using Adobe Media Encoder so that it can be played
in class and posted to our website; I suggest that you keep
an .AVI file for future editing.
Writing
While you will be filming in
groups of four and editing in pairs, the writing component
will be done individually.
The essay is, in effect, a
version of a promptbook, which is a copy of the script used
by the stage management (stage manager, director) in
which staging choices (blocking, technical cues, etc) are
explained. These will create an interpretation
of the text, and thus you should use specific direct
quotations to show connections and interpretations of the
text. For your essay, you will choose several
major and several minor choices that work together to
demonstrate your filmic interpretation of the scene or
theme, and explain them and how they work the text.
The thesis for this essay will focus on the main
interpretation of your sketch. While you and your partner
will be discussing the same sketch, your focus will be
different in part and the writing is to be your own.
Speaking
You and
your partner will show your sketch to the class and explain
your interpretation and choices. The presentation should be
roughly five to ten minutes and both members must
participate in order to receive credit. Explain WHY
you did what you did. There will also be an
opportunity for questions and I will ask at least one
question about a choice that you made in the sketch.
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