Media Assignment
In 1594 William Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet, probably one of his most famous plays. This play was directed at an Elizabethan audience. Since then it has been shown at most theatres and cinemas for the middle-aged, educated people, a good example of this was Franco Zefferellis film in 1968. This version was a tradition Shakespeare format, it was filmed in an Italian city, Verona, in the 16th century with all the traditional clothing and language. However, Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 movie ‘William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet’ is a very accessible version of the play. His adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic story has been mixed with a modern day society with guns and drugs but still using the Elizabethan English. He updated almost everything in his film to attract the younger audience. He was trying to achieve a box-office success and in my opinion, and many others he did succeed in his attempt in many ways.
In the opening sequence the audience would immediately know that the film was directed at the younger audience and had been updated to the 21st century, as it starts off with a blank television, this immediately shows the audience it is an updated version as the television is a 20th century invention. The camera zooms towards the TV and as it does a female news reader gives a vivid account of what is happening and what to expect in the plot, yet to unfold. She is a middle aged woman of Caribbean culture and has the ability to present her narrative in a clear diction. This also shows the audience the film has been updated because up until 25 years ago the black race were a 2nd class race across countries and in Shakespeare’s time the black race would not have been in one of his plays.