Film and Theatre Versions/Productions of Macbeth

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The Beauty of the Theatre is the Ability of the Directors who adapt original plays for their intended purpose and audience

One of the most important aspects of a film is its opening scene. From the very start, you can be informed about the keynote and theme of the film. It is the opening scene that wants you to watch on, and it is the opening scene in which many films are remembered for.

It is the role of the director to make such scenes stick in the heads of their audience, and how they interoperate the scene in question is all down to the style and technique of the director (and also the money in which they have for the special effects!).  Some directors may take the play in question for what it is for, and copy it exactly, which can be just as effective. But other directors have the ability to look deeper into the play, and find meanings of phrases, and actions, and turn them into bigger parts of the film, thus altering the original into something a bit different, but just as good.

When Macbeth was preformed in the Globe, in the Elizabethan times, there was not a lot of resources available for special effects, due to the fact that the technology was not around at that time, and they didn’t have a huge amount of money, as the play was free to watch, and people would come and go, and maybe miss half of the play.

The techniques that the actors in the days of Shakespeare and in modern times are different, and these techniques are;

The way the actors talked, because in the day of Shakespeare, the English brogue has changed very much, meaning the ways in which the lines and words are said are different.

The stage props and special effects are different, as said before, due to modern day technology, and the money invested into the play or film.

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Welles' film is in black and white and it opens with an establishing shot of the dark clouds in the sky, looking threatening above the mist. They seem to be up on a heath, thus sticking to the original play. As we are watching this, music comes on, music, which is not out of tune, but it is eerily played, and it adds to the effect that something is wrong. And that the “Natural order” will be broken.

In the next shot the witches appear to be upon the heath, and this suggests that they are above ...

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