The first thing I have decided to do is to choose which character I am going to focus on during this coursework. I have decided on Juliet as she is one of the leading characters and has a lot of involvement in quite a lot of the scenes. Also personally I find she is intriguing in the way that she sends off the impression she is innocent and loved up, but if you really look into the scenes, you can se how she is actually quite controlling of Romeo. An example of this is in Act 3 Scene 5, where Juliet persuades to stay after he spends the night with her. She says
“Therefore stay yet, thou need’st not be gone.”
But then, when he decides to stay she says,
“O now be gone; more light and light it grows.”
This reply obviously makes him go. I would like to bring this side of Juliet out, which will hopefully bring new light into the play.
I have also considered adding more humour to the character of Juliet. I would though find this quite weird though as I have never known a production to something like this. I could maybe have Lilly Savage as Juliet herself. The only problem with this idea though, is that it wouldn’t work quite as well in the more sombre scenes. Another thought of how I could delineate Juliet’s character is if I chose to set the film in the era of 1920’s gangster America with the most famous actress of all time, known as Marilyn Monroe to play the part of Juliet. Although I think this is an excellent idea, I don’t really have enough knowledge of this time period. So I have decided to set the film in a period of time where I know about and what I am interested in. To me this is the late 1970’s London’s punk era. This will fit in quite well with my idea of bringing out Juliet’s controlling rebellious side. The reason why I want to do this is that the majority of people who have seen the play or Baz Luhrams film, will assume that Juliet is innocent and she’s guiltless. I want to bring out new light into the film and make the audience see the other side of Juliet, the controlling and rebellious side.
I now have to decide who will play Juliet. I have decided that Alyson Hannigan will play Juliet, as she is an extremely talented actress and I feel she would be able to achieve the image I have set for Juliet.
I think the costumes of Juliet will play an important role in my production, previously Juliet has been seen to wear white, innocent clothing, while in my production Juliet will be wearing constantly her precious “Dr Martens” which will be black throughout the film, as these will match any clothing Juliet will be wearing. Another important aspect of appearance will be Juliet’s hair colour and style. I think at the beginning of the film in Act 1 Scene 3, when Juliet is first introduced I have decided to make her hair aqua blue. This is to give the audience the image I want straight away from the very start of the film, this will introduce to the audience that the film is going to have a different interpretation of Juliet. She will also be wearing her DM’s, plain black tights and a short pleated tartan skirt, and a “ragged black top. Make up and piercing and accessories will also have to be considered. I think Juliet will have her ears pierced several times, silver and purple hoops will be worn. She will also have her left eyebrow pierced twice with two small silver hoops worn in each hole. She will wear the same jewelery throughout the film.
Also to fit the setting of the play, instead of meeting at Lord Capulet’s feast, Romeo and Juliet will meet at a Sex Pistols gig. (The Sex Pistols were a famous punk band around the time of 1977)> For this gig Juliet will be wearing black jeans cut at her knee, black studded belt and a black vest top. The neck of the top will be low cut to give a type of “vixen” look.
At the beginning of Act 4 Scene 2 where Juliet is alone in her room thinking about the poison she is just about to take, she will be wearing a light baby blue nightdress, which gives a different point of view about Juliet.. She will have a baby like image, this could be ambiguous depending on the audience’s interpretation, the audience could see her as babyish in the way that she has to resort to lethal poison to solve her problem or baby like in the way that she is as clueless and feel very insecure about what she is about to do and hasn’t thought about the consequences.
As I have changed the time and place setting of the original play, I will have to make a lot of changes to where the main events happen. For example as I said before, instead of being at Capulet’s feast held at the Capulet’s mansion, where the two young lovers meet I have changed it to a punk gig. They both glance at each other noticing there something about the other one that find strangely attractive, they ended up being pushed together by the large crowd and decide to leave the gig so they can talk to each other without interference.
Both the Montagues and Capulets live in big London houses, but both Romeo and Juliet hang around the suburban streets where their friends live. The famous balcony scene will also be changed to be situated at an underground club, which conviently has a balcony. In this scene you will see Juliet takes a couple of hits from a bong before she speaks to Romeo. Romeo also at various parts of the film, smokes dope with friends. This was not unusual for the youth culture at the time.
In the scene where her dad goes to strike her, she will storm out the house in a fit of rage and go the club to get things off her mind. This will be another scene where drugs will be involved. The audience will see Juliet in the woman’s toilets with some of her friends, where one of the friends will pass her a joint. I know some people will disagree with the showing of drugs being used in the film, but other films have shown the use of more hardcore drugs such as heroine and cocaine, this is why I would think my film would be a certificate of 15.
Baz Luhrman also included drugs in his film, when Romeo and his friends show up at the Capulets’ feast, which changed the audiences’ opinion of Romeo as will it in my film with Juliet. This though is exactly the type of opinion I want my audience to have. Although there could be moral issues raised, but in my defence the poison taken by Juliet is in fact a drug itself.
The film will also contain quite a bit of swearing, which again will not be approved of by the older audiences, but again many other films have used even coarser language and have got away with it.
During the balcony scene Juliet will be wearing a blue long sleeved top, short black skirt with a two lined studded belt, no tights and her DM’s with her laces untied. Her hair will hang loosely around her face and appear to be very messy as if she has made no effort with it.
The language itself will also have to be dramatically changed. Shakespeare uses the use of a oxymoron quite a lot; this shows the confusion of the audience. Examples of this in the play is in Act 1 Scene 1, where Romeo explains to Benvolio why he is sad, he uses phrases like “Feather of lead” “Bright smoke” and “Cold fire”. Dramatic irony is also use in the play, in the beginning of Act 3 Scene 2, we (the audience) know that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished from Verona, but Juliet does not and awaits for him to come to her on their wedding night. The main part of the play is written in blank verse, in lines of ten syllables with a repeated pattern. He uses blank verse so the play has a strong varied rhythm in the verses.
In my film I will have to change the language to English slang. I think the change of language might bring a bit of humour into the film without the intention as the viewers will probably expect it to be in Shakespearean language and will surprised to hear Juliet saying “Where the bloody hell is that Romeo of mine” instead of the “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” For this reason Alyson Hannigan will have to take speech lessons so she can talk in a cockney accent, as she is in fact American.
Another example of change in language is in Act 1 Scene 3, where Lady Capulet is discussing how old Juliet is, she calls Juliet and instead of her answering “How now? Who calls?” in my version she will reply with “Who the hell wants me now?” The she goes on to say “Right I’m here now, so what do you want, can’t you see I’m dying my hair?” she will say this in a annoyed voice as a typical teenager would. All throughout the play she will answer to her parents in an annoyed tone, as does not want any involvement with them as she feels as though they don’t really love her as they never take any real notice of her and they are to involved in their own live. An example of her the uncaring attitude of her parents is in Act 3 Scene 5 where Juliet tell her parents she will not marry Paris, her father loses his temper and says, “And you be not, hang, bag, starve, die in the streets, For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee”. He means by this that he will disown her if she doesn’t marry Paris on the upcoming Thursday.
I am also going to add parts in, to keep in the idea of Juliet being a rebellious teenager. For example in Act 1 Scene 3, where Lady Capulet and the nurse are discussing Juliet as a child. In my version, when the nurse recalls events of Juliet’s life when she was two, the mother will say, “I remember when you were a little girl and you would look so pretty in your dresses, but now look at you, you look awful”. Her mother will continue to have something bad to say to Juliet about everything she does, the way she dressed and the way she did her hair that day etc. Whenever her mother does make comments like this though Juliet would have been used to these remarks and just walk out the room, to go see her friends and or will just mumble a insulting comment under her breath.
To her mother, Juliet does not act herself, but when she is hanging out her with her friends she does become more herself. One of the main topics of conversation with her friends, during the play will be one of Paris, or the “posh snob” as Juliet calls him. Before Juliet knows about her fathers plans for her to marry him, Paris walks past her and Juliet will something like “Oh god, would you look at that? I can’t believe how some people think money is so important.” So when she finds out about the plans, she hits the roof and does the usual shouting and screeching of a teenager, when her father goes to strike her, she stops his hand and throws it back at him and to his surprise says “Don’t ever try to touch me again or you’ll get what you deserve” This will show that Juliet can be quite a strong character and is not afraid to strike out against her parents, she is not quite as weak as Shakespeare’s’ original Juliet.
The actions of Juliet are also very important. When she is annoyed she will cross her arms and give whoever or whatever she is annoyed at, a dirty look. This is the sort of side I want to bring out of Juliet, make her seem like a normal teenager (very moody) and more independent. This film version will be more of how the world works nearer to the present day and will hopefully be more understood by the audience whatever the age, although I do think this film will be more appealing to people of 16 and above.
Music will have a lot to do in my film production. So when the film is released I will bring out a soundtrack, which would hopefully sell-out the one Baz luhrman made. The soundtrack would include songs from such bands as Sex Pistols, The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers, The Undertones, Ramones, Jilted John and although Rancid and The Distillers are bands from the present I think they would fit in well in the late 70’s punk scene. Songs and some of these bands may not be used in the film but will be included in the soundtrack to make a decent sized track list. The soundtrack would hopefully make more profit for the company. The club scenes will include songs such as:
Lawrence Arms- Ghost stories
The Distillers-The World Comes Tumblin’ Down
The Distillers-Ask The Angels
Rancid-The Wars End
Rancid-Ruby Soho
The Business-Takers & Users
The Business- Guiness Boys
I have chosen these songs they would fit in well with the time period and set the mood and give the audience the view of Juliet as a rebel. Also throughout the film, miniature guitar solos from different songs will be played.
As the language has changed completely and not remotely similar to the original script, people may say the language has lost its captivating quality, but I think that people have already seen Shakespeare’s language and will appreciate seeing one of his most popular plays in a different light. Also with the change of language I have made the play easier to relate to and to understand, so the viewer will not have difficulty in reading the plot.
Times have moved on since Shakespeare and the ways of how people run their lives has as well. I think this version will be understood by many people and will still get the storyline across. On the other hand I don’t think some critics will approve of the changes I have made and will think the changes made to the language have been too extreme. I think though the changes I have made to the language fits in perfectly to the new setting of the play. I don’t think the film would be successful if a cockney punk was talking in Shakespearean English.
If the general public don’t like the film then that’s how it goes, but I don’t think I would change the way I would direct films, in the way of making radical changes to the original script. I want to explore the possibilities and effects of the changes I make. Filmmaking is all about experimenting, creating and imagination in my opinion.
I’m sure the film will have no problem in attracting a wide audience as I think people will be intrigued to find out how a director could change the most famous romantic play into a hard core punk frenzy.
My inspiration for the changes has came from Baz Luhrman’s adaptation of the play. He showed how you can still change the time and settings of an respectable play and still make it a successful bug budget movie. Even though he stuck closely to the script, he did change the ending, where Romeo kills Paris, he did not include this in his movie (to make the audience more sympathetic of Romeo). This showed me that you can change parts of the play to change the audiences’ interperation of certain characters, which is what I have done with Juliet.
