In mainstream and experimental cinema, dramatic and comedic narratives, a film's presentation of performance will also reflect the director's stylistic vision. Films present performances in different ways because different directors make different uses of actors' expressivity, which is the degree to which actors do or do not project characters' experiences.
Presentation of performance differs from film to film as directors make different uses of cinematic expressivity, or the degree to which other cinematic elements enhance or somehow mediate and modify access to actors' performances. Working in different periods, aesthetic movements, and production regimes, directors have presented performances in markedly different ways.
Sensible directors use manipulative emotions as an important tool to convey the right impact. Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi” is one of the classic examples of using manipulative emotions to your advantage. Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ” is another example of this, but to say it is a highly manipulative film would be an understatement. On “The Passion of The Christ”, MS Sathyu the director of “Garam Hawa” one of the very first films on partition said “We all know Jesus was beaten black and blue before he was Crucified, but do we have to see all the 50-100 times he was whipped to feel the pain”. This is exactly what Mel Gibson did in “The Passion of The Christ”, and it proved very successful for him, so maybe people do like to view things in detail. In my film however, I will not be paying as much attention to detail as Mel Gibson in this particular film. As my film is only three to six minutes long I must be straight to the point.
At one end of the spectrum, directors use performance elements as pieces of the film's audiovisual design. In these films, actors often hold in their emotion, and the film's non-performance elements i.e. cinematography, become especially important. This approach to presenting performances is found in many modernist films, which often use framing, editing, and sound to prevent identification with characters.
Baz Luhrmann's work with production designer Catherine Martin on Romeo & Juliet (1996) resulted in a film in which actors' physical signs of heightened emotion are shown in tight framing's which come together as parts of a wider picture that is packed with outstanding costumes, frantic camera movements, and dizzying editing patterns. I wish to adapt some of these editing editing patterns into my film, which will hopefully be achieved through the use an effect in Final Cut named ‘blur’.
Like other post-modern films from around the world, the performances in Romeo & Juliet are sometimes extremely short and minimalist, and at other times highly exaggerated and extremely dramatic. As if mirroring current television and new media experiences, the framing, editing, and sound techniques in Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet sometimes block access to characters' experiences; at other times the film's non-performance elements enhance identification with characters by exaggerating the magnitude of their personal experiences. Due to my actors lack of experience and knowledge of techniques, non-performance elements will play a key role in the making of my film. For inspiration I have analysed the scene in Romeo & Juliet in which the pair commit the act of suicide through the use of poison.
Luhrmann's climactic death scene features only Romeo and Juliet, whereas Shakespeare's play also includes Friar Laurence and the slain bodies of Paris and Tybalt. The inclusion of only the two lovers focuses the conflict on the tragic failure of their happiness and love. From the beginning of Romeo's monologue in this scene to the end the shots are all close-ups of Romeo and Juliet. CU's are often used as cutaways from a more distant shot in order to show details such as characters' emotions as it is used in this particular scene in Romeo & Juliet.
In closer analysis we see that their two faces are always in the same frame until Juliet awakens. The background setting of the scene is luxuriant, as the viewer sees when Romeo makes his entrance, but it is not included in the scene once he has approached Juliet. By excluding all other detailing from the shot further emphasizes the single theme here which is the sadness felt by these two young lovers. The theme here is not thoughtlessness of these youths or the clashing of social groups, instead it is the failure of a romance in the face of social disorder. Therefore, in the climax of my short film, I will exclude all other detailing from the frame in an attempt to emphasise my characters emotions.
