The supernatural is vital to the plot and the actions of the characters in Macbeth. As a director of a film version, how would you put across this influence to your chosen audience?
According to the script of the original version, the first scene begins at a desolate place, and I am going to replicate that by having the camera starting off looking at a snow blizzard and then zooming in on three dots in the distance. This will be the three witches with ragged clothes on and shivering. The whole of the background will be white with snow, but the watcher will not get the impression that these are pure women because they will be wearing black and there will be a slight echo when they say their lines in the first scenes. I am not going to include and thunder or lightening in this particular scene as I am going to leave the full extent of the evil effect of the witches until the end of the next scene.
Obviously I am going to have three witches as it says in the first line of the text, "Where shall we three meet again?"
I will have all the witches about the same old age, and have them standing with hunched backs around a sword (dagger) with blood on it and I will have the second witch thrust her hands onto the dagger. When she says the line, "When the hurly-burly's done" it will be happening and this is to symbolise later on in the play when Macbeth becomes king by murdering Duncan, the previous king of Scotland.
I will then slightly change the order in which the witches say the line, "When the battles lost and won." I will get the third witch to say that and at the same time, touches her hands on the dagger as well, to show that there is going to be a battle but in fact the witches will be predicting Macbeth winning the battle but loosing the battle to be King of Scotland. Due to the fact that I have got the third witch saying the line above, I will have the first witch saying, "That will be ere the set of sun. " When she says this I will have the camera zoom into her face, but infact it shoots past her white face into the whit background of the "fog of war". It will then get brighter and the sun appears, not yellow but red, the colour of evil and blood.
Shakespeare coursework - Macbeth. Rob Jones
The supernatural is vital to the plot and the actions of the characters in Macbeth. As a director of a film version, how would you put across this influence to your chosen audience?
Long chords of sustained violins and other stringed instruments will now come in to play and give an eerie effect. This gives the film version a sense of unreality. This foul imagery and monstrosity gives the viewer an insight into how evil the witches are because so far they don't seem to be too bad and 'devilish.' The surroundings will then jump back to the fog of war on top of the mountain. (Where the witches are a big contrast to the peaceful surroundings). The first witch asks the other two, "Where the place?" and once again she and the other witches are deciding a future event. I will then have them once again going round their circle saying their lines.
I will them have them emphasising the start of every sentence and especially the last phrase. I will have the three witches very calm an collected when they are describing what they are going to do or what is going to happen, because this symbolises the fact that they are in control of the situation. The final line in the scene, "Fair is Foul and foul is fair" is deliberately confusing and I am going to use this to try and get the audience to think about what is going to happen in the film and what the witches are talking about when they talk about the battle being lost and won and the paradox mentioned a few lines earlier. This is also of course an alliteration in the fact that the F’s are repeated and I will have the witches emphasising these like a drum, as well as a set of tom-toms in the background the give the impression of a highland battle as well as for them to keep in time with each other.
Although I am trying to get the viewer to guess what is happening in the film, the audience will probably know the storyline because it is such a famous play and therefore they won't need to guess the storyline. Hence why I am going to keep the language the same and not add modernism because I feel that is adds a weak effect to the witches scenes, written in superstitious Elizabethan England.
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Shakespeare coursework - Macbeth. Rob Jones
The supernatural is vital to the plot and the actions of the characters in Macbeth. As a director of a film version, how would you put across this influence to your chosen audience?
Act one scene three will be a complete change from the first scene where they prophesise about meeting Macbeth. The whole point of this scene is to tell Macbeth of his future as thane of Glamis, Cawdor and King of Scotland. In this scene I will have the witches jump out on Macbeth and Banquo as they are riding across what is described in the book as the 'heath' but is infact one of Scotland's windy and barren moors with thistles and heather.
I am going to miss out the lines from when the first witch says, "Where hast thou been sister?” up to when Macbeth and Banquo enter. This is because the lines that I am not going to include are basically describing the witches powers, but I have already given the viewer an impression of what the witches are like in the first scene. The whole point of the first scene is to show the evilness of the witches and how they can be evil like the Elizabethan audiences expected then to be. Instead of the first part of act one scene three which shows the witches' powers by them sinking a sailing ship on which was a man that they didn't like. In the new version I will have them massacring a passing deer and, who is enticed by the food that they offer it, and then when it gets closer they completely change to their evil personalities and spear it, with blood going everywhere and the deer howling and looking helpless. This is to symbolise the fact that the witches do evil things for no apparent reason, hence why they kill the deer but don't even eat it.
I will have Macbeth and Banquo like I said, coming in on their horses and the witches jumping out on them. Macbeth says his line, "So fair and foul a day I have not seen" and I will make the audience realise the fact that the witches had said the line earlier on (in the first scene). I will do this by playing the same music in the background as was played when the witches said the line. I will also have Macbeth emphasising the f's just as the witches did in the first scene of act one.
The following line is where the audience first sees Banquo and I would imagine him to be a sort of chivalrous knight with metal armour on and a large sword on his back.
Shakespeare coursework - Macbeth. Rob Jones
The supernatural is vital to the plot and the actions of the characters in Macbeth. As a director of a film version, how would you put across this influence to your chosen audience?
Since I am going to keep the language the same I will obviously have to have the witches, "Withered and so wild in their attire." This basically means that the witches will have to be dressed up like tramps with black. Ripped and dirty clothes. They will have to be as ugly as possible because in the text Banquo says, "You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so." This could mean that either they are strange ugly women, or maybe it could mean that he doesn't believe in them. I will Macbeth extremely intrigued (this will be easy to tell from his inquisitive actions and 'shiftiness', such as, "Speak if you can!") another example of this is when he says, "What are you?"
I will then have a very quiet trumpet fanfare in the background, similar to what would have been played at the coronation of a king or queen. The witches, like the text says will take it in turns to prophesise to Macbeth and I will have each one fall at his feet, so that by the end of the third witch saying, "All hail Macbeth, thalt shall be king thereafter!" they are all bowed to the floor (almost worshipping him). On hearing this I will have Banquo to be the complete opposite of the excited Macbeth and to 'keep his cool'.
He will say to the witches his lines with a scowl on his face to give the audience the impression that he doesn't believe it all. The witches will then scream back, "Hail!" as if he doesn't understand and say their confusing lines with a smirk on their faces, such as the line, "Not so happy yet much happier." In the text where it says the witches vanish, I will actually get them to disappear by then spinning around all at the same time with their long cloaks on and then the clocks will drop to the floor and the witches will be gone.
After seeing this, Macbeth and Banquo start to believe what the witches have said and quite fancy themselves as kings. They shout to each other, "You children shall be kings.... You shall be king." This of course is confusing to the viewer because they can't both be the king.......
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Shakespeare coursework - Macbeth. Rob Jones
The supernatural is vital to the plot and the actions of the characters in Macbeth. As a director of a film version, how would you put across this influence to your chosen audience?
Apart from the background music and scenes that I have mentioned, there won't be many extra special effects, i.e. I will be keeping it simple, and I won't have any extra characters apart from the ones mentioned in the text.
They are:
Witch 1
Witch 2
Witch 3
MACBETH
BANQUO
This of course is only a part of the whole book, but I think that it gives a lasting impression of the witches and the rest of the story.
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