Film Like Romeo And Juliet example essay topic

Film is probably the most effective way of portraying a story. They don't just tell the story, they can also make the audience feel part of it. Film makers can choose what they want their audience to see and feel, making the viewer emotionally attached. All genres set up expectations in an audience and never disrupt the expectations, for example, the audience always knows that a James Bond film will be full of action, he will defeat the villain and get the girl.

I will examine the way films tell stories by studying the film language of "Romeo and Juliet", Monty Python's "Life of Brian" and James Bond, "The World is Not Enough". "Romeo and Juliet" is a play written by William Shakespeare and has been adapted into a film. It is about two lovers from rival families who rebel against their parents' wishes and marry each other in secret. The only problem is that Romeo killed Juliet's cousin and is banished from Verona and Juliet is supposed to be married to someone else. In the end they both end up killing themselves. A large part of the audience does not understand some of Shakespeare's language because it's not contemporary but Baz Lurmann (the director) has tried to help the audience's understanding with visual images.

At the very beginning of the film you can tell that the film is going to be a tragedy because the narrator tells you the ending to the story. Lurmann has placed the narrator in the form of a news reader sitting inside a television. We know this because she seems to sit up very straight, looking straight ahead and speaking very clearly. In addition, the background is just plain blue which seems to suggest she is in a newsroom.

The television starts off very small and then it gets bigger and looks as if it's coming from a distance towards you. Editing in a film is extremely important for creating the right atmosphere. If you cut a shot at the wrong moment you could ruin the whole scene. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet the pace is very fast and so there are quite a lot of jump cuts to keep the rhythm going. There seem to be many cuts in every scene and not a lot of camera movement. There is a wipe cut from the title into the second scene and another couple of wipe cuts from sign posts of petrol stations, establishing the action in the modern world.

The lighting is high key most of the time making the film look very natural to the audience. There is back lighting the first time you see Romeo to make him look a little mysterious. There is top lighting the first time you see Juliet to make her look beautiful and pure. Film makers include non dietetic music as well as dietetic to give atmosphere. For example, non dietetic music, with a fast and heavy beat is likely to mean there is a lot of speed in whatever is happening in the scene, such as the fast beat at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet when the Montagues and Capulets have a battle although the music isn't the stereotypical action music.

It does have a fast pace but there are religious elements because the singers sound like a choir and then in the middle of the battle it sounds like music from a western film that has be modernized with a faster beat. Dietetic sounds are just as important as non dietetic sounds although there have been quite a lot of silent movies made with just non dietetic music but in film today you can't have someone firing a gun and no sound being made. The first time you see the Montague boys they shout at people a lot, this may be showing stereotypical teenage boys. There is silence before the Montagues and Capulets have a fight and silence is sometimes the loudest sound of all.

It creates tension. In the middle of the silence there is the squeaking of a sign post which builds up the atmosphere and then it is broken with Tybalt lighting his cigarette. The use of the camera in a film can make a difference to the way in which mood is created in a scene. In Romeo and Juliet, there is a whole variety of different camera work used. There is a lot of zooming in and out fast at the beginning because, put together with the music, it adds to the mood of corruption and chaos. I noticed a lot of extreme close ups at the beginning with Lady Capulet's mouth when she's screaming for Juliet, and Benvolio's and Tybalt's eyes when they are just about to have a fight.

There are crane shots over the city at the beginning with two tall buildings, one saying 'Capulet' and the other 'Montague' implying that the families are important and rivals. There is a roll shot when Romeo has taken drugs and the camera also spins around which shows the viewer how he may be feeling. There is quite a lot of tracking in the first few scenes. A Capulet steps out from behind a car and he is filmed from a low angle which means he looks bigger then he actually is. When Romeo is running away from the police into the church there is a high angle on him to make him look more vulnerable. Mise en sc " ene is the 'look' or the 'style' of a scene.

In Romeo and Juliet you tend to get a lot of religious aspects in the scenes which refer maybe back to 16 thC Italy and also refer to ritual and rules. What I noticed is that the Capulet boys are very stylish with their slicked back hair and the Montague boys seem more laid back with what they wear and they spend most of their time at the beach with brightly colored shirts on. This could be symbolic of the Montagues being the 'good guys' and the Capulets being uptight and trouble makers. Monty Python's Life of Brian is about a man who lived when Jesus was around.

He joined an organization because he hated the Romans and in the end he died. I think the point of the story is that he was quite insignificant and he led a parallel life to Jesus. Life of Brian is much like Romeo and Juliet in the way that both stories focus on the structure and the character development. It is also a lot different to Romeo and Juliet because there isn't a lot you can say about the film language, the major theme of the film is the comical lines. Life of Brian only really has straight cuts, panning of the camera, close ups on people and long shots. There isn't much more you can say about the editing and the camera movement.

There is high key lighting which makes the picture look natural because they use the filler light to get rid of some of the severe shadows. The sound is mainly dietetic apart from some slow trumpet music. When Brian goes to the stoning with his mother there is a lot of noise because the women sound high pitched but because they are dressed as men they soon realize and put on a low pitched voice. The mise en sc " ene in the film, like Romeo and Juliet is religious but they are religious in different ways. Life of Brian is religious in the way that the story has a lot to do with religion and it was set in the period of Christ.

Romeo and Juliet has more of a 'tacky' aspect to religion. In "The World is Not Enough", much like Romeo and Juliet, there are fast moving shots at the beginning of the film which makes you think the film is going to be action packed but, unlike Romeo and Juliet, it is action packed. The story is about a terrorist with a bullet lodged in his brain, leaving him unable to feel pain, who has a plan to get control of the worlds supply of oil. It's not a shock to find out that Bond defeats the terrorist and get the beautiful scientist. The music is the classic Bond action music with its fast pace.

There are gun shots, water splashing and the boat revving in the boat chase scene. The music slows down when the audience thinks that Bond has lost the villain and then speeds up when you see his plan. The lighting is high key as in the other films. In 'The World is Not Enough', the camera work seems to have been made to look as natural as possible, because it hasn't got any roll shots, wipe shots or jump shots.

Instead it uses tilts from objects to people like at the beginning when the camera is tilted from a gun on a table to a villains back. When Bond drops from the window it is a high angle, again maybe showing vulnerability and then when he is nearer the ground it is a high angle. When there is a high speed boat chase it is filed using a crane shot. The mise en scene seems to be upper class in exotic places and government buildings, places only the rich would experience. In considering these three films, I have tried to show the different elements of film language and the ways in which it can be used.

I have looked at three contrasting films and their uses of lighting, color, sound, camera movement, mise en scene and editing to set up the audience's expectations. Films use these techniques to help the audience to have a better understanding of the structure of the story. Because film has all these different tools to help create atmospheres, it can tell stories very effectively; probably better than any other medium.