Looking at the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

Looking at the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet EssayRomeo and Juliet, a play originally indite by William Shakespeare in 1595 1600 is a tale of love and tr yearsdy involving two young community who fall in love, but find it ends in disaster due to their age old family feud. This play had been directed as a delineation in 1968 starring Olivia Hussey, but never before has it been in advance(p)ised as a film. By choosing to do this the problem that faced Baz Luhrman when he was directing the film version of Romeo and Juliet was that he could non predict whether there would be an audience for Shakespearean stories in a modern culture. Particuarly as the age group he was targeting were those who would probably still be at school, where Shakespeare had been stereotyped as boring. This problem was tackled by update the swords involved by replacing them with guns, adding a famous cast known to the particular chosen age group and backing the film up with modern music. The opening scene of Baz Luhrmans Romeo and Juliet begins with a screen of black, and a very small television screen in the centre.As the shot continues the camera zooms in on the television screen that is showing a falsifyed female newsreader, with a plain background and a split ring in the top set hand corner. This entrance to the first scene of the film forces the audience to concentrate on the film by introducing it slowly, making you feel any intimacy missed will trim from the films collision.The newsreader is dressed in red, the classic colour of love, danger, passion and blood, and the ring split in two with the words Star-crossed lover subtly introduce the principal(prenominal) themes of the films while the audience is focusing on what the newsreader is reporting. The screen around the television is black, focusing all attention on the newsreader, and her division is quiet and sounds near muted while she talks of the feud of Verona, re-enforcing the directors obvious wish to capt ure the attention of the viewers.With this red on black theme it take cares to represent the blood and cataclysm of the story of Romeo and Juliet on the easement of the town, and almost shows the final tragic word on the grubbyness of the two feuding families. From this opening, though the newsreader does not directly talk of the main point of references, Romeo and Juliet, you feel as if the feud is already familiar before entering in to the actual film. The change from the first scene to the second is a very quick jump cut.The camera zooms very close in on the newsreader tilting, and jumps through and through and through to a s pointt in Verona, travelling cumulus it and coming to a halt at a elephantine statue of Jesus, but provided allowing you a very quick glance before switching to a black screen with the words In Fair Verona in large white capitals at eye level. It then jump cuts back to a the very(prenominal) picture of Jesus, but this time it is a closer shot, and holds for a bit longer, before very quickly zooming back to show the statue in betwixt two sky scrapers, one named Capulet in red, and one named Montague in blue.The buildings are the highest in the street, and with the statue in between them seem very important and noble, informing the audience of the familys riches and power, and also of their rivalry. The statue standing dead centre between the two towers shows that while religion is important in this story, and does to a certain extent act as a barrier between the two families, it is much smaller then the buildings, symbolising that their feud may prove stronger then their religion.The next shot is a jump cut on to the camera moving on to the streets of Verona, and a tracking shot of a law machine with the words Verona Beach written down the side. This shot of the police car informs the viewers that police are involved, and the out the play is set in is called Verona Beach. Once focused on the car the camera tilts and zooms out, jumping in to a zoom in shot of the same statue of Jesus, which it zooms in on, jump cuts back to a second shot and zooms in again, this time blurring the statue.This blurring shows the disregard held by the families towards their religion as the feud gets greater. The scenes by now are moving very quickly and are very separated, not flowing smoothly at all. It is quite difficult to keep with the speed at which the film is moving, Luhrman once again trying to keep the audiences attention. hobby on from the blurred shot of the statue, the camera, remaining blurry, focusing in turn, on the signs above each building, reading first Capulet in red and then Montague in blue.These choices of colour cause you to question whether or not the Capulet family are more fierce, with their name in red. You then get a tracking shot of a police meat cleaver against what you assume to be a church, and the city of Verona. Again re enforcing the religion verses law theme that is apparent throug hout this film in Verona. Following this is a zoom in shot of a person lying on a mattress in the street surrounded by dirt and people in black. Through this shot you assume the person involved is injured, showing the severity of the feud.Again, jump cutting to the next scene, though seeming to slow the thousand slightly, you get an aerial tracking shot from the helicopter with the diagetic sounds of the propellers, of a large statue of the Virgin Mary standing with open arms. Quickly moving on through a jump cut the statue of Jesus seen before is briefly shown, before zooming in on his face, although it is made up of many small dots, and shown in dark grey and black. This shot is held and zoomed out to reveal a family tree with both families on it, starting at the top with Ted Montague and Fulgencio Montague.Symbolic of the hatred that is passed down the family through each generation. The music up to this point has been very loud and menacing, increasing in volume when what I see as relevant shots are held. The light up has been bright throughout, all shots set in the day, and there have been no characters introduced until the family tree. The beginning shots seem to be more introducing the focalize and the themes than the characters themselves. The layout of this tree implies that the rivalry started between these two men and has been passed down through the family.With the statue of Jesus with open arms set between the two families reminds us of the strong religion present in the city, and the grey colour of the pictures and background sets in almost like a cloud of grey, strongly contrasting with the colour we have seen in the previous scenes. As well as being the first shot of the characters, also introduced in this scene is the first voice since the newsreader, although this time it is non diagetic, in the form of a voice over. The music reaches a climax and then fades away to a quiet backing for the deep male voice commenting on the family trees in front of us.The shots of this tree are broken up by shots of fire and newspapers titled Montague vs Capulet, and while the speed of the changing shots has slowed down, now turn in to each other, Luhrman makes up for it with the impact of the shots he is using, you need more time to look at each one then before. Coming wrap up the newspaper shot using dissolving and fire, we see the familiar screen of black with white textbook reading In Fair Verona, reminding us of the fit while looking in to the characters, as seen before when the city was being introduced and we were shown the names of the families.This subtle mixing of the two is very effective in showing the strong relationship between the setting and characters, and the effect that they have on each other. This phrasing of Fair Verona is ironic, as although we are being told the city is fair, we are shown only violent shots of the goings on and only controversial shots of the place itself. Moving on from the text shot we ar e shown a serial of tracking shots of Verona, similar to those shown before, combining diagetic sounds such as the helicopter propellers with non diagetic such as the voice over.We then get another still shot of a newspaper reading Ancient Grudge followed shortly by a third newspaper reading New Mutiny and a picture of one of the young Montague boys. This ancient grudge followed by new riot re enforces the idea of the feud being passed down the family that we were introduced to through the family tree. The text is also in older style writing, showing that such an old thing has carried through in to modern day. This picture of the young Montague holding a gun is the first we see of the younger generations of the families, and it is associated with anger through his face and conclusion through his gun.The next newspaper clip we get is Civil blood, also read out to us by the voice over, this emphasises the fact that the brawls caused by the families do not only affect themselves, bu t the rest of Verona. We are shown a tracking shot of a middle ages coloured man wearing helicopter equipment against a dark background, fitting as the shots seem to be getting darker, set later on in the day. The word Police is shown in large white text against black, symbolising their affect on the feud, good on bad or clean on dirty.There is then a series of shots of Verona and magazines with bullets on the covers, showing how much violence there is in the city. It is made out to be a loud, busy dangerous place reflected in the characters themselves. The feuding families seem to sum up the rivalry present within the city, Religion verses hatred, Law verses war. Although you may argue that at this stage you are unable to establish whether it is the place reflected through the characters or the characters strife being the reason for the way the place is. We then get our first shot of a man and a charwoman in a black car, both look drawn and very worried.Jump cutting through to a s hot of a second couple, plainly the other family, recognisable only because of the quick glance we got of the man on the family tree. This creates a broken up image of the families, imposing the idea that the families get in the way of each other. As the music builds up again there are two screens of just text, when put together reading A cope with of star crossed lover take their life. The T in the take is actually a cross when you look at it, bringing religion in to devastation. At this point the voice over is stopped and the music becomes loud again.Following the text the camera then jumps from one to another introducing through text and a frozen image of each character, the Capulets, the Montagues, both with the under text Romeos mother/father and Juliets mother/father. To follow we meet the chief of police passe-partout Prince, the Governors son Dave Paris and Mercutio, Romeos best friend, in a provocative position with his face angry and his finger pointed with a gun on hi m. Each character has a shot held on them for about 5 seconds before jumping straight on to the next.As the music builds up we see a cope with of eyes, later recognised to be those of Romeo Montague, pushing the door of a church open to reveal light and flowers, portraying the church as a place of sanctity. This relates to the theme of religion present throughout the film, and it also gives a preview of the place in which the lovers lives end. Luhrman would have realised that as Romeo and Juliet is such a widely read play the majority of the audience would know then ending of the film, thus giving him a lot of scope to play around with previews of the rest of the film.The music quickens pace and very quickly we are run through the text previously shown and spoken but at a speed that it is not supposed to be read. This is followed by shots of fireworks, choirboys singing high piercing notes almost as a climax, guns shooting showing violence, main characters and eventually finishes on a black screen with William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. This creates a point of high climax, quickly let down by the still almost dead screen in comparing to previous shots.The mention of William Shakespeare is the first we hear of the author, and in mentioning him Luhrman has made himself seem almost modest, discarding any impression made implying that it is Luhrmans own play. The title then moves off the screen to the left and the film begins. As an opening sequence for this particular film I find it very effective. The setting of such a film in modern day would have proved very difficult, but the replacement of swords by guns has a huge impact on its success.The violence is pictured well and you learn just about enough to follow the film as it opens but not enough to know what happens between now and the death of the characters. I like the way Luhrman lets the audience know the resulting death of the characters, but he does not say who dies. This builds up an immense suspe nse throughout the film. This understructure is done in such a way that it will captivate almost everyones attention through moving so quickly and creating such a tense atmosphere.