Thinking about themes can be a fun way to
create ideas for making a film version of Macbeth. Some of the
common themes that come up when discussing the play are: evil; ambition; guilt; and
gender or sex roles. What theme do you think has the strongest effect on the play, or
might be easiest or most fun to show in things like costuming, use of lighting, music
and other symbols?
As an example let's look at the theme of
evil. To begin with, what sort of landscape could you use for the initial battle scene
to reflect that evil is present? Should it be a barren and desolate, bombed out patch
of dry land or something else? Is it a dark and crumbling, modern-day street
corner?
How would you light it, to emphasize the evil?
Would you make this scene one in full daylight, full darkness, or would it be that
moment of barely any light between day and night? Would the light for the scene come
from natural (sun, moon) or artificial (streetlights, flashlights, etc.)
sources?
The witches are the first characters that appear.
How could you costume them to show their evil? Are they more like monsters from an
alien world rather than people? Remember, this is a movie, so you can really think
outside the box, not all your characters would need to be
human.
In thinking of special effects and using music to
highlight the theme of evil, you might want to look at some classic horror movies -- old
ones like Dracula and Frankenstein as well as
newer ones -- to get more ideas about how the principles of film making can best be
used to show evil in Macbeth.
You can
write out your scenes as a screenplay or create what's called a storyboard. The links
below can give you more direction on these tools.
This
seems like a fun project, since Halloween is just around the corner. Hope that these
suggestions help you understand your assignment!
No comments:
Post a Comment