Looking at the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet Essay

Romeo and Juliet, a licentiousness originally written by William Shakespeare in 1595 1600 is a tale of passionateness and disaster involving 2 offspring wad who fall in love, unless find it ends in disaster due to their age old family feud. This acquire had been directed as a film in 1968 starring Olivia Hussey, just like a shot never ahead has it been modernised as a film. By choosing to do this the bother that strikingnessd Baz Luhrman when he was directing the film version of Romeo and Juliet was that he could non p chromaticict whether there would be an interview for Shakespearean stories in a modern culture.Particuarly as the age group he was tar poping were those who would samely still be at school, where Shakespeare had been stereotyped as boring. This problem was tackled by updating the snewss involved by replacing them with poor boys, adding a kn sustain cast known to the particular chosen age group and mountain the film up with modern melody. The opening burst of Baz Luhrmans Romeo and Juliet begins with a entomb of moody, and a in truth small television screen in the centre.As the cerebrovascular accident continues the tv television camera zooms in on the television screen that is showing a tinted female newsreader, with a plain undercoat and a split ring in the crystallise right get hold of corner. This entrance to the first scene of the film forces the audience to concentrate on the film by introducing it relaxly, making you feel anything missed will detract from the films impact.The newsreader is dressed in red, the classic colour of love, danger, passion and job, and the ring split in both with the quarrel Star-crossed fan subtly introduce the main themes of the films while the audience is focusing on what the newsreader is reporting. The screen around the television is black, focusing all watchfulness on the newsreader, and her verbalize is quiet and sounds almost muted while she negotiation of the feud of Verona, re-enforcing the directors obvious wish to capture the tutelage of the viewers.With this red on black theme it debatems to re inclose the blood and tragedy of the story of Romeo and Juliet on the lie in of the town, and almost shows the final tragic word on the darkness of the two feuding families. From this opening, though the newsreader does not directly speak of the main suits, Romeo and Juliet, you feel as if the feud is already long-familiar before entering in to the actual film. The change from the first scene to the second is a really expeditious jump cut.The camera zooms truly close in on the newsreader tilting, and jumps done to a route in Verona, travelling down it and coming to a halt at a large statue of Jesus, except only allowing you a real quick peek before switching to a black screen with the words In plumb Verona in large white capitals at gist level. It and whencece jump cuts back to a the same(p) picture of Jesus, save this time it is a c loser shot, and holds for a bit longer, before really apace zooming back to show the statue in betwixt two twitch scrapers, one named Capu allow in red, and one named Montague in blue.The buildings are the highest in the street, and with the statue in amid them seem very important and noble, informing the audience of the familys wealth and power, and too 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 achievement act as a barrier between the two families, it is much smaller therefore the buildings, symbolise that their feud whitethorn prove stronger then their religion.The next shot is a jump cut on to the camera base on to the streets of Verona, and a tracking shot of a practice of justice car with the words Verona Beach written down the side. This shot of the natural law car informs the viewers that police are involved, and the stance the play is peck in is called V erona Beach. Once focused on the car the camera tilts and zooms out, startle 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 lapse with the speed at which the film is moving, Luhrman once again trying to get the audiences attention. side by side(p) on from the blurred shot of the statue, the camera, remaining blurry, focusing in turn, on the signs above each building, version 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 helicopter against what you regorge on to be a church, and the city of V erona. Again re enforcing the religion verses law theme that is apparent throughout 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 as imparte the person involved is injured, showing the severity of the feud.Again, jump cutting to the next scene, though seeming to slow the pace 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 do up of some small dots, and shown in dark grey and black. This shot is held and zoomed out to kick downstairs 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 mus ic up to this point has been very loud and menacing, increasing in account book when what I see as relevant shots are held. The lighting has been lifelike throughout, all shots set in the twenty-four hours, and there have been no characters introduced until the family tree. The startle shots seem to be more introducing the slip 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 reache s 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 compositions titled Montague vs Capulet, and while the speed of the changing shots has slowed down, now dissolving in to each other, Luhrman makes up for it with the impact of the shots he is using, you direct more time to look at each one then before. Coming off the newspaper shot using dissolving and fire, we see the familiar screen of black with white schoolbookbookual matter reading In Fair Verona, reminding us of the setting 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 boisterous shots of the goings on and only controversial shots of the place itself. Moving on from the text shot we are shown a series of tracking shots of Verona, similar to those shown before, combine 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 mutiny re enforces the report 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 expiry through his gun.The next newspaper clip we get is Civil blood, also read out to us by the voice over, this emphasises the event that the brawls caused by the families do not only affect themselves, but the rest of Verona. We are shown a tracking shot of a middle ages swart 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 bloodless 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 th e place is. We then get our first shot of a man and a woman in a black car, both look wasted and very worried.Jump cutting through to a shot of a second couple, obviously 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, peremptory 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 pair 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 death. 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 advert the chief of police Captain Prince, the Governors son Dave genus Paris and Mercutio, Romeos best friend, in a provocative position with his face angry and his finger pointed with a gun on him. 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 pair 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 readiness 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 speak 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 comparison 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 portrayed well and you make 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 wa y Luhrman lets the audience know the resulting death of the characters, but he does not say who dies. This builds up an immense suspense throughout the film. This submission is done in such a way that it will charm almost everyones attention through moving so quickly and creating such a tense atmosphere.