Subject Matter

Romeo & Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young "star-crossed lovers" whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet and Macbeth, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. Its plot is based on an Italian tale, translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1582. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both, but developed supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris, in order to expand the plot. Believed to be written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. This text was of poor quality, and later editions corrected it, bringing it more in line with Shakespeare's original text.

Shakespeare's use of dramatic structure, especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of sub-plots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play.

Romeo and Juliet has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical and opera. During the Restoration, it was revived and heavily revised by William Davenant. David Garrick's 18th-century version also modified several scenes, removing material then considered indecent, and Georg Benda's operatic adaptation omitted much of the action and added a happy ending. Performances in the 19th century, including Charlotte Cushman's, restored the original text, and focused on greater realism. John Gielgud's 1935 version kept very close to Shakespeare's text, and used Elizabethan costumes and staging to enhance the drama. In the 20th century the play has been adapted in versions as diverse as MGM's comparatively faithful 1936 film, the 1950s stage musical West Side Story, and 1996's MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet#Themes_and_motifs


This was the origal balcony scene we was going to use for our video but unfortunetly the band did not like the idea of Romeo and Juliet so we had to come up with a different idea.

Subject Matter Research

From our research we came up with many ideas for our music video. We started off the idea of having a Romeo and Juliet as the main theme. It will involve a young couple aged between 18 – 22 who have fallen in love with each other but due to their difference in their religion, their family would not allow each other to get married. The boy would be Jewish and the girl Muslim, they both have strict religious families who try their very best to keep them away from each other and despite the fact that they have fallen in love.

It will be set in old fashioned settings where the band can perform, the Grimsdyke hotel is a perfect setting for the performance because it has this old fashioned posh theme to it, with a grand fire place including statues on either side. This will give a feeling that they are back in Shakespeare time when he wrote Romeo and Juliet.

We were planning to represent different religions and cultures and their differences between them. The girl for example would wear a hijab on her head and an abaya to cover her body, and pray in a Mosque, whereas the boy would wear a Jewish skull cap and pray in a Synagogue. We came up with the idea of the families and community from both sides looking down upon them, disappointed about what they are doing.

We would have them walking on Harrow view point to make it seem romantic and because it mentions the setting in the lyrics of the song. We would see them together in different settings, together enjoying themselves but we would also see them being shouted at by their families for betraying them and their beliefs.

The band, Domino Theory, disagreed with this idea of bringing in religion to it and Romeo and Juliet. They wanted it to be a simple modern love story between a young girl and boy; therefore we changed a few ideas. We kept the performance setting and made it into a practice performance. We chose to keep this setting because we were running out of time and there was no other setting available for the band. We originally wanted to use a studio but unfortunately it was being used that day. However for the couple scenes we decided to make it a girl walking around in central where all the Christmas lights are out and she is walking around getting to a destination, the audience at this pint don’t know where she is going, then towards the end there will be scenes of the male walking around the station and in the end they both meet.

We will have a special effect in the couple walking around, we will make them look like cartoons when editing and they will come to life when they both meet. But it will mainly involve fades from the bad to the couple, and continuity cuts.

This is the exterior of the GRymsdyke hotel.

We chose a non licensed band who are not well known. Our original idea was based on Romeo and Juliet, however due to the amount of time we had we could not go on any further with this idea and therefore we had to change and simplify it a little.

As you can see in these pictures one of the main setting is going to in a well light area becuae its

going to be filmed during night. These are pictures of the Christmas lights and decorations in Oxford Street.







It has to have bright colours and many lights to catchthe audience's eyes and make it look good. We also want nice bright colours such as the pink light reflected in the water, the pink represents love which links to the lyrics of the song.