Balcony Scene Comparison

The Zefferelli version and the Royal Shakespeare Company version portrayed Romeo and Juliet in very different ways, whether this be the differences in the characters, the relationship, or the milieu. Below, I will explore and compare the differences between these two interpretations, and based off that, will decide which play was the most effective.

The portrayal of Romeo differed greatly between these two plays. In the Zefferelli version, Romeo was seen as more self confident with a higher self esteem. His personality appeared to be more out-going and enthusiastic. Whereas in the Royal Shakespeare Company version, Romeo seemed more doubtful of himself and much more nervous. He was more hesitant to approach Juliet which gave off the sense that he was either shy or deeply cared about what Juliet thought of him.

In addition, the portrayal of Juliet was also fairly contrasting. In the Zefferelli version, Juliet's wariness of Romeo quickly evolved into a more daring, care-free personality. Her emotions drastically changed during the span of the single conversation. However, in the Royal Shakespeare Company version, Juliet was seen as more responsible like she was thinking about the future, not just living in the present. Her demeanour was also calmer and less eager.

The milieu also varied greatly. The Zeffereli version included rawer, more passionate emotions while the Royal Shakespeare Company version was more comedic and told in a less serious, fun manner. The setting in the Zeffereli version was more visually realistic and was a depiction of what one would imagine the scene would look like if they just read the play. The Royal Shakespeare Company had a more minimalistic style to it like the focus was on the character's and their dialogue rather than the setting. Lastly, the costumes varied as in the Zeffereli version, Juliet wore a low cut more traditional dress and Romeo wore the garment that you would expect to see during the time that Shakespeare was alive. Whereas, the costuming in Royal Shakespeare Company version was more modern as Juliet wore a simple black dress and sneakers and Romeo wore a plain jacket and jeans.

Physical contact was also a big difference between these two plays. In the Zeffereli version, there was a lot of contact which shows that the director was trying to portray young love and passion. Or he might've been trying to show that Romeo's and Juliet's relationship was based off lust more than love. The Royal Shakespeare Company didn't have any physical contact which made it easier to follow, since the dialogue was the main focus. Therefore, the director may of wanted most of the attention to go to the actual story line and not be distracted by physical contact.

If you are watching Romeo and Juliet for the first time, then I believe that the first play would be the best choice since it is more connected to the play in the sense that the setting is very realistic and the costuming is as you would have imagined. In addition, the next scene shows the couple getting ready to be married so the urgency in the first play would be a great prelude into the next scene, while it may seem very sudden if you watched the second version of the play.

In conclusion, while the same script was used, both of the versions of the play varied greatly and neither one is better than the other. However, the Zeffereli version is more effective if you are looking to watch Romeo and Juliet for the first time.

Reflection: Rhyme, Rhythm, Hip Hop & Shakespeare

This week, I learnt more about the similarities between Shakespeare and rap by learning about the various sound devices used in both. Before these two classes, I hadn't known many of the sound devices that we were introduced to such as half rhyme, masculine rhyme, imperfect rhyme, end rhyme, feminine rhyme, and internal rhyme. In addition, I further learnt about the sound device iambic pentameter, and how it resembles a heart beat, as well as other patterns like trochees, spondees, dactyls, and anapests. All of these devices were new to me so it was interesting to learn them and understand their connection to Romeo and Juliet.

In the end, all of these new sound devices helped lead me to appreciate Shakespeare, as earlier, I hadn't really understood why Shakespeare was so famous since I never knew the many writing elements that he incorporated into his pieces. In addition, comparing Shakespeare to lyrics also helped me further appreciate his writings more since I love listening to music and understanding the deeper lyrics in the song. Comparing the sound devices in Shakespeare with those in hip hop helped me connect more to Romeo and Juliet as I earned a new found respect for the piece.

If I wanted to remix the rhyme or rhythm of Shakespeare for my summative, I could change the pattern of the words so that it was trochaic or dactylic, for instance. I could also rhyme different words like instead of using the device end rhyme, I could use more internal rhyme. I could also change the mood so that it was happier and more comical, like the Dr. Suess inspired version, through changing the pattern of the words. I could even possibly write a rap song inspired by Shakespearean words or to dial it back, I could write a poem.

Invitation To Create

Damn my stubbornness. Walking into the gym bejewelled with streamers and spotlights, I pretend that I’m a mirror of normalcy. Wearing combat boots, a black skater skirt, and a leather jacket to your prom tends to attract attention. You see, that’s the problem. I’m not egotistical enough to want fans dancing around me or paparazzi chasing my shadows, all I want is to not spend my night as a walking mannequin, which is apparently uncommon. Suddenly, I realise that if the spotlight’s on me, I shouldn’t merely stand under it, I should dance. I begin to spin across the dance floor to the beat of the music while silently laughing at the “sly” looks my classmates shoot me. I revel at their shocked expressions and occasionally blow a kiss to a random stranger just to spark myself some fire in this dull grey place. Even though, I’ve barely just entered the dance, boredom already creeps back into my pockets and all the hellos and hugs disappear into smoke. Happiness is fleeting, anyways. Sighing, I sink into the first plastic chair I can find. And of course, that’s when Romeo Montague walks in.

Dark brown hair and forest green eyes. The perfect combination. If only his personality was half as beautiful as his looks. He’s not some devil, although in his mind I’m probably a haunted angel in need of love, when in reality, he’s the lost soul who needs saving. Either way, despite my father’s whispers proclaiming the Montague's traitors and far more vile names, that has never been a factor in the way in which I view Romeo. After all, my old fashioned father stuck in his insane ways would be much more horrified if he learnt about my secret than if he learnt of my love affair with Romeo, not that there is much of an affair or love involved in our relationship. I lay out my options for avoiding Romeo: a) try to merge into the crowd, b) escape the dance without Romeo noticing, c) wait and do nothing. To be perfectly honest, the first and second options aren’t even plausible; there is absolutely no chance that in my dark traitorous outfit, I will blend into the whirlwind of candy pinks and oranges, and as for the second option, sandy eyed teachers guard the doors of the gym: an accurate representation of what this imprisoning school is like every day. I close my eyes and pray that this night is over.

“Hey, can I sit here?” I recognize Romeo’s voice and before I even open my eyes, against my better judgement, I nod my head.  

“Okay, I’m going to cut to the chase. Rosaline, I love you.”

I want to shove Romeo off his chair and knock some sense into his delusional mind.

“No, you don’t.”

He’s too lenient. He’s a rock bound to drag me down to the bottom of the ocean.

“I think that I know my feelings better than you do.”

His spirit is too wild. He’ll please until the day he dies.

“Romeo, we barely have a relationship. You don’t know me, how can you love me?”

He’s too good for this world, no one has shattered his rose-coloured lenses, and that’s why he’s going to fail.

“I know love when I feel it.”

He doesn’t understand that I don’t love him back. That I can’t love him back.

“Life isn’t a fairytale.”

And I’m not his princess.

“You have to give me a chance, give us a chance! We are destined to be together.”

I love someone else.

“I’m so sorry.”

I love…

“Please, Rosaline.”

… Juliet.

“Goodbye, Romeo.”

The rest of the night is a blur, and all I remember in the morning is this: I am free.

Process:
Before writing my fan fiction, I first decided to plan out how I was going to go about this project. I'm not great when it comes to spontaneously writing longer pieces so knowing myself, I knew that I needed to come up with a solid plan. In addition, I didn't want the characters, especially Rosaline, to be two-dimensional and also wanted a well structured piece of writing. The picture below shows my finalised plan. 

After completing my plan, I drafted my first paragraph. While, I did keep the main gist of this paragraph, the writing didn't flow very well and the dialogue was mostly useless.

Since I wasn't happy with how my first draft had turned out, I tried writing the first paragraph again but this time, I tried to add more depth into Rosaline and give her some more confidence so that she wouldn't be viewed with pity.

Now, I was pleased with my first paragraph so I decided to move on to writing my second paragraph, in which I would introduce Romeo. I decided that my writing needed some dialogue to seem more realistic so I created a conversation between Rosaline and Romeo. 

However, I didn't like the structure of the paragraph and thought that between dialogues, there were too many useless details. Therefore, I attempted to create an interesting conversation between the two characters. Another struggle for me was incorporating Rosaline's thoughts along with her dialogue, so I italicised Rosaline's thoughts after every line spoken to get through this conflict. 

After editing everything to make sure that it flowed well, I finally finished my fan fiction.

Shutter Speed

For our first project in Digital Photography, we focused on taking pictures using various shutter speeds so that we could get more confident and comfortable with the camera. Before I discuss the photos that I took during this project, I would first like to introduce what the shutter of a camera is and how it changes a photo.

The shutter is like the curtain of the camera because the view remains in total darkness, like when a curtain is drawn shut, until the shutter opens which allows light in, similar to the pulling a curtain apart. Essentially, the shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open to let light hit the sensor of the camera, thus forming an image. With this concept, it is easy to understand how the shutter affects the subject of a picture.

When the shutter is open for a longer period of time, the image is more exposed. Likewise, when the shutter is open for a shorter period of time, the image is more underexposed. For instance, if you take a picture in daylight with a shutter speed 1/125 of a second, the image will likely be very dark, and if you take a picture at 1/25 of a second, the image will probably be overexposed. Shifting gears from exposure, I would also like to show how the shutter speed affects the motion of a subject. We can tell that with a faster shutter speed, the subject barely moves, thus freezing motion, and with a slower shutter speed, the subject is captured in movement for much longer, thus blurring motion. Now, to compensate for the shutter speed, we usually have to adjust the aperture to control the exposure of the image. Therefore, when we have balanced the right aperture that complements the shutter speed we choose based on how we want the motion to appear, we can take the best possible picture.

Above is my Digital Contact Print which includes my top twenty photos, ten of them depicting blurred motion and ten showing frozen motion. Photography is a process that involves both hardware and software. After taking the pictures, I lightly edited most with the software Adobe Bridge, then moved on to further edit my top four pictures in Adobe Photoshop. Below, I will briefly explain all of the pictures showcased above before delving deeper in the ones that I Photoshopped. First, I will describe the blurred photos and then, the frozen ones.

Blurred photos:

• First row first picture: I used a slow shutter speed to capture my friend's hand moving along with the motion of the balloons because I wanted to capture the effect of balloons floating and thought that blurring them would achieve this. 
• First row second picture, second row last picture, third row first picture: All of these photos capture baking in different ways. Firstly, I wanted to show the motion of stirring batter and the swirl of ingredients coming together. Then, I decided to take photos of some ingredients being poured like sugar and an egg since I thought that the waterfall effect it gave made the photo interesting to look at. I also wanted the pictures to demonstrate speed almost like the picture was live so to depict this motion, I used a slow shutter speed and blurred the photo. 
• First row third, fifth, sixth, picture: For these photos, I wanted to experiment with light photography by using the flash of an iPhone to create motion. While, these photos don't exactly show motion being blurred, I still used a slow shutter speed while experimenting with the ISO of the image. 
• First row fourth picture: While, it isn't too clear in the Digital Contact, for this photo I blurred the raindrops to capture their motion. This is because raindrops are clear so freezing them made it difficult to actually see them in the photo, which is why slowing the shutter speed was the perfect trick to capture them. 
• Third row second picture: Since I hadn't taken any photos people being blurred, I decided to capture my sister jumping on a trampoline. I slowed the shutter speed down to capture the motion of her hair covering her face as well as the movement of her body. 
• Third row last picture: Finally, I took this picture at school when a man was frying some satays. I like this image because instead of the blurring the man, I made the fan the subject since that was the main source of movement. Through using a slow shutter speed, I was able to give the effect that the fan was quickly being moved.

Frozen Photos:

• First row fifth picture, second row sixth picture, third row fifth picture: All of these photos are of horses either jumping or trotting. I tried taking slightly different photos for each as I took a close up side view jumping shot, a similar wider jumping shot, and a horse trotting facing me. I used a fast shutter speed to capture the movement. 
• Second row second picture: This photo captures the movement of the sand falling in an hourglass. To make it more interesting, I placed it on a window sill and edited it so that it seemed like the sun was setting, giving it a warmer tone. 
• Second row third, fourth, fifth pictures: These are all photos freezing the movement of my sister biking. For these three photos I also explored different angles as I took one of her facing me, one of her back, and one of the wheel. 
• Second row fourth picture: This photo is a clique, classic jumping shot that I captured by increasing the shutter speed and timing it so that I caught my sister in mid-air. 
• Third row third picture: For this picture I used a fast shutter speed but had to balance out the aperture since I was outdoors. I caught my dog running towards me since it is easier to capture a sharper image when the subject is moving towards or away from you.
• Third row fourth picture: Since, I had tried blurring a similar photo of my friend with the balloon, I wanted to try freezing the motion to see the difference it would make. Since, most of the photos I'd taken were facing me, I tried taking the a picture with the subject in side view but kept similar traits to the blurred balloon photo. 
• Third row fifth photo: Finally, using a slow shutter speed, I captured a photo of a horse trotting. The arena was quite dark so it was challenging to capture a balanced photo, however through adjusting the aperture and editing, I managed to achieve what I wanted. 

Now, I will show the four pictures that I edited in Adobe Photoshop, two of them with the subject blurred and two of them with the subject frozen. For each of these photos, the original picture is followed by the edited photo, and below this, there is a short description.

To emphasize the motion in this photo, I had to crop it much smaller. This resulted in some blurriness, therefore I had to use the High Pass tool in Photoshop to sharpen the picture. In addition, as you can see in the original picture, my sister is in the background. Even after cropping, she was still a part of the photo, so I learnt how to erase her from the picture to focus all of the attention on the subject: the dog.

Once again, I had to crop the photo to better showcase the movement. Because the setting of the photo was dark, there was some noise on the subject so I, once again. used the High Pass tool except this time, I reduced the sharpness of the picture despite this taking away some detail. 

The main tool that I used for this photo was the blurring tool in Photoshop. While, at first, I found it challenging to get the blurriness to flow in the direction that I wanted, since the motion in the balloons was hard to see, it soon became easy because of the smart layer that I had created. This picture also had lots of noise so blurring it helped distract the viewer from the noise. In addition, I had to reduce the exposure since the subject was too bright.

This photo also had a far too bright exposure but reducing the brightness wasn't a problem. The main issue was the trees in the background since they distracted the viewer from the subject. To keep the photo in the ratio of 3:2, I couldn't crop out the plants without cropping either the fan or head of the cook, so I chose to redirect my viewer's eye to the right side of the photo, away from the plants. I attempted to do so by using the High Pass in Photoshop to sharpen the cook's face to contrast with the blurriness of the fan. In Photoshop, I also darkened the red brick wall to further draw attention away from the tree. 

Finally, I would like to end this blogpost by summarizing some of the challenges and successes that I had through this project. One of the most challenging parts, for me, was understanding how to take a photo that blurred the subject of the photo but not the entire picture. It was also hard to blur the motion without over exposing the image, as several times I ended up with my camera screen being completely white. I later found that taking blurred images in darker areas was much easier but I wanted to understand how to use a slow shutter speed in daylight as well. This ties into one my successes since I did figure out how to use a slow shutter speed, as you can tell in my pictures above, in the light day. Another challenge was getting used to Photoshop as it was difficult for me to remember the different keys and their properties. I constantly forgot to create new layers so that I wouldn't destroy the original photo, and to add in the Smart Layer to make editing much easier. In the end though, through using the videos linked on the Shutter Speed Project document, I was able to slowly get used to Photoshop. I even tried to go further with photoshop as I wanted to learn how to mask the subject to blur the background, however after a few attempts, I still hadn't mastered the skill and decided that I would come back to it another time.

This project definitely had some successes as it got me used to playing around with a camera and understanding a few of it's many functions. I also loved taking the frozen motion pictures, or using a high shutter speed, as I found this easy and the pictures came out well, too. While, I did face a few bumps when editing in Photoshop, I still count it as a success because my knowledge on Photoshop drastically grew and will help me in my future projects.