BRIEF FOUR
It’s been a few weeks since we have started our project for Brief 4, it has been fast paced like always, but I feel like the pace is just about to ramp up. The semester is drawing to a close, meaning that assessment tasks are not far behind from finishing. This is a good thing of course, however, it also means we have to lift our workload. The process so far has been very cruisy, casual meet ups and overall a very blasé attitude towards the project has been carried on throughout. This not to say we have not accomplished any work (we have gained some considerable leverage on the project over the past weeks), but if we continue drifting on ideas on where we should direct our project, we may, very well, fall short of the deadline. In the next coming weeks we must trust our ideas and stick to them. At the present point in time, we have the major outline of what we want to achieve, although it may seem daunting, we just need to start. Once you start, you gain momentum and become immersed in the collaborative project that Brief 4 inevitably is. Reaching a state of ‘creative flow’ is something that is truly magical, I don’t believe our group has reached that point quite yet, but I feel it coming… I really do.
I guess it would be appropriate to introduce you to the direction our group has taken in regards ‘TEXTS’.
Originally we were baffled to where we would go with this topic. Ideas were thrown around about ‘copyrighting’ and ‘Plagiarism’ however many of the other groups were doing similar things along the lines of ‘originality’ and ‘rip off artists’, so we decided to stick away from that. As we delved into this conundrum we became increasingly interested in ‘remix culture’ and the art of adaptation. Initially we had a wide range of mediums that we were going to look at in order to broaden our research. However, this was going to be difficult given the time restraints we were given, so we thought it would be wise (with the guidance of Rachel) to narrow the different mediums down into more succinct categories. We chose texts that covered a wide range of mediums and offered us a broad range of concepts to talk about, hoping that the text would remain interesting and relevant to an audience.
- Film, Theatre, Music and Books
For this wide range of forms, we chose the famous play, Romeo and Juliet. Arguably one of Shake spears most well known plays, Romeo and Juliet continues to have a major impact on popular culture as well as story telling today. Given the vastness of Romeo and Juliet, we decided to focus on 3 different adaptions of the famous play:
- Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli -1968)
- Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann – 1996)
As a group we will focus on the following questions when unpacking each of the films, in order to understand how each text is adapted differently:
1. Core focus: themes, characters, storyline, setting – do the elements stay the same or are there changes?
2. How does each adaptation reflect the time period in which it was made?
3. How does the form influence the message/relatability/audience experience of the text?
In conjunction with some small elements of western pop-culture, our next main text is going to be focussed on The West Side Story. Again we will focus on the same questions and unpack each of the mediums that this play is adapted into.
Following on from Romeo and Juliet, we aim to interview a Ballet Dancer in order to un pack how ‘remixing’ is an integral part of dance culture. We will discuss the importance of ‘remix culture’ as well as the issues that may arise when adapting another individuals work.
During the discussion of these various texts we aim to generate a better understanding of adaptation and how important it is in shaping our culture.
I my self will be giving a broad overview of Romeo Juliet’s influence on our society, focusing on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet Adaption, as well as exploring a range of important aspects from The West Side Story.
The next time you hear from me, I (hopefully) will have a more concise explanation of Romeo and Juliet and the various adaptions associated to it, namely, Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version.
