Media Studies: Comparing film adaptations of Hamlet

We have viewed portions of two adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the comment section below this post, I would like you to begin discussion comparing and contrasting the two film versions. You may wish to do the following in your comment:

• Chose one or two of the film elements listed below and consider how Branagh’s version (1996) and Zeffirelli’s version (1990) compare and contrast
• Compare and contrast the adaptations by examining the portrayal of major characters or a character
• Respond to another student’s comments (NB: identify who you are responding to by using the tag “@” such as @Socrates if you are responding to me)

Please post your comments by Monday, January 24th.

Film Elements to consider:

Sound Elements:

• Sound effects, background noise in the scene
• Soundtrack, music, voiceovers and other sounds put on over the scene

Language Elements:

• What lines are emphasized?
• What lines (if any) are noticeably cut, included, or altered?

Performance and delivery:

• Facial expressions
• Gestures and mannerisms, body language
• Tone of voice and inflection
• Fluctuation, Pauses, and Volume of voice

Physical Elements: (Settings, props, and costumes)

• Where is the scene taking place physically?
• What do props and costumes tell us about the characters and about the time period?
• How are the props/setting used and what might they mean/signify?

Camera Elements:

• How long does the director stay with shots?
• How often are there cuts and transitions?
• When does the camera take the view of a character?
• Were there close ups, long shots? To what effect?

The Big Questions:

• What is the effect of each of these aspects on the scene?
• How does each director establish the tone of the scene?

Blogging Assignment #2

Read chapter 2 of Northrop Frye's The Educated Imagination and blog (create a New Post) on one thing you felt is profound, or something you profoundly disagree with, or something you don't understand.

Also, comment on at least two other blog posts from students in our class.

Blogging Assignment #1

"The Motive for Metaphor"
This first chapter in Northrop Frye's Educated Imagination raises questions that he will attempt to answer over the course of the six lectures. The questions address the topic of "education" as well as the social function of literature and literary education. Keep these questions in mind throughout your reading of the text.


"What good is the study of literature?" (p.1)

"Does it help us to think more clearly, or feel more sensitively, or live a better life than we could without it?" (p.1)

"What is the relation of English as the mother tongue to English as a literature?" (p. 3)

"What is the place of the imagination ... in the learning process?" (p.3)

"What is the social value of the study of literature?" (p.3)

Blogging Assignment #1

The following quotations are taken from the first chapter of Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination. Choose one of the quotations listed below and blog about it, considering four things: (1) what do you think Frye means; refer to context? (2) do you agree? (3) make application and synthesize; (4) are there any connections to McCullough’s speech “The Love of Learning”?

“Every child realizes that literature is taking him in a different direction from the immediately useful, and a good many children complain loudly about this.” (p.3)

“constructing a human world” (p.5)

“necessity and freedom” (p.6)

“One person by himself s not a complete human being…” (p.6)

“What makes our practical life really human is a third level of the mind, a level where consciousness and practical skill come together. This third level is a vision or model in your mind of what you want to construct.” (p.7)

“[Imagination is] the power of constructing possible models of human experience.” (p.8)

“…We tend to think of the sciences as intellectual and the arts as emotional: one starts with the world as it is, the other with the world we want to have.” (p.9)

“Literature doesn’t evolve or improve or progress.” (p. 9)

”Is it possible that literature, especially poetry, is something that a scientific civilization like ours will eventually outgrow?” (p.11)

“…Literature belongs to the world man constructs, not to the world he sees; to his home, not his environment.” (p.12)

“…the limit of the imagination is a totally human world.” (p.13)

“What’s produced the aeroplane is not so much a desire to fly as a rebellion against the tyranny of time and space.” (p.14)
“The Motive for Metaphor” (lecture title; & p.14f)

Welcome to the ENG4U moot-blog 2010-2011