English teachers can move on from Baz Luhrmann (whichever frantic, begging adaptation) or excerpts from the 70’s Shakespeare movies or Gibson’s Hamlet or Branagh’s grand stuff because this is a very exciting new moment for Shakespeare stagings for the screen in many hues of silver.
Another little Joss side project
Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing has arrived and I highly recommend this excellent interview about the striking tale of this project that grew out of his work on The Avengers. His “Anatomy of a Scene” video featuring the “blanky-cam” is good for students to think about drama and its interpretation, and for more info, there is also the surprisingly rare case of a well done official site set up for the movie. Great for Chapter 4 of Moving Images: contemporary b&w cinematography at the filmmaker’s home; working with actors and crew to discover “where do I go, how do I say this, what will give our choices meaning?” (Mr. Whedon was featured in an earlier blog entry; that’s why these are “more surprises” with this filmmaker who is full of them; he would have been doing just fine with those miracles known as Buffy and Firefly. )
mediateacherdotnet 