Date: 2009 Posted by:metalshakespeare Cast: Viceroy Matthew [Matt Stikker] (lead guitar, backing vocals), Lord Simms [Jason Simms] (vocals, rhythm guitar), William Sly [Randy Bemrose] (drums), Sir Raleigh the Valiant [Riley Geare] (drums), Duke Luke (‘Bottom’) [Luke Dennis] (bass) Credits: Not given Duration: 4.58
The Metal Shakespeare Company bringing together Shakespeare and heavy metal music. They may not do so entirely seriously, but they certainly go about their business with skull-banging gusto. This full-blooded assault on Hamlet (chiefly Hamlet’s lines on Yorick’s skull, from Act 5 Scene 1) shows as much respect for the tenets of heavy metal as it does for Shakespeare’s verse. The costuming and settings are pure heritage Shakespeare, but the energy of the performance takes the video beyond a mere comic sketch. Chiefly, it demonstrates how neatly Hamlet works seen through the music of modern tortured adolesence (though the addition of an ass’s head from A Midsummer’s Night Dream is a bit odd).
The Metal Shakespeare Company hail from Portland, Oregon, USA. Previously known as Dagger of the Mind, they describe themselves as “70% metal and 30% theater”. They cite their influences as being Iron Maiden, Manowar, Dio, Judas Priest and Mercyful Fate, while they feel that their sound can best be described as “Shakespeare turning in his grave”. Turning rhythmically, at least.
It is all too easy to sigh at yet another American middle school English project where the class has been encouraged to demonstrate that Shakspeare can be fun by producing a YouTube video. You may sigh even more at the all-too-obvious choice of rap, something whose novelty factor wore out years ago.
And yet, and yet. Look again. This is a terrific video. It displays such enthusiasm for the task in hand, which is to make a rap video out of the story of Hamlet. The lyrics are sharp, the editing is good, the music is strong, and the performances are goofy but dedicated to the cause. Care has been taken to make the individual scenes varied. In common with many such video spoofs, the titles are done in MTV-style, while the subtitles are helpful. Shakespeare himself turns up in the car for the chorus (“Hamlet here with my boy Shakespeare”) – he’s the one with a skull in his hand. It’s a fine English project that brings out such delight in recognising the vitality of the play.
Date: 2007 Posted by:billyharper11 Credits: Created by Billy Harper Cast: Billy Harper (William Shakespeare) Duration: 3.05
William Shakespeare, he likes nothing better when he’s relaxing at home with some friends to start singing songs and playing some air guitar. Here he invites us all to join in the party and sing along with Lynryd Skynryd’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’.
British comic performer Billy Harper has played Shakespeare in a variety of comedy music modes on YouTube, miming to songs with some skill. There’s Shakespeare rapping to Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’, Shakespeare doing his Barry White impression, and Shakespeare as Snoop Dogg. Irresistible stuff.
Date: 2006 Posted by:BuddhaRhubarb Credits: Created by Joe Boyce Burgess, for Blind Hill Pictures Cast: Emil Jannings (Othello), Ica von Lenkeffy (Desdemona) Duration: 1.26
A strange, borderline disturbing, mashup of the smothering scene Dimitri Buchowetzki’s 1922 silent film Othello with loops of music from an unnamed ‘garage band’ and sounds from the horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What is it meant to signify? Perhaps it is best not to think about that too deeply. Its creator, Joe Boyce Burgess, has created other such bizarre juxtapositions of film and alien sound, though only this one with a Shakespearean touch.
Date: 2006 Posted by:bhilldesign Credits: Film art direction, creation, music composition, recording, and film editing by Brandon R. Hill, production assistance by NNU Mass Communications Department Cast: Kirstin Irwin (Desdemona) Duration: 4.53
Othello seen from Desdemona’s point of view and then put into pop video form. Apart from from a few reverse-view shots which include Othello, we see only Desdemona, who sings, plays piano, looks sorrowful, and gets smothered. Soft focus photography, strawberries and white sheets abound. The song is the filmmaker’s own.
Date: 2008 Posted by:kjnwcedu Credits: Created by Keith Jones Cast: Frederick Warde (Richard III) Duration: 1.22
Another mashing up of silent Shakespeare with unlikely music by Professor Keith Jones, the man who gave us Julius Caesar with a wassailing song. Here extracts from the 1912 feature film Richard III, starring Frederick Warde, is introduced to Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Feng Shui’. Anything to save it from being done straight with Ennio Morricone…
Date: 2008 Posted by:kjnwcedu Credits: Created by Keith Jones Cast: Amleto Novelli, Giovanna Terribili Gonzalès, Pina Menichelli, Ruffo Geri, Ignazio Lupi, Irene Mattadra, Bruto Castellani, Augusto Mastripietri, Sigira Geri, Orlando Ricci, Carlo Duse, Lea Orlandi Duration: 0.58
Keith Jones is an American professor of English and Literature who maintains the Shakespeare and Film Microblog. As well as gathering together information and thoughts on Shakespeare and film, Jones adds his own mashups, of which this is an uplifting example. Strictly speaking the Italian 1914 epic Cajus Julius Caesar has nothing to do with Shakespeare play, but the joyous coming together of ancient Romans milling about with an (unnamed) group singing the Gower Wassail demands its inclusion here.
Date: 2005 Posted by:mf99 Credits: The credits, in MTV Style, say “Lear”, by Wilson Mccutchan, on Phat Phish Records Cast: David Mclean (King Lear), Chris Teolis (Cordelia), Kevin Hagino (The Fool), James Mangan (Stunt Lear), Andrew McConnon (Regan), Victor Wong (Goneril), Wilson Mccutchan (Lead Vocal) Duration: 7.07
A first-rate parody of the video for Eminem’s ‘Stan’, changing the story from that of an obsessed fan who writes repeatedly to Eminem before killing himself and his girlfriend, to King Lear writing to his daughter Cordelia (“Dear Cordelia, I wrote to you, but you still ain’t calling, hope there’s not a problem, I sent two letters to France in autumn…”), complete with the sample from Dido’s ‘Thank You’ to intercut the familiar tale of ‘drama, violence and death’. It works ingeniously well, finding adroit parallels in these two tales of disordered passion, maybe even offering some insight into the psychodrama that is King Lear.
Date: 2007 Posted by:Scartol Credits: Created by Scartol Cast: Jon Finch (Macbeth), Francesca Annis (Lady Macbeth) Duration: 5.13
A logical fusion of Macbeth with Gangsta rap, in this neatly-edited mashup of shots from Roman Polanski’s 1971 Macbeth (in widescreen), with Jon Finch as Macbeth and Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth, to the music of the Geto Boys’ ‘Mind Playin’ Tricks On Me’. There are numerous adroit matches between lyrics and action; note, for example, the timing of the lines (from the song) of ‘my hands are all bloody’.
Date: 2006 Posted by:SupaComix Credits: Directed and animated by Nick Browne, music by Mitch Benn Cast: Lego Duration: 4.27
A Lego animation, marrying the story of Macbeth to a rap accompaniment not so far away from Eminem. The animation is rudimentary by some brickfilm standards, but it makes a virtue of its roughness, and serves as a witty comment on the play. The obligatory expletives have been deleted. The assorted Lego figures include characters from Star Wars as the three witches. The film was directed and animated by Nick Browne, who manages the Supa Comix website, which is dedicated to the worlds of online media and comic books. This is an output of one of the site’s projects, ‘We 3 Men’. Music is by Mitch Benn (with a burst of Green Day over the credits).
Posted by bardbox 
Posted by bardbox 
Posted by bardbox 