Date: 2009 Posted by:AMPPP-lifier Cast: Patrick Han, Pearlyn Lii, Melissa Ma, Peter Yang, and Andrew Yeh Credits: Not given Duration: 0.59
Not much information is given on this schools project billed as being “Othello Trailer for Cordero’s Sophomore English Honors Class. Period 4″. Just before he is executed, Iago looks back on his life in flashbacks, to the accompaniment of melodramatic music. There is no dialogue, only messages on computer screens and print-outs and the four players shown at crisis point, before the video ends with the execution. As a burst of creative energy, it is not at all unimpressive.
Well, to be completely honest, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. I know Act 1 of Julius Caesar, of which this is an interpretation, and I recognise the characters and sort of where the action is going on, but I am too old to know what on earth is being said.
But so what? This is a lively English school project by a bunch of Philippine schoolgirls (Payatas is a slum site outside Manila), who have taken the play and presented it as a silent film with faux scratches, intertitles (Brutus: “I just feel emotional today. I have so many problems”) and cheap organ music. The action in between is just goofing around – what counts is the teenspeak dialogue with assorted in-jokes and in-slang. We’re promised anti-Caesar spraypainting tags, but then the video ends with a ‘to be continued…’ Shame. Now they’ve moved on to higher classes, and we’ll probably never know what might have happened.
Date: 2007 Posted by:HarassedTofu Credits: Directed, filmed and edited by Kimberley Durkin, for Harassed Tofu Productions Cast: Eggs (voices by Kimberley Durkin) Duration: 5.01
Rudimentary (to say the least) animation with eggs, telling us the story of Shakespeare’s Stratford home life, starting from the point where the young Shakespeare is taken to see a play and becomes besotted by the theatre. The film ends poignantly with the death of his son Hamnet (yolk is spilt), commemorated by words from King John (Act 3 Scene 4), ‘If that be true, I shall see my boy again’, while Carmina Buruna plays in the background. Cracking.
Date: 2007 Posted by: generalg1992 Credits: Created by Michael, filmed by Maggie, Shaina and Mrs Elinson Cast: Michael (Malvolio), Sam (Toby, Andrew, Sabastion [sic], Maggie (Mariah [sic]), Shaina (Viola) Duration: 4.12
An excellent title for a 7th Grade sequel to Twelfth Night in which a teenage Malvolio is indeed revenged upon the whole pack of them, as he slaughters the cast of the play one by one, until meeting his comeuppance. Mostly swordfights, but that’s revenge for you.
Date: 2007 Posted by:sniglfritz Credits: Produced and edited by Nessa. Written by Nessa and Charlotte. Filmed by Nessa, Hannah and Charlotte. Music credits given at the end of the video. A Don’t Put This on Camera Production Cast: Hannah (Hortensio, Bianca, Grumia), Nessa (Gremio, Lucentio), Charlotte (Petruchio’s Mother, Lucentio’s Playmate, Baptista) Duration: 8.56 (the final 90 seconds are music only)
Lively parody of The Taming of the Shrew done as a Canadian school project, and presented in the style of a ‘Hollywood True Story’ TV programme. It intercuts rather well between its enthusiastic all-female cast (three of them, playing multiple roles) and stills of Kate (Angela Jolie) and Petruchio (Brad Pitt) – such wise choices – telling an everyday story of celebrity life.
Date: 2007 Posted by:jrsherrard Credits: Filmed by Jean Sherrard Cast: 5th and 6th graders Duration: 1.46
More from the Hillside Student Community (see the American school’s spirited group rendition of “To be or not to be“, posted earlier), as individually and collectively the fifth and sixth graders recite the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from As You Like It, Act 2 Scene 7. A vigorous spirit and attention to meaning is evident in each shot of the children in an appropriate woodland setting.
There are many Star War spoofs of Shakespeare out there. This is one of the better ones – a well-made enactment of the duel between Hamlet (with beard) and Laertes, with light sabres. Produced as a project for Damascus High School in 2003. Just a shame about the lame humour at the end.
Date: 2006 Posted by:jrsherrard Credits: Created by Jean Sherrard Cast: 6th graders Duration: 1.47
‘To be or not to be’ performed by ten American sixth-graders from Hillside Student Community, Bellevue WA (the Hillside Intermediate Players) on a playground. The opening lines are spoken in unison, then each line or part-line is spoken by a separate child in a separate shot, each one cleverly (but not too cleverly) composed. It’s surprisingly effective: engaging, dynamic, clearly spoken and with the right spirit of fun – and meaning. A small work of art, produced by the school’s Artist in Residence.
Posted by bardbox 
Posted by bardbox 
Posted by bardbox 