Analysis of the Techniques Used by Baz Luhrmann in His Adaptation to the Opening of Romeo and Juliet

Analysis of the Techniques Used by Baz Luhrmann in His Adaptation to the Opening of Romeo and Juliet

Baz Luhrmann starts the opening to his adaptation of ‘Romeo and

Juliet’ by displaying to the viewer a 20th Century Fox logo. There are

quick camera shots that pan from the ground on all sides of the plinth

of the 20th Century Fox statue. The use of a pan shot emphasises the

film production company’s logo and inveigles the audience to watch

more, as this is a very popular film company that have made many good

movies, and the emphasis reiterates that this will be another one of

there good movies. Therefore the audience is intrigued to watch more.

Stately, traditional colours are used on the logo to make it stand out

more to the audience and a drum roll can be heard in the background as

this builds up suspense.

After this, we are shocked with a colour contrast because we are shown

a plain, black background with a tiny television screen on it. We then

establish that this is the opening to the film and we are focused on

the screen because of the contrast we have just seen between the

bright gold’s and the dull black’s. The small television we see is a

small one and fairly simplistic and we are therefore interested as to

what will follow. The television gets larger and wider and then we see

an open-minded, dispassionate newsreader enter the screen and read the

prologue to the play. When the readers’ attention is focused on the

newsreader, a small ring appears in the corner which represents love

and marriage. This ring is broken, which implies that marriage may be

lost or broken during the film. The newsreader is a black, American

women and the use of this suggests that the play has been modified to

suit the modern day audience and because she is black, she shows

equality among people. Moreover the use of a newsreader is used to

make the audience listen and believe her because when ever we see the