Hamlet Opening Scene Analysis

There have been many different versions of William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Recreations range from plays to movies, and each one adds its own level of darkness. One recreation is the 2000 version of Hamlet starring Blair Brown, Roscoe Lee Browne, Campbell Scott, Lisa Gay Hamilton, and Jamey Sheridan, and directed by Campbell Scott and Eric Simonson. This version of Hamlet that we watched in class gives its own twist and darkness that the story needs. The opening shot of the movie is a close up of many different statues and their faces, then the camera focuses on a statue of Hamlet, which would be considered an establishing shot. An establishing shot is often a long shot or series of shots that sets the scene, so therefore the shots of the faces on the outside of the buildings and Hamlet’s statue are defined as an establishing shot(s). When …show more content…
It opens with Polonius burning what looks like very official papers and documents. This scene has a variety of different camera angles, lighting, and background music. Throughout the introduction the camera angels change from an establishing shot to a more balanced shot with the camera scanning the room around the actors. The music in the background became more intense as this scene progressed. The directors did a good job at keeping the audience on edge during this scene by showing all of the characters for the first few minutes of the film not talking and having creepy music playing in the background. The lighting in this was very low-key which contributed to grabbing the audience’s attention. By using these techniques, the directors had the audience asking questions like “why this music”, “what does this have to do with the rest of the movie”, and “why would this be important”. With questions like this running through the minds of the audience how could one not want to watch the rest of the movie to find out the