BBC Culture Show:Acting:Ulysess and Penelope

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/videos/2009/08/s6_edinb_3_penelope/index.shtml

Linda Marlowe explores the world of Ulysess and Penolope by looking at two different theatre productions of the story.

The first theatre production she looks at is done by The Royal Ballet of Flanders. The story is about Penelope and her wait for Ulysess to return home from war. The Mise- en- scene in this particular story is very dark colours and a plain back drop.
 The stage is only filled with one table at the back and a couple of boxes for the dancers to stand on and leap off from. On the table there is a record player and they play love songs, rock songs and classical music out of this to show how Penelope feels at that moment in time. The stage is constantly dimly lit because the story is a depressing one and it shows how Penelope would have been feeling. The dancers and actors wear very plain clothes. The women wear black dresses and nothing else apart from Penelope who wears a crown to symbolise the fact that she is the queen of Greece. The men wear Plain black suits apart from one person who comes along the stage wearing a white tutu and some white flippers and nothing else. The camera work in this paticular shot is a long shot so you can see what is happening in the back ground, but the shots do change from being long to going to a medium shot to even a close up of just Penelop standing in the background.


In the next theatre production Linda looks at a puppet opra version of the story of Ulysess and Penolope. Its about Ulysess dieing and Penolope being extreamly upset. The puppets are made out of wood. The colours are much brighter in this version. The main colours are reds, silvers, golds. The back drop is one of big grand pillers and greek furniture. The lighting is bright but sometimes can go very dim. Penelope wears a sliver top and a red skirt and Ulysess wears stripy Pyjamas. In the shot there is a bed and a small bed side table and that is it. The shots are usually Long shots but sometimes they go to medium shots.

The sounds in this clip are mainly diegetic sounds, but when Linda speaks over the top of the clip then they turn from being diegetic to being Non- diegetic sounds.
When the dierectors and producers of each show are being interveiwed the camera is usually medium shot apart from the end when Linda has a close up. This is because that way you are concentrating more on what the director or producer are saying rather then looking at the background.

Behind Linda you can see the sea because she is on a greek island and lots of big rocks. The colours are bright but they have bits of gray in them most likely because of the editing and the camera shots.

At the end when Linda gets a close up they do this because she is giving her final conclusion about the two plays and this adds more effect.