Digital Media Literacy Activities

Information may "want to be free" but can it be, and, if so, is it ethical?

1. Think about and discuss with others how each of the following acts might impact (positively or negatively) the rights holders of the various Romeo and Juliet products mentioned:

- borrowing a book containing Romeo and Juliet from a school or public library
- renting a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet from a video store or service like NetFlix
- buying a legal DVD of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet from a store or online source
- buying an illegal copy of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet from a street vendor
- borrowing from a friend a book containing Romeo and Juliet or a legal DVD of a movie adaptation of the play or an audio book version of it
- loaning a friend a book containing Romeo and Juliet or a legal DVD of a movie adaptation of the play or an audio book version of it
- copying a legal DVD of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet
- photocopying a print version of Romeo and Juliet
- copying an audio book version of Romeo and Juliet
- posting to YouTube some or all of a DVD of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet
- linking on your own FaceBook page, Blog, or Twitter to illegal YouTube postings of some or all of  a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet
-embedding links on your own FaceBook page, Blog, or web site to illegal YouTube postings of some or all of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet
- uploading a DVD of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet to a file-sharing service
- downloading an illegally shared copy of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet from a file-sharing service
 - creating and posting to YouTube your own video, using music and or video clips without permission from the rights holders
- shoplifting a DVD of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet
- stealing an illegal DVD of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet from a street vendor


2. Think about and discuss with others how you think each of these acts might impact (positively or negatively) the reader, viewer, listener, student, or teacher of any such original creative output.

3. Think about and discuss with others examples of each of any such acts you encountered on this CyberClassics Romeo and Juliet site. How do you feel about your possible participation in these acts?

4. Read comments that others have posted on the web and below concerning the above issues.

Complicated isn’t it?

Now, share your thoughts with others by posing comments below.


Romeo and Juliet at the Movies
Ever since Shakespeare's time others have adapted his plays to their times, audiences, the skills of their actors, and their own artistic temperaments. Such adaptations have often involved setting the plays in other times and places and/or modifying the scripts---eliminating or shifting some or all of a scene to another scene or substantially shortening the play. Some more recent adaptations have modernized and simplified some of Shakespeare's language to make his plays more comprehensible and accessible to modern audiences. Ever since the invention of movies, countless Shakespeare plays have been adapted to the screen.

The following activities involve viewing and analyzing various movie adaptations of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

1. Decide if you want to hear The Prologue of Romeo and Juliet read aloud by a professional actor in one of these movie adaptations before you read it to yourself or if you want to read it to yourself first.

Which did you decide to do first, read it to yourself or hear it read? What do you think were the advantages and disadvantages of doing it as you did. Find a friend or classmate who did it the opposite way. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages you each identified for the way you did it.

2. Decide if you want to watch all or parts of one of the movie adaptations of Romeo and Juliet before, or after reading all or parts of the play. What factors might you want to take into consideration in making this decision? For example, have you seen or read any Shakespeare plays before? Do you find some of Shakespeare's 16th century English difficult to follow?  Do you think seeing the characters in action as they speak would help you understand better what they are saying or would reading notes explaining Elizabethan English terms to you help you understand the written version better?

3. Try reading a scene and then watching the part of one of the movie adaptations that contains that same scene. Notice differences between Shakespeare's original script and the way the movie adaptation treats the scene. Why do you think the movie director made the artistic decisions he did in making the scene. Do you agree with his decisions?

4. Compare and contrast the treatments of various scenes from the play in movie three adaptations (Baz Lurhrmann's Baz Luhrmann's 1996 movie William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 movie Romeo and Juliet, and Renato Castellani's 1954 movie  Romeo and Juliet).  List as many similarities and differences between two or among three approaches to the same scene as you can. Do the different adaptations convey the same or a different sense of the characters? If different, what evidence can you cite from the various adaptations? Which adaptation do you find easiest to follow? Why? Which holds your interest more? Why? Which do you think adheres most closely to Shakespeare's original script? (Cite evidence to support your conclusion).

5. Do you think most people in Shakespeare's day just saw his plays, just read his plays or usually did both? Find out a bit about Shakespeare's audiences.

6. See if you can get members of your family, some friends, and/ or classmates to read Romeo and Juliet aloud with you? Then compare that experience with viewing a movie adaptation or reading it to yourself. What were some of the pluses and minuses of each experience for you?

7. Now that you've read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and seen a movie adaptation of the play, you might be interested in seeing how the "story" of Romeo and Juliet has been used in come other art forms: the musical West Side Story, Sergey Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet , and Piotr Tchaikovsky's Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet. How would you characterize the difference between making a movie adaptation of the Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet and creating a work based on the story of Romeo and Juliet.

8. Compare and contrast Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the play Romeo and Juliet and the musical West Side Story, based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. How are the two similar and how different? (Cite specific evidence from the two works). Do you prefer one to the other? Explain why or why not.

Roll Your Own
In the comments box below, propose your own ideas for a digital media literacy activity for Romeo and Juliet.

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