S1.85: Sonnet #189: Clever and amusing set-up but the overly comic tone of the opening, and the camera-work detract a little

Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA

Kristen French and Ryan George in The Sonnet Project (2013)

Kristen French

Ryan George

William Shakespeare

Lucas Rainey

Sonnet #109

This short film has a nicely unexpected sense of comedy about it, one which did not occur to me when I was reading the sonnet for myself. While I find it useful to do so, I usually end up focusing on what the words mean in terms of them being said, and while I am not always good at that, I am even less good at getting to grips with the possible context, or the feelings/reaction of the person to which they are addressed. As a result I am nicely surprised when these films so often extend them into a full scene.

In this case, a sonnet about a man who may have roamed romantically returning to true love is given a modern update as a man steps away from him phone only for his partner to see another woman that she does not know calling him – forcing the man to go on the defensive and try to sweet-talk his way out of it. At its core the film is very enjoyable in how it does this; it plays well with the words to make them comical and I enjoyed the performance of the main actor in delivering them, and to a lesser-extent, the performance of the woman. I also liked the use of the gardens as a location as it had several nice places which were used (Snug Harbor on Staten Island – I&apos;ve never been, but looks nice).

Generally, as a scene between these two people, it works very well. However what doesn&apos;t work so well is the wider delivery of the short. We open with overly done jazz and physical performances in lieu of dialogue; this creates too much of a comic air from the start and doesn&apos;t fit the rather smarter comedy that is the majority of the short film. It also clunks a bit when it transitions from this heavy music, down to mostly dialogue. The camera work is also a bit of a mystery to me; I admit ignorance when it comes to technical matters, but the camera is all over the place here – unnecessarily shaky when it moves (most of the time the movement being also unnecessary) and it distracts from the content and the location – with even nice shots detracted from by the lack of stability in the camera.

Such aspects do reduce the effectiveness of the film, but I still enjoyed it for the way it used the text in a scene and how it bring a modernity and comedic air to the delivery of it; the camera-work and the nature of the opening scene are weaker, but generally it works well despite this.

This short film has a nicely unexpected sense of comedy about it, one which did not occur to me when I was reading the sonnet for myself. While I find it useful to do so, I usually end up focusing on what the words mean in terms of them being said, and while I am not always good at that, I am even less good at getting to grips with the possible context, or the feelings/reaction of the person to which they are addressed. As a result I am nicely surprised when these films so often extend them into a full scene.

In this case, a sonnet about a man who may have roamed romantically returning to true love is given a modern update as a man steps away from him phone only for his partner to see another woman that she does not know calling him – forcing the man to go on the defensive and try to sweet-talk his way out of it. At its core the film is very enjoyable in how it does this; it plays well with the words to make them comical and I enjoyed the performance of the main actor in delivering them, and to a lesser-extent, the performance of the woman. I also liked the use of the gardens as a location as it had several nice places which were used (Snug Harbor on Staten Island – I've never been, but looks nice).

Generally, as a scene between these two people, it works very well. However what doesn't work so well is the wider delivery of the short. We open with overly done jazz and physical performances in lieu of dialogue; this creates too much of a comic air from the start and doesn't fit the rather smarter comedy that is the majority of the short film. It also clunks a bit when it transitions from this heavy music, down to mostly dialogue. The camera work is also a bit of a mystery to me; I admit ignorance when it comes to technical matters, but the camera is all over the place here – unnecessarily shaky when it moves (most of the time the movement being also unnecessary) and it distracts from the content and the location – with even nice shots detracted from by the lack of stability in the camera.

Such aspects do reduce the effectiveness of the film, but I still enjoyed it for the way it used the text in a scene and how it bring a modernity and comedic air to the delivery of it; the camera-work and the nature of the opening scene are weaker, but generally it works well despite this.

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Sonnet #109

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