Lady Macbeth in Silhouette

This video is intended to portray the evolution and progression of the character Lady Macbeth, from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The video illustrates the hubris with which she is originally presented in the play, and the way in which her character crumbles with each murder she or her husband commit. Throughout the play, the woman gains a sense of humanity which she lacks at the outset. The cost of losing her strong facade, however, is the guilt she is saddled with. In the video, her character simulated through her posture. With each name that flashes on the screen, another life is taken, and Lady Macbeth is crushed, until, completely deflated, she is gone. 

To achieve the silhouette effect, I used a set of broad construction lights, an unused bed sheet, and a startling amount of duct tape. My mother, Arden Kass, was drafted as Lady Macbeth. Between each shot, I would model for her the poses she would go through to pantomime the character. Some difficulty arose in the editing stage, and as a result the final video is not nearly as elegant as the original footage. I have been instructed to tell any viewers that my mothers is not, in fact, as wide as iMovie ’09 shows her to be. 

At the outset, supplies were hard to find. After prepping to begin filming, the camera broke, and the rest of the process was completed using an iPhone. Unfortunately, iPhones are a bit of a pain. Next, the tape, the sheets and the wall refused to cooperate. In between each shot, much time was spent re-hanging the sheet, re-applying the tape, and even re-filming shots in which the sheet fell. The lights nearly burnt a hole in the floor, and the sheet was discovered to be spotted with large, mysterious black spots. Finally, the video was shot in a doorway, so I was forced to use the vertical video function of my phone. Apple products are not nearly as compatible as you might think, and the final movie is irreparably distorted. 

This project is certainly as dramatic, intense and communicative as I hoped it would be, if a little poorly edited. A good first attempt at silhouette filmmaking

Given more time, I would find a way to tile the video, so that I could use it without distortion. I would also put a little more time into the editing, as the transitions are a little funky. 

I was very impressed by the creativity of the other projects. People saw Macbeth in a very different light from me. 

I learned, unfortunately, that I am capable of handing in a project where I’m not 100% proud of the aesthetics of the final copy. I hope this doesn’t have too much of an impact on future projects.