In our age, we have many technological developments, making high reality film production available. Producers benefit those to create and adapt artworks to the screen and capture the attention of audience greatly. But what about the old times? How was Macbeth killing Duncan (for instance) was played back then? Thats what I was wondering the most and this derived a post topic for me.
The Globe, which started to operate in 1599, was where audiences first experienced Shakespeare's well known plays, but Shakespeare's company moved the play to an indoor theater to operate indoor.
First of all, a commonly used special effect was to produce suspension and create theme-specific ambience by sounds. There was a whole orchestra with peculiar instruments, not to play music but to create sounds. Rain? You guessed it, drum rolls. Thunder? This is rather hard, a metal ball rolling like a bowling ball from one side of the backstage to the other. Lighting was done by throwing explosive powders to the candle flame.
But probably, one of the most interesting effects would be sword fighting. Sword fights were real, people got injured just for the sake of realistic plays. But most dangerous and horrifying part of the play would be a scene where someone got stabbed. How they managed to do that, was to actually stab a pouch full of blood, planted beneath the clothes of actors.
Maybe not as much as we have today, but people actually managed to create special effects in Shakespeare's time, though creating an illusionary dagger would be a hard one.
Check these links for further reading:
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/06/special_effects.pdf
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/xSpecialEffects.html
I really wondered how did they create the imaginary dagger. There weren't any computers in 1950s. Also, using drums or some other objects to create sound effects is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI think in the stabbing part they do not show the person stabbed directly or they use a protector and a fake dagger, give some blood effects.
Wow, I'd be really excited to see a play like this(old-style). That's why I love theater more than cinema since there is still more sincerity, direct interaction with audience.
ReplyDelete---Birdman spoiler--
However that reality of sword fights reminded me scene of the movie "Birdman" where main character shot himself to make the play unforgettable.
Great stuff! Although I knew about some of this, the details are fascinating. I agree, I'd love to see one of these productions, as long as the theater didn't burn down from special effects gone awry, as it did in 1613 during a production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII!
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