“To be or not to be”, has frequently found its way to Youtube. The video that “kynnusk” uploaded is
but one video of Branagh’s performance of this soliloquy. This Shakespeare video is excellent for
people to see how the rest of this film version is like. Also, this page has many comments and views
which add more into the platea.
The actual performance is very mellow, but reflects the madness much better through the camerawork. He doesn’t yell or shout the lines. Branagh knows he doesn’t have to portray him in that fashion. He is composed and the depression he shows is through his eyes and even in the somberness of his voice. Instead of moving around a lot or playing the mad man, he uses the mirrors on the wall to play the reflective nature of Hamlet. The king’s hall is a hall of mirrors and he says his lines to one of the mirrors that turns out to be see through on the other side where Claudius and Polonius are spying. He pulls out a knife and he moves closer and closer to the mirror and as he does this, the camera moves away from the back of Hamlet. It zooms into a close-up shot of Hamlet only in the mirror, without seeing his actual body. This now reveals the inner reflection of Hamlet’s depression and madness and is no longer a reflection, but his actual self.
Like many of the scenes in the film version, there is next to no cutting of shots. The only time the camera is interrupted is near the middle where we see Claudius stopping Polonius when Hamlet takes out the knife. Other than that one reaction shot, it is a continuous tracking shot throughout the entire soliloquy. First, this helps give a sense of theatricality of saying the lines without stopping for a break. Kenneth Branagh feels like he is on stage saying the lines because he doesn’t have to stop every few seconds to do another take or another angle. Second, this camerawork makes the audience feel like they are in the film, they are brought into the film, such as the suture theory suggests. We are interrupted less when the constant cutting does not occur. It becomes a constant without any distractions.
But then there is the platea of the Youtube page that adds more interactions for the viewers than the actual film does because there are many things to be found on the platea. There are thumbnails and hyperlinks off to the right that can send the viewer to other clips from other versions of Hamlet or from this version. If a viewer wished to see this scene being performed by other actors, they can see one being performed by Mel Gibson in Franco Zefferelli’s film. There is one from the BBC 2009 version with David Tennant. There is a poor quality recording of Laurence Olivier’s radio reading of Hamlet, there is a clip from The Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the film playing an action version of Hamlet, a scene from Monty Python and the Flying Circus where they make fun of Hamlet, a Spanish version of The Simpsons where Homer is saying lines from Macbeth, and many other videos and clips. The purpose of these hyperlinks is to expand the horizons of the viewers and to have them continuing the experiencing of watching videos.
Another part of the platea is the comment section. Patricia Lange wrote for her first misconception that Youtube is a video sharing site. She defends this argument that it is not a video sharing site because it isn’t just a site that people watch videos, but more of a network of people where they can send the videos to other sites. People send emails with Youtube clips embedded in them, people share these videos on Facebook and on blogs and other sites. But there is quite a large amount of commentary on certain videos. On this video, there are eighteen pages of comments and growing each day, with people discussing the quality of Branagh’s deliverance of the soliloquy and their opinions of the movie as a whole. Some people complain about how slow and boring it is (jjrsj8110 writes that Branagh “says everything in the same tone and voice”), others can’t get over the fact that it is Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets instead of Hamlet (xoxrachiee), quite a few viewers think Branagh is a genius (Grahammpatton), and some complain about the age and race of Branagh not fitting the character (TwoTekah). While all of these complaints and praises appear in the comment section, the point of these comments are not to hate or love the video, it is to give feedback and to make the viewer’s voice be heard. The point is to expand the performance from the clip and to include the viewers who become part of the platea. We become performers when we leave a comment behind.
There are even more items that we can find on this screen, on the platea of the page. It is possible to see how many people have viewed the video. In this case there were up to 129,440 viewers. Also, it is possible to see who voted on this clip: “Liked” or “Disliked”. If a viewer doesn’t want to comment on the video, they can still be a part of the performance by clicking one more button. Again, in the case of this video, there were 429 people who have liked this clip and only 8 people who have clicked “Dislike”. If the viewer chooses to take away all of this interactivity while they watch the video, there is a button to make the video fit the screen that the viewer is watching. It takes away all of the distractions and clear away the platea and watch it like they would on a television. All of the other interactivity comes after the video is watched and makes them apart of the platea.
This specific Youtube page shows many of the great aspects of the film, such as it’s the suture theory that Kenneth Branagh embraces, and has a lot of interactivity on the platea. Through both of these aspects of the page, the viewer’s help show the greatness of the film as well as the performance that viewers can be a part of when they interact on the page.
Works Cited
“Kynnusk.” “Hamlet, To be or not to be - Kenneth Branagh.” Youtube.com. Youtube. 07 Oct. 2007. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
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