There is a great false modesty and insincere praise thing going on within sonnet 80. I'm not sure who the other writer is (or if it is even an individual) but Shakespeare goes out of his way to talk the person up, using the metaphor of boats on the wide ocean of the woman's worth, with the writer supposedly reluctant to write about the woman because the other man does too, and he is so much better than he – but at least if he is crushed by the other writer, at least the pursuit of love was what caused his destruction. It could be taken as quite defeatist but the language and excess in the imagery does rather make it seem comically insincere.
The film of this sonnet sets it on a boat (or a ship, I can never remember) – USS Intrepid to be precise. In the delivery we follow a young man as he goes on a tour of the Intrepid, usually delivering the sonnet to the camera over his shoulder and broken up by clips of the tour and music from The Lightening Seeds. In terms of making use of the location it is hard to fault it, but unfortunately the effect on the delivery of the sonnet is negative. It isn't just that the film doesn't really add much context or interpretation to the text, it is more than the delivery works against understanding it. The technical aspects are perhaps the biggest barrier because the sound quality is poor – particularly when you ear has to adjust quickly from very loud post- production music down to on-location dialogue. The manner of delivery doesn't help – lines are fragmented across the film so you don't really get into the rhythm of it the way you might like to.
It is still an interesting film because of trying to make the best use of the location, and the curio value of shooting it with regular tour group people all around, but it must be said that it really doesn't help with the delivery of the sonnet text itself.
The film of this sonnet sets it on a boat (or a ship, I can never remember) – USS Intrepid to be precise. In the delivery we follow a young man as he goes on a tour of the Intrepid, usually delivering the sonnet to the camera over his shoulder and broken up by clips of the tour and music from The Lightening Seeds. In terms of making use of the location it is hard to fault it, but unfortunately the effect on the delivery of the sonnet is negative. It isn't just that the film doesn't really add much context or interpretation to the text, it is more than the delivery works against understanding it. The technical aspects are perhaps the biggest barrier because the sound quality is poor – particularly when you ear has to adjust quickly from very loud post- production music down to on-location dialogue. The manner of delivery doesn't help – lines are fragmented across the film so you don't really get into the rhythm of it the way you might like to.
It is still an interesting film because of trying to make the best use of the location, and the curio value of shooting it with regular tour group people all around, but it must be said that it really doesn't help with the delivery of the sonnet text itself.