Things don't look good at the start of this Sonnet Project film. We have a hand-held camera with a basic sepia tint put over it and an actor mugging a bit too much – like a villain in an 1910 short film (just lacking the mustache to twiddle). However once this short intro is out of the way, the film changes to be the same actor (Corporandy) delivering the sonnet text next to some of the Alice in Wonderland characters. While I am not sure how this links to the text itself, what it does do is allow for a pleasing playful tone that Corporandy delivers very nicely.
The sonnet itself appears to be equally playful, with some nicely flowing words and lots of plays on the name 'Will' (and just in case you miss them – the sonnet spells it out in the final line! In terms of making the sonnet text more accessible, I am not wholly sure it does this, but the performance makes it work because it is playful and has sharp delivery. I also liked the editing across the different shots (and the occasional distracted pause it produced). Does it produce great meaning or modern narrative context? I don't think so – but it is fun and the playful tone made my ear pay more attention, so I did like it for the way it delivered the text.
The sonnet itself appears to be equally playful, with some nicely flowing words and lots of plays on the name 'Will' (and just in case you miss them – the sonnet spells it out in the final line! In terms of making the sonnet text more accessible, I am not wholly sure it does this, but the performance makes it work because it is playful and has sharp delivery. I also liked the editing across the different shots (and the occasional distracted pause it produced). Does it produce great meaning or modern narrative context? I don't think so – but it is fun and the playful tone made my ear pay more attention, so I did like it for the way it delivered the text.