Screening the Canon: RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Screening the Canon is a large-scale research initiative on the production of screen adaptations of the RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon series. This ongoing series creates live and recorded productions of Shakespeare’s plays produced on the Stratford stages of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). With Wyver as creative producer, whose role includes shaping and leading wide-ranging research within and beyond the company, 26 productions were completed between 2014-20. Among these productions, the lead outputs are: Henry IV, Part 1 (2014); Hamlet (2016); Timon of Athens (2019). The majority of the productions have been shown in hundreds of cinemas in Britain and internationally, and a number of them on BBC Four television and BBC iPlayer, and on international streaming sites. See Portfolio Booklet for documentation of research dimensions.
- Submitting institution
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The University of Westminster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- qvq6v
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- January
- Year
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Wyver's research underpins the production of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s full-length screen adaptations, 26 of which were disseminated in this census period. Wyver led a large team of theatre and broadcast professionals in creating, both aesthetically and technically, multi-layered approaches to adapting stage performance for cinema and non-cinema screens to the highest technical and creative standards. Developed alongside, and drawing deeply on, his archival and historical research into a century of Shakespeare’s productions on screen, Wyver’s wide-ranging research and multi-faceted leadership as creative producer substantially enabled the RSC to establish itself as a cultural producer for cinema and online.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The research context is the rapidly developing live and “as live” broadcast approaches needed for creatively successful screen adaptations of Shakespeare stagings. Wyver drew on his extensive historical research on Shakespeare adaptations, and with his collaborator he researched the skill sets, experiences, and creative collaborations between broadcast and theatre professionals to achieve distinctive and successful screen adaptations. This research in turn shaped the RSC’s development of internal structures and systems for the creation, control, ownership and long-term exploitation of screen-based content.
The project achieved a refinement of multi-camera techniques for live and “as live” screen adaptations of stage performance and explored a range of aesthetic approaches, including on-screen framing of figures (and the differences in affect when these are viewed in a cinema, via a broadcast monitor, and on a tablet). It highlighted the impact of different cutting rates between shots; and the ways in which highly mobile cameras can contribute to audience involvement. The application of cutting-edge visual and aural recording technologies, progressively applied across the series, produced additional insights.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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