Assignment 2

I thought both versions were fairly well done, but it was clear that the second version was much more dramatized and more realistic. The first was just the product of somebody's English assignment, but the second had substantial effort put into it and better reflected Dickens' novel. For example, the first version had kids acting as all the characters, and some of them played more than one role. However, the second had both adults and a kid (who played Pip), who were probably chosen specially because of their similarity to the actual characters. In addition, the first version only used props and resources readily available (e.g. a modern house as Pip's house and a river bank as the marshes). The second version used more realistic sets, and also portrayed Mrs. Joe as being much more vicious. The first version was less formal (bloopers at the end, etc.) while the second was more "serious", and added additional dramatic effects that were not in Dickens' original work (such as a flock of birds migrating and the use of slow-motion filming). The costumes in the second version were also much more similar to the time period, whereas the first version did not appear to use any specific costumes at all. However, both films did a fine job of giving an audio-visual representation of Dickens' novel, but overall, I believe the second one was much better done than the first.

-Daniel R.