Creating the Jamaican movie Romeo n Juliet 4EVA from the Shakespearean classic Romeo and Juliet , is a task producer Paul Bucknor never imagined would have taken him six years. Filming began in 2018, with production lasting 13 days, but even then it took months before Bucknor, who was working on 16 episodes of Conquering Shakespeare at the time, could work on the film. He even had to learn to use a new editing software to complete the project.
“It takes time. It’s not just that it takes time, it takes my time. Editing takes time.
I edited it on my laptop in different countries. Versions of this film travelled around different countries and it’s been a long process, but we’re here now,” Bucknor, who is now proud of the final version, told The Gleaner during an interview after the first private viewing of Romeo n Juliet 4EVA at the Palace Cineplex, located at the Sovereign Centre in Kingston. Another challenge which Bucknor faced, was that after the final video shoot, there was absolutely no audio saved for the recording, and he had to re-engage all actors to do voiceovers which then had to be matched with the video recordings and b-rolls.
“I just had to rerecord all the audio for the last scene, and this was three years after we shot it, and it was just the pitfalls of filmmaking,” he said. The Shakespearean classic would go on to receive a sold-out special Jamaica Independence Day screening at Brixton’s Ritzy Cinema on August 6, though it was not finished bein.