Behind the Scenes: Russell & Jameela It's My Shout: Short Films from Wales

I remember the first time somebody sent me LOL,

and I didn't know what it meant at all.

It's like a second language pretty much.

LOL. Yeah - laugh out loud.

ROFL - roll on the floor laughing.

WBU. Which is - what about you?

JK I use quite a lot, which means just kidding.

CBA. You know - can't be...

bothered!

BRB, LOL, LMFAO, PMSL...

Erm...

SYL. I'm just making some of these up now!

The film is a modern version of Romeo And Juliet.

Technology is quite prominent.

Russell, who's Romeo in this film, is obsessed with technology.

He knows how being on Facebook...

Name dropping all these sites.

We thought it would be more tongue-in-cheek

if there was a phone breaking instead of noses breaking.

Is there a problem here, ladies?

'It's as if when the phone breaks,'

you're life's over so it's as if you've died,

and it's really good to see how

they've adapted the original Romeo And Juliet script to this.

It's tongue-in-cheek, it is comedy.

When you look at it and you look at the people using their phones

every day, that's actually how much you are on your phone.

It's quite surprising, when you take a step back and look at it.

To be or not to be, that is the question.

What is done is done and cannot be undone. I think that's one.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness

and some have greatness thrust upon them.

One from Macbeth. The night is long that never finds the day.

I really like that one.

Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

We've got a narrator, which has been beamed forward

from Shakespearean time.

Because his language he uses contrasts differently

with all the other dialogue,

it's given us that licence to have a bit of fun with that character.

Just the narrator, he's stuck in times, two times.

The Shakespearean times and Facebook times.

He also uses the Old English and a little bit of today's English.

I do actually have a dictionary in my bag where I just had to check,

just constantly check, what this word means.

I didn't know what "pernickety" meant.

HE LAUGHS

A pair of star-crossed lovers take a chance

Bringing families and friends to blows.

'I knew nothing about Shakespeare.'

From researching him, he comes across as someone'

who just understood life.

Everything that he had written back in his own age

is relatable to the people then.

So, definitely, if he can do it then

he would certainly be able to do it now. Yeah.

He'd probably be turning in his grave right now at any abbreviations.

But then, on a complete opposite hand,

he did make up stuff himself.

Maybe these days he'd give social media

some new, decent abbreviations.

Kids still study Shakespeare at school.

I think his work has stood the test of time.

So, I'm sure he'd be the same as everyone.

He'd be using Twitter, I think!

'The way people actually use social media

'and messaging as a tool for, sort of, romance rather than'

having to come out in person and say, I really like you, or whatever,

they're able to show their feelings without actually having to

confront them and being at risk of being put down straightaway.

'I definitely know that I'm more connected with people

'through internet.

'If you haven't seen that person in a long time'

or you just want to catch up, it's easy to do that

because everyone does it. It's just the regular thing.

Russell uses social media to get revenge at who my cousin is, Tahir.

He wants everyone to film him bullying him, basically.

It's awful, it's really bad.

People online, kind of, do hide behind their screen

because not much things are said face to face in real life.

Whereas online, a lot of things are said

that are really offensive and hurtful.

I think we know more about each other because people post

more online about what they've done today, their animals, their family.

But in person, I think we're more isolated.