Of Adaptation

 

Perhaps the most annoying response to movies is "well... that was good but the book was way better." Viewers have an unfortunate tendency to need to compare movies to their original material and judge quality based on how close the film was to the original text. This can be clearly seen in adaptations from books and historical events. There is an entire sub-genre of video essays devoted towards comparing book to movie: 

While this type of analysis can be some of the most revealing into how a filmmaker approaches story and, to an extent, the entire craft as we can clearly see the choices they are making, often this type of analysis falls into fans of the book complaining about the movie not upkeeping the original text. As seen in the reception of starship troopers or the shinning

In my opinion, this devotion to the original text comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium of cinema in comparison to the medium of prose. While a film adaptation can have the exact same plot as a novel, there are certain things a novel can do that a movie simply cannot like internal dialogue. Likewise, cinema is far better at creating a physical description of a scene than a novel. Through the process of adaptation filmmakers need to almost ignore the original text to make an effective movie. Beyond using the basic plot and characters of a novel, only thematic elements should be focused upon by the filmmaker. This prospective towards Adaptation can be understood through a comparison between Atonement and The Big Short.  

Both of these films are fairly atypical. Each uses a structure that is totally unique, strange editing choices, and distinct writing choices. However, within this Atonement feels weirdly disjointed and The Big Short feels cinematic. Atonement is far closer to the original material than The Big Short, and because it was less willing to budge on the structural choices of the novel the film feels hollow. In comparison The Big Short realizes that the original text should be considered irrelevant.  

In the little adaptation work I have done, ignoring the text has been far more successful than attempting to keep the original. The entirety of Speaking of Valor is approached from this prospective and the first half of Fiery Trails:  

As I was writing the first half of Fiery Trails I completely ignored the original material, only after we leave the workshop did I start writing with the book in my hand. Now, I recognize there is a balancing act here as I have a tendency to go so far away from the text that the original is almost unrecognizable. 

Work Log

Monday- Story Boarding

Tuesday- CGI match thought 

Wednesday- CGI character research 

Thursday- Went through the Animate tutorial 

Friday- Finishing the story board