TA TALKS BACK: WHAT AN ADAPTATION IS AND ISN’T
In this edition of TA Talks Back, Oretha adresses what the screenwriter has to do to adapt a book to the big screen and why what works on the page doesnt always work on screen.
I was originally going to avoid this topic but the screams, rants and complaints have just become too loud to ignore. There is this huge argument about whether Melissa has a responsibility to do movie adaptations versus sticking letter by letter true to book. I personally am a huge fan of adaptations. Why? It allows you the opportunity to actually explore things that ran across your mind when you were reading the book.The screen writer Mrs. Rosenberg in this and the various directors have done a more than fair job by actually giving words to our characters. Surely, you as a avid fan and reader of the book say why couldn’t they just use all the dialog that is in the book. There is plenty. There are good reasons. I will only address three of them.
• Timing: A scene needs to have a certain flow. While your imagination can create every little detail when you read something when you are doing a screen play you need to make the scene move. She gives them lines so that they actually can get from one scene to another.
• Visual cohesion: They have to make it visually engaging as a scene that is just a verbatim from the book would not allow for you to have a feeling. The scene needs to be something that will explain a story if you never read the book and you need to see it. Case in point the arrival of Emmett, Jasper and Alive to dance studio and coming off the balcony. That scene actually told you a few things. It displayed the supernatural talents and it displayed the relationship they had to their brother.
• Derivative Work: is a work based upon an original piece, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. It is a work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications.
Most definitely when you see a novel come to life on the screen they will need to address that just plainly some things cannot and won’t ever work on the big screen. In addition there is reason to be able to change things that should be explained out and seen so that you understand them better. An adaptation is not a verbatim retelling of story. It can’t be, just because of visual, technological and logical reasons.
What do you think, TAers? Talk back to us…
