  Drama
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| So many things change with the transition from summer to autumn. One of those things is the overall mood of movies rolling into the theaters. Soon the Oscar-buzz-inducing movies will make their way to the theaters. Without a doubt there will be plenty of movies adapted from any given number of prose works. Lately, I've noticed that when done well, such adaptations clean up at the awards shows. In this issue, I'm going to look at a bone of contention in the world of cinema: adapting screenplays. |
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Screenplays adapted from previously written material are hardly new. However, the whim of Hollywood has resulted in a greater focus on screenplays derived from other source material. Some of you might like to see this trend go away, but at the rate it's going, that might not happen for a while. That said, I decided to take the time to explore the misunderstood world of adapted screenplays and try to understand the audience's love/hate relationship with these movies.
 LENGTHY ISSUES
One of the greatest obstacles in adapting a prose work to a screenplay is length. This pertains to novels more than other types of prose works, especially when you compare the average length of a novel to a script. I've heard that the ideal sript length runs between 110 to 120 pages. That's not very long no matter how you look at it. So why such a short length for a script? The rule of thumb with scripts is that each page is roughly equal to a minute of screentime. Hence, 120 pages is equivalent to a two hour movie. If it goes on longer than that, odds are moviegoers will not be willing too sit in a hard plastic seat for the duration of the movie. So when it comes time to adapt a novel for the screen, off to the chopping block the novel goes! A screenwriter sitting down to do an adaptation has to mine the main plot and the major subplot of the novel from the numerous pages of material. I can already see why this would be a problem for the Harry Potter novels, and I have never read a single one of them. Go, me! Anyway, a good screenwriter would read the novel once or twice and then set it aside for some time. The writer would then return to the novel a few weeks down the road and determine what he or she remembers the most about it without picking up the book. This method shows how subjective an adaptation can be even before the screenwriter sits at the computer to type the first draft. And then there is the possibility that the writer goes for the Cliffs Notes version of the story without reading the novel. Yes, that can happen, and let's just say that it's not a pretty picture (both literally and figureatively).
Perhaps this is why short stories adapted to screenplays tend to resonate with more people. With a short story, the plot and subplot(s) are presented right away and have little chance to get lost in character development scenes. There's also fewer characters to follow, and introspection from any particular character can only go on for so long before the plot intervenes and halts the internal monologues. Plus, with short stories only reaching to maybe 30 pages (instead of a couple hundred), adapting a short story to the length guidelines of a script is much more feasible. Some examples of solid short story adaptations include Brokeback Mountain,Million Dollar Baby and The Shawshank Redemption. All three were nominated for Academy Awards, and Brokeback Mountain won.
INTERPRETIVE DANCE
When most of us train to become writers, we develop control freak tendencies, which helps us (somewhat) with developing characters and plots for prose works. With screenwriting in general and adapted screenwriting in particular, you have to give up some of that control. With prose works, a lot of subjective interpretation comes into play. Aside from the screenwriter's interpretation, the actors determine how the characters behave and talk. Costumers and make-up artists help form the characters' physical characteristics. The art department and location scouts determine how the setting will look. If you think about it, adaptating prose works for the screen is a very decentralized job. This can come into conflict with a prose writer's mind. I mean, there are editors that will suggest certain sections be added, subtracted or changed. However, in writing prose, the writer is responsible for establishing characters, plot and scene when creating the final product. So am I suggesting that everyone involved with the production of an adapted screenplay read the source material first? It wouldn't be a bad idea. Granted, they don't need to dissect it, and they will have to imagine for themselves what a described building might actually look like in three dimensions. Still, using the source material as a guide can provide some insight into the characters or provide hints for creating a given setting.
Of course, all this interpretation can work on the set but not translate on the big screen. Is this the fault of the production team? That depends on the source material in question and the individual films themselves. When a popular work is adapted for the big screen and falls flat on its face, the chance of audience interpretation and production interpretation clashing is higher. With more obscure material, the production team is more culpable. As an avid moviewatcher, I have determined that bad movies stem more from bad direction and production than from bad scripts. One person at a script workshop I attended even said that bad movies can be created from good scripts but no movies can be created from bad scripts. COnsidering how competitive the screenwriting world is, I believe him.
WORK IT OUT
Still, adaptations are not impossible, novels included. In fact, the list of Academy Award winners for Best Adapted Screenplay is dominated by scripts adapted from novels. That said, here are three things I feel are essential to a successful adaptated screenplay.
 experience in the craft: Scriptwriting is very different from prose writing. The focus is on plot, and those who are gifted with eloquence in written language may lose their footing when switching to a comparitively cut and dry form of writing. It takes some time to transition from lofty phrases and description to concise dialogue and stage directions. Having to endure that transition while trying to adapt a prose work for the screen is simply double work. So go easy on yourself and write a few original scripts before tackling an adaptation.
wiggle room: Admit it. We prose writers have a tendency to focus more on a particular character's thoughts than developing action to further a plot. That will not cut it in a screenplay. However, screenwriters can work with such thought-driven material by basing their script on the original work (as opposed to a direct adaptation of the story). That way, the writer can create action scenes that show a character's development or plot progression. The "based on" line can help a writer out of such a jam. 
point of view selection: This might sound a bit crazy given that I love to write in first person point of view. However, works written in third person help writers avoid certain tempting traps in the adaptation process. There's less room for excessive voiceovers, and third person works better for more action-oriented scenes (a lesson I learned after trying out fanfic writing). In some cases, it also affects with whom the audience sympathizes, if the scriptwriter feels the audience should connect with any character. Third person, in a sense, translates better from page to screen. As soon as I figure out exactly how that works, I'll let you know.
I hope this issue has opened your eyes to the world of adapted screenplays. When I did some research on this topic, I admit I was surprised at what I learned about the adaptation process. This is truly not a job for first timers, and it's a lot more work than it might appear to be. Once a person understands the craft and mentality of the scriptwriter, though, the picture becomes more clear. Needless to say, the screenwriters who adapt prose works for the screen have my sympathy. 
Until next time,
(sig by panthera) |
Like movies? Here are some movie related items, from scripts to forums and activities. Have fun!
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So...*shakes inbox* A-ha! Here are the comments. I got a couple, but what is lacking in quantity is made up for in quality. Hooray! Anyhow, on with your feedback!
From dizzyduck: As you would expect, I find book-adapted movies are far better when I don't have anything to judge them against. I could NOT get through the LOTR books - they were so dreadfully boring and tedious for me - so I thought the movies were captivating, beautiful, highly entertaining. I really enjoyed them.
I also really liked Big Fish, but when I bought the book, I just couldn't get into it. On the other hand, I thought Eragon was murdered horribly, the Harry Potter films are getting progressively worse, I'm really nervous about the quality of the upcoming Golden Compass (I love the trilogy), and that's just the tip of the iceberg! Being a very strict, high-standard moviegoer, I just don't like that kind of movie.
So I haven't really got anything that I want to see on the big screen, because I'm sure it'll just be very disappointing. But there are some stories that I know would be cool if placed in the right hands. Like Tim Burton's.
Well, Dizzy, I've found that fantasy is perhaps the most difficult genre to adapt for the big screen. In particular, since special effects can effectively clean out the producers' wallets, they might sacrifice the script quality. This can ruin both original and adapted material. The thing with adapted material is script butchering will be more apparent to people since the original source is available for comparison. That's not to say it can't be done. It's just that walking the line between following the source material and blending the creative staff's interpretation is tough work, especially when condensing a 400+ page novel into a 180 page script.The scriptwriting book I use actually recommends 120 pages as a maximum length for a script, but these adaptations are usually done by those in the business for a while, so I give them a little leeway. 
And you are right about the right director making an adaptation work. I just won't touch the Tim Burton comment
| Sorry, just not a big fan |
From StephBee  : Elisa, great newsletter on dramatic directions in a play. Two thumbs up!
Thank you. It may seem like a minute detail in a script, but stage directions do make a big difference. Glad you enjoyed it.
From esprit ; Elisa, I found this letter helpful. I avoid reviewing scripts because I know nothing about them, but this info will be useful to me.
Thanks so much for including one of my pieces. I appreciated it.
And I hope you got some quality reviews for your piece. If not that, hopefully it got some views. Yeah, reading (and reviewing) scripts requires a different set of skills than reading just about any other piece of writing, at least in my experience. Maybe my newsletters will help people understand scripts well enough to read them (and perhaps even review them). Reviewing scripts....sounds like a good topic for my reviewing newsletter. Thanks for the idea!
Next month, it's another U-Pick the Topic Issue! That's right. I'd like to do another "Five Things I Learned from..." newsletter but this time use a movie. However, you get to pick the movie! I will accept suggestions for a week after this newsletter is sent out, and then I'll run a poll for a week. Your votes will determine which movie I watch and discuss in my next newsletter.
And if you happen to miss or misplace a newsletter, feel free to stop by "The Drama Box" [13+] |
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Drama: September 19, 2007 Issue [#1958]
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