film and fiction adaptation 2

7/30/2019 Film and Fiction Adaptation 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/film-and-fiction-adaptation-2 1/46

f



Film adaptation is the transfer of a writtenwork to a feature film. It is a type of

derivative work.

A common form of film adaptation is the use

of a novel as the basis of a film, but filmadaptation includes the use of non-fiction

(including journalism), autobiography, comic

book, scripture, plays, and even other films.

From the earliest days of cinema, adaptationhas been nearly as common as the

development of original screenplays.



What are the factors to be considered while

going for adaptation

Or

Why adaptation of novels to films hasattracted the critics

Or

What are the common differences between the

literature or film



Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal

adaptation of Frank Norris's novel McTeague

in 1924 with his film, Greed . The resulting

film was over sixteen hours long. A cut of thefilm only eight hours long, then one running

to four hours, appeared. Finally, the studio

itself cut the film to around two hours,

resulting in a finished product that was

entirely incoherent. Since that time, few

directors have attempted to put everything

in a novel into a film. Therefore, elision is

nearly mandatory.



Film adaptations also interpolate scenes orinvent characters especially if the novel is partof a literary saga.

Incidents or quotes from later or earlier novels

will be inserted into a single film. Film makers will invent new characters or create

stories that were not present in the sourcematerial at all. Given the anticipated audiencefor a film, the screenwriter, director, or moviestudio may wish to increase character time orinvent new characters.

Characters are also sometimes invented toprovide the narrative voice.



For example, William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize

winning novel, Ironweed, had a very small

section with a prostitute named Helen.

Because the movie studio anticipated afemale audience for the film and had Meryl

Streep for the role, Helen became a

significant part of the film.



The concept of adaptation has increased in

the past two decades

Generally revolves around the Fiction and

restricted to Hollywood. In present great work of literature are being

converted to films all round the globe.



“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by

the powers of written word, to make youhear, to make you feel it is, before all, to

make to see.”

-- Joseph Conrad,1987

“ The task which I am trying to achieve is

above all to make you see.”

-- D.W. Griffith,2003



“A study of literature casts

light on the meanings in the

film, and the study of thefilm can illuminate the full

value of the literature. “



The above statement will seek to show therelationship between film and literature andthe effects that result from suchadaptations.

In order to examine this relationship, thetechniques used in film making will berequired.

It projects comparing and contrasting as

crucial skills and examining the variationsbetween a novel and the movie based on itwhich come about from the demands of theconventions imposed by the art form.



The fact that since the creation of the

Academy Awards over three-fourths of all

Best picture films have gone to films that are

adaptations of novels adds relevance.

Furthermore, these critical abilities will also

translate into enhanced cultural

consciousness in their own world that will

have life long effects.



1. How do different media tell stories ?

2. How stable are stories across media and

moment ?

3. How subject to intervention andadjustment is stories according to medium

and moment?

4. How do receiving communities read stories

difficulty according to the medium of presentation and the moment of the

telling?



1. Semiotic dissimilarities.

2. Appropriate influence of the historical

perspective towards the appreciation of the

literature and film.3. Finding a possible scheme of effective film

adaptation of literature.



Narrative voice

Fluctuations in point of view

Subtleties in characterization

Shade of descriptions.



What relation should a film have to the

original source?

Should it be faithful

Can it be faithful To what it should be faithful

Fidelity criticism depends on the notation of

the text as having and rendering up to the

reader a single, correct ’meaning’ which the

film maker has adhered to or in some sence

violated or tampered with.



The idea of fidelity has restricted the idea of

adaptation to mere copying from source and

pasting it. It ignores the idea convergence

Marginalizes the production determinants

that which have nothing to do with novel but

may be powerfully influential upon the film



1. Transposition: A novel is given directly on

screen with a minimum of apparent

interference.

2. Commentary: An original is taken & eitherpurposely or unknowingly altered in some

respect, when there had been a different

intention of film maker, rather than

infidelity or outright violation.3. Analogy: A fairly considerable departure for

making another work of art.



It is a series of events, casually linked

involving a continuous set of characters

which influence or are influenced by the

course of events

The potential and propensity for narrative is

a common element between a novel and a

film.



Narrative Functions

Distributional Integrational



They are the proper functions

Refer to actions and events

Horizontal in nature

Strung together linearly through text They have to do with operations

They refer to functionality of doing



Called as indices

A diffuse concept which is neverthelessnecessary to the meaning of the story

It embraces psychological informationregarding the characters, data regardingtheir identity, notations of atmosphere &representations of place

They are vertical, influencing reading of

narrative in pervasive rather than a linearway

They do not refer to operations but to afunctionality of being



NarrativeFunctions

CardinalFunctions Catalysers



Hinge points: The actions they refer to openup alternatives of consequence to thedevelopment of the story.

They create risky moments in the narrative &

it is crucial to narrativity( the processthrough which the reader constructs themeaning of the text) that reader recognizesthe possibility of such alternative

consequences. Linking together of cardinal functions

provides the irreducible bare bones of narrative.



The cardinal functions or kernels( narrative

moments that give rise to cruxes in the

direction taken by the events) are

transferable.

When a major cardinal function is deleted or

altered in the film version of a novel, this is

apt to occasion critical outrage and popular

disaffection. The film maker bent on faithful adaptation

must as a basis for such an enterprise, seek

to preserve the major cardinal function.



Complementary and supportive to cardinal

functions

Denotes small actions

Their role is to enrich the text They lay areas of safety

They are moment to moment minutiae of

narrative.



Kinds of narration

First personnaration

SubjectiveCinema

Oral narrationor voice over

OmniscientMixture of first two

Restrictedconsciousness



Subjective Cinema: What the characters see& how they experience it is integrated withan objective presentation to these individualpoints of view.

Oral narration: It cant be more thanintermittent as distinct from the continuingnature of novelistic first person narration.Here ones sense of the character to whom it

is attributed is more likely to be the productof his involvement in the action directlypresented than on his occasional commentupon it.



All materials of cinema function narrationally:

Camera

Speech

Gesture Writing language

Music color

Optical processes

Lighting Costume

Off-screen space

Off-screen sound



Those elements of original novel which are

transferable because not tied to one or

other semiotic system- that is essentially

narrative

Those which involve intricate processes of

adaptation because their effects are closely

tied to one or other semiotic system in

which they are manifested- that isenunciation



Conditions within film industry

Effect of star personae

Studios house style

Director’s predilections or genre conventions Prevailing parameters of cinematic practice.

Prevailing cultural & social climate



TRANSFER

AND

ADAPTATION



Story is basic succession of events.

Plot is the way in which story is made strange

and creatively deformed

The film and novel can share the same story

but the plot is different in case of both.



One might isolate the chief character

functions of the original and observe how far

are these retained in the film version

The characters are grouped in 7 spheres of action like – villain, helper etc



The mythic value of a myth is preserved even

through the worst translation.

Not much stress is to be laid to preserve

these myths



Some key differences related to area of

adaptation are:

Two signifying systems

The novel’s linearity and film’s spatiality

Codes

Stories told and stories presented



The verbal sign with its low iconicity and high

symbolic function, works conceptually,

whereas the cinematic sign with its high

iconicity and uncertain symbolic function

works directly, sensuously, perpetually.



The frame at any moment provides

information of at least visual complexity

beyond any given word

The frame is never registered as a discreteentity

The fact that we are always being exposed to

the multiplicity of signifiers contained within

the space of a frame



Language codes

Visual codes

Non linguistic sound codes

Cultural codes



Difference between language

Tense

Films spatial orientation



The adaptation from novel to film is a task

involving many parameters. A balance has to

be maintained between faithfulness to novel

and to the real life time situation prevailing

and the financial aspects related to movie

making.

film and fiction adaptation 2

Documents