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7/30/2019 Film and Fiction Adaptation 2
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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
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“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. “
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Narrative voice
Fluctuations in point of view
Subtleties in characterization
Shade of descriptions.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Narrative Functions
Distributional Integrational
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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
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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
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NarrativeFunctions
CardinalFunctions Catalysers
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Kinds of narration
First personnaration
SubjectiveCinema
Oral narrationor voice over
OmniscientMixture of first two
Restrictedconsciousness
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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.
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All materials of cinema function narrationally:
Camera
Speech
Gesture Writing language
Music color
Optical processes
Lighting Costume
Off-screen space
Off-screen sound
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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
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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
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TRANSFER
AND
ADAPTATION
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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.
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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
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The mythic value of a myth is preserved even
through the worst translation.
Not much stress is to be laid to preserve
these myths
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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
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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.
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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
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Language codes
Visual codes
Non linguistic sound codes
Cultural codes
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Difference between language
Tense
Films spatial orientation
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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.