{"id":6235,"date":"2014-07-21T06:52:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T05:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=6235"},"modified":"2014-07-21T06:52:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T05:52:38","slug":"adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/adaptation\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The short film adaptation can be a science fiction, gangster, horror, mystery, romance, or any other type of film genre set in any time period, real or imaginary. \u00a0But the adaptation must remain true to the emotional core of the original story or character.<\/p>\n

When I advise anyone about making an adaptation I stress that an artist doesn’t need to be overly concerned about the literal truth but always must stay absolutely true to the emotional truth. \u00a0That means staying true to the deeper essence of what the story is about. \u00a0In other words, how does what happens in the story speak to a larger truth about who we are as human beings, what we are in danger of becoming, what we can and should aspire to, \u00a0how we fail ourselves or others, or how we recover from tragedy, set-backs, or horrible mistakes.<\/p>\n

Adapting a novel, a Bible story, or any other text requires the cutting away of everything extraneous. The story must be paired down to its most essential elements. In an \u201cepic story\u201d like that of King David, you will have to choose a single incident in the main narrative. If a \u00a0scene or a theme moves the story you\u2019ve chosen off track, eliminate it. Keep asking\u2014 What is this film about? What does it have to say about today?<\/p>\n

A film works best if it is set in the present (whenever that \u201cpresent\u201d might be in history or your imagination). It must be active and immediate and drive inexorably toward the future. Avoid adaptations that rely heavily on narration or flashbacks that interrupt forward momentum or \u00a0pull the audience out of the “now” of the story.<\/p>\n

Film audiences want to know what happens next. There is only time to experience and very little time to muse or reflect, especially in a short film. Keep asking\u2014 How can the audience experience this story more immediately and more emotionally? How can action evoke the feelings in the original material? What external objects and action make internal thoughts and feelings observable.<\/p>\n

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Cut anything that sidetracks the main story. Choose your main character carefully. If the narrative’s main character is too reflective and is not active enough, is it possible to elevate a more active character or sub-plot to center stage as in THE ENGLISH PATIENT? \u00a0How does this change of point of view support or enhance the emotional core of the story? If it doesn’t then it’s not the right choice.<\/p>\n

Choose a single point of view and stay with that main character. If the main character is not in a scene eliminate it (unless it is absolutely vitally important and we would lose an important story thread without it).<\/p>\n

Just because a particular life in the Bible is fascinating doesn\u2019t mean it lends itself to film. Life can be random, messy and rather chaotic\u2014 All of which is death to film. Beware of lives lived with too much luck or co-incidence. Film is about action and consequence. If success is the result of happenstance it isn\u2019t dramatic.<\/p>\n

Keep asking\u2014Can you distill this life story into a just few essential elements and strong conflicts? Is it possible to choose just one critical incident that reveals who this person is? Does that incident have rising action that drives toward a dramatic and powerful climax? Can you condense and re-order actual events to make them more cinematic?<\/p>\n

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Sticking too closely to the original material may work against the spirit of the story. Can you find a way to evoke what was powerful about the material in a fresh new way? Keep asking yourself\u2014How does this old material speak to our time? Can you distill the story into its essential elements and find new ways to interpret those elements? What is at the heart of this story? How can a new look at the character and situations expose the beating heart of the story in a way that shows us why it is timeless?<\/p>\n

Check out Enter the Pitch here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been working with Enter the Pitch, which runs a short film competition with a \u00a325,000 prize to make a short film. The subject must be inspired by a character or story in the Bible. Choose from an amazing range of powerful, dynamic, complex, troubled characters in stories that have persisted for thousands of years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,78],"tags":[1314,25,26,27,1312,28,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,1195,1318,41,42],"class_list":["post-6235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","category-writing-tips-tricks-advice-help-script-screenplay-screenwriting-blog","tag-bible","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-enter-the-pitch","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-the-english-patient","tag-the-pitch","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",125,125,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",75,75,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",150,150,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/EnterThePitch-150x1501.jpg",100,100,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I've been working with Enter the Pitch, which runs a short film competition with a \u00a325,000 prize to make a short film. The subject must be inspired by a character or story in the Bible. Choose from an amazing range of powerful, dynamic, complex, troubled characters in stories that have persisted for thousands of years.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}