Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 2, Day 2) – Page to Screen
The challenge increased exponentially today, as students went from analyzing how a story could be captured in eight single images to how words can be captured on film, made up of thousands of images strung together in a series and set to audio. Not only that, but due to time constraints, students were limited to excerpts of stories rather than entire works. The class was up to the challenge and took it in stride.
To ease the transition, the opening scenes of each work were explored today. Students went into the books the same way they went into the movies – with no prior knowledge of the characters or the settings. They read the opening chapter, and then they compared it with the opening scene of the resulting film or films. Did the characters look right? Did they speak correctly? Was it a good adaptation or a bad one?
In fact, this became the focus of today’s discussion! After reading the opening chapter of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, students watched the BBC adaptation from 1981 and the Hollywood adaptation from 2005. The former is much closer to the book, but the latter was (almost) more universally enjoyed. Is it a better adaptation if it’s a better movie? Where is the line between an adaptation and an original work?
We didn’t reach a solid answer today, but perhaps we will tomorrow as we explore how different directors have adapted the introduction of characters further into a story. Will perspectives change? Stay tuned!
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